Some participants, particularly older adults, prefer larger text on screen. There are two ways to increase text size in Avicenna, depending on what needs to be larger.
If a participant wants the whole app to be larger, including answer options, buttons, and the home screen, they can adjust the display or text settings on their device. If you want to make survey question text larger within your study, you can do that through the survey definition file.
The Situation
Participants have asked for larger text. You want to know what you can change in your study and what to suggest they change on their phones.
| What you want bigger | Where to change it | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Answer options, buttons, and everything else | Device display and text settings | The participant |
| Survey question text | Survey definition file | You |
Make Everything in the App Bigger
If a participant finds the whole Avicenna interface too small, the first thing to try is changing the display settings on their device. This can make answer options, buttons, the home screen, and other interface elements larger.
These settings are controlled by the participant and apply to other apps on the device as well.
Android
Android offers three settings that can help:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Display scaling, called Screen Zoom on Samsung devices | Increases the size of everything on screen, and the layout adjusts to fit |
| Screen magnification, the Android magnifier | Enlarges part of the screen so the participant can pan around it, leaving the app itself unchanged |
| Larger system text, or font scaling | Increases the size of text |
Display scaling is the one to suggest first. It enlarges the whole interface in a single step, and the layout adjusts to match.
iOS
Participants can change text size under Settings → Display & Brightness → Text Size.
For even larger text, they can go to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text.
Make Survey Question Text Bigger
If the participant only needs the survey question text to be larger, you can adjust it within the study.
Avicenna sizes survey text according to the participant’s device text setting, so it already follows whatever size they have chosen. On top of that, you can set the size of an individual question’s content using HTML heading tags. <h1> produces the largest text and <h6> the smallest.
Heading tags are added through the survey definition file:
- Go to Preview & Publish, open the Versions tab, and select Download Survey Definition File. See Versions and Export.
- Open the file in a text editor and find the
question_contentvalue for each question you want to change. - Wrap the question text in a heading tag.
- Return to the Versions tab, select Upload Survey Definition File, and upload your edited file. See Importing Survey Definition File into an Existing Survey.
For example, a question’s text may look like this:
"question_content": "<p>How old are you?</p>",
Change it to:
"question_content": "<h1>How old are you?</h1>",
Because you are editing the survey in one file, you can change as many questions as you like in a single pass.
[!note] Add the Tags in the Definition File
Heading tags typed directly into the Question Content box in the Survey Editor are saved as ordinary text and shown to participants as written. Add them in the survey definition file instead.
<h1> is the tag to use when you want the largest text. <h2> and <h3> provide smaller increases, while <h4> to <h6> render at or below the size of normal question text. Use those tags when you want text to be smaller rather than larger.
Heading tags change the question content and apply to every participant using the survey, on both the mobile apps and the web app. They do not change the size of answer options, buttons, or other interface elements.
Which Option Should You Use?
The easiest way to decide is to look at what the participant wants to be larger:
- Everything is too small: Ask the participant to increase the display scaling on their device.
- Only text throughout the device needs to be larger: Ask the participant to increase the system text size.
- Only the survey questions need to be larger: Increase the question content size using heading tags in the survey definition file.
- The participant needs to zoom into a particular part of the screen: Screen magnification can help without changing the app’s layout.
Pro Tips
- Use one heading level per survey. Picking a single level and applying it consistently keeps the survey looking uniform from question to question.
- Check every platform. Heading sizes can look different on Android, iOS, and the web app, so preview the survey on the platforms your participants use.
- Mention it during onboarding. For studies recruiting older adults, showing participants how to adjust display scaling during onboarding can help them set up the app the way they want from day one.