Images help people connect with your message when words fall short. They can impart an emotion and make a connection. They can contribute to a coherent brand and are more likely to be remembered. Images can also be another way of assessing a group and driving home content through a different form.

Poll Everywhere offers five easy ways to add images to your polls.

 

5 ways to add images to your polls

There are five ways you can include images in your polls.

1. As a clickable image poll

This is its own poll type. Responses appear on the image itself as green pointers. You can assign correctness to sections of the image to facilitate grading and reporting.

2. As a multiple choice selection

The responses appear as images rather than text. (Some fodder for the imagination… if you’re having an election, include photos of the candidates. If it’s a competition, include pictures of the team mascots.)

This is of course mobile friendly:  the images will appear for people participating via the web on their smart phones.

3. As a background image

You can include an image as the background of any poll without altering the function of the poll itself. Responses appear above the image. (Just remember to adjust the transparency to ensure readability.)

4. As a logo image in the title bar

Place an image in the title bar either with text or without. You can align it to the left, the right, or keep it centered.

5. On the Instructions View (commonly referred to as the “question page”)

An image can appear to the left of your multiple-choice options. This is useful when the question has a visual component.

“But HOW??” you ask. “Like this,” we say.

Let’s start with the simplest option: the clickable image poll.

Click the plus sign in the top left corner of your My Polls page and start a new poll. As you type in your question, a menu drops down, titled “How will my audience respond?” Choose Clickable Image, and upload the picture you want to use in your poll. That’s all. You’re polling with a clickable image!

Multiple choice images are almost as simple as clickable images. When you click the Multiple Choice option for your new poll, you get to type in as many responses as you like. In that same spot, you can choose to show an image instead of a verbal response. It looks like this:

Click that Add Image button, and browse for the image file you want to use. Upload it, and repeat, for as many multiple choice responses as you like!

The other two image options– background images and logo images– are found in a magical place: the Visual Settings menu.

Where is this magical menu?

When you’ve typed in your question, chosen your response type (multiple choice, in this example), and created the poll, you’ll be taken to a live chart view of the page, where you can fine-tune the response settings, choose presentation options, and activate the poll. It’s a page you’re probably familiar with already, because it’s where you get your poll ready.

On that page, there’s a paintbrush button in the top-right corner of the poll. It opens the Visual Settings menu, and it looks like this:

When you open the Visual Settings menu, you’ll get lots of choices. You can change the title size, the font, the theme, and you can also add images to the logo space, the background, and the instructions view. For the background image, you get even MORE options. You can use an image you found on the web, an image from your computer, or even search Flickr right there in the menu! Play around with it, and you’ll find you can get extremely creative with the look of your polls. (To be honest, it’s kind of hard to stop, once you get going.)

Now go forth, fair pollsters. Use your knowledge to make the world a more beautiful place.

P.S. Secret bonus hint for the A+ readers: Did you know you can use a GIF? A GIF in a poll? You can! We’ll leave you to imagine the possibilities…