PollUnit Help
The PollUnit principle
PollUnit was designed to easily make decisions in groups. We offer different methods for decision making. You can combine these methods and functions freely and create polls, todo lists, prioritizations and much more and adapt them to your needs.
PollUnit works like this:
- Create a PollUnit and choose what to vote on
- Send the link to your PollUnit to all participants
- Give your attendees time to vote
- Send the result of your PollUnit to all participants
Create a PollUnit
With the PollUnit wizard you can easily create in 5 simple steps surveys, staff lists, or prioritizations.
Choose a poll type
To enter the wizard for creating your poll, click on »Create PollUnit« and select the target of your poll. First you have to decide whether you want the best option (the option with the most votes) or whether you want to distribute the options or tasks automatically among your participants. Then start the poll wizard by clicking on the option type (e.g. date).
Wizard 1 - Basic settings
In the basic settings you determine the title of your PollUnit, the target and voting type of the poll. You can also add a description and location to your poll.
Wizard 2 - Options
Here you can add your options to your poll. Depending on your poll type setting in Wizard Step 1, you can enter dates, time periods, pictures or free text.
In Wizard Step 4 (Advanced) you can enable your participants to add theire own options.
Wizard 3 - Design
In the design step you can customize your PollUnit. You can choose from several ready-made themes. In addition, you have various effects available such as snow or fireflies.
As a premium user, you can also create your own design and as a business user you can upload your own logos and use them in your poll.
Wizard 4 - Advanced
In the advanced settings you can activate various functions. Please refer to the section "Advanced settings".
Wizard 5 - Invitations
In the last step, you can invite your participants. You can inform your users in 4 different ways.
Invite groups and teams und Teams
You can invite whole groups to your poll. You can manage these groups on the »My groups« page. To add a group to your PollUnit you have to check the corresponding group. You can find more information here in the section »My Account«.
Invite users via email
You can automatically invite your user via PollUnit by entering their e-mail addresses. You can give PollUnit access to your Google Contacts; this simplifies the input of the e-mail addresses.
Share member link
The member link is an encrypted link. This link gives your users access to your PollUnit. You can share this link by e-mail and messenger of choice or post it on your homepage.
Share admin link
The admin link works like the member link with one important difference. With the admin link the user gets the permission to edit your PollUnit.
Share a PollUnit via WhatsApp, Facebook...
With a click on the appropriate provider such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter, you can share the member link.
Poll types
The poll type describes the type of your options. You can change the poll type in the poll wizard step 1 (PollUnit),
Freetext
Voting on freely selectable texts. Ideal for staff lists, brainstorming and anything that can be expressed in words.
Images / Files
Voting on pictures incl. Gallery or files. This type of survey allows you and your participants to upload and rate images or files.
Date
Vote for a date. Ideal for finding appointments for a full day.
Date with time
Vote on a date. Ideal for appointments.
Date range
Voting on date periods. Ideal for appointments over several days.
Time range
Voting on time periods.
Poll target
You can choose between 3 different poll targets. The setting can be found in the wizard step 1 (PollUnit) in the schema settings for advanced users.
Find best option
The option with the most votes is the best option. Choose this, if for instance you want to find a common appointment.
Best distribution of options
This Method tries to distribute options among participants, so that everyone gets the option he/she likes.
Choose this method, when You for example want to create a service schedule: A set of dates has to be distributed among the participants.
Lowest resistance
This method is looking for the option with the highest acceptance in a group. Your participants can cast resistance votes. The options with the least rejection wins.
Vote types
You can choose between 3 different types of votes. The setting can be found in the wizard step 1 (PollUnit) in the schema settings for advanced users.
Yes / No
Simple voting with Yes / No
Star rating
Users can rate options with 0-5 stars.
Stars per option
Defines the maximum stars a user can assign to one option.
Dot-Voting
Users can distribute a predefined number of points among the PollUnit's options. This is how it works:
- Each participant receives a fixed number of points
- Each participant distributes his points to the options
- The option with the most points wins
With the poll target 'least resistance' you can flip the rating and the option wins with the least negative votes.
Dots per option
Defines the maximum points a user can assign to one option.
Dots per voter
Defines the amount of points a user can distribute among the options.
Advanced settings
The advanced settings can be found in the wizard Step 4 (Advanced)
Comments
Your PollUnit's participants are allowed to write comments, if they are logged in.
Allow new options
Allows participants to add new options to your PollUnit.
Limit participations
You have the possibility to secure your votes against multiple participations by various security measures.
Allow multiple participations with one computer
Shows a button in your poll, which can be used to start a new participation under a different name.
Allow only one participation
By setting a Cookie when voted, no other participant can vote from the same browser. Caution! Cookies can easily be deleted by participants. Therefore, this option offers very little security.
IP Security Check
After voting the IP address of the participant will be blocked for further votes. Attention! In many companies and universities, employees have the same IP address, so only one of them could vote. The IP address can also be manipulated. Therefore this option offers only a low security.
PollUnit account required
When "PollUnit account required" is selected, only users, who are registered at PollUnit, are allow to participate in this PollUnit.
Invitation required
When "Invitation required" is selected, only users, who received an invitation, are allow to participate in this PollUnit (Users must have a PollUnit account or have to register when they receive the invitation).
Private »Hide Votes«
In a private PollUnit with hidden votes, participants cannot see other participants' votes. The votes become visible when the PollUnit is closed. However the creator can view the result at any time.
Private »Hide participants«
In a private PollUnit with hidden participants, participants cannot see other participants. Even after the PollUnit is closed, the participants remain hidden. However the creator can view the result at any time
Limited evaluation
The participants of a PollUnit with hidden participants can only be viewed in the evaluation by the creator.
Limited Activity Log
The votings of the hidden participants are not displayed in the activity log.
Randomize options order
To avoid order bias, you can shuffle the votes for each user.
Single select
Participants have to decide for one option.
Limit per option
With this, You control how many participants can vote for the same option.
Deadline
Set a deadline for your PollUnit, if voting should be allowed only until a certain date.
Password protection
Secure your PollUnit with a password. Users can only participate and view the PollUnit's result if they know the password.
Addons
Addons allow you to add more fields to your options. In order to activate addons, you have to check the desired addon in the Scheme settings in the Wizard Step 1 (PollUnit).
Subtitle
If enabled, a free text can be added to the options in your poll.
Link
If enabled, a link can be added to the options in your poll. Links consist of a URL and a title.
File types
For polls with images or other files the following file formats are supported:
All common image formats, pdf, zip, docx, xlsx, pptx, txt
Encryption
If encryption is enabled contents like titel, description, location, and the text of options will be encrypted in your browser before it is sent to our PollUnit servers. Therefore nobody can access the real data without knowing the encryption key.
Peer to peer encryption
Peer to peer encryption works in such a way that the data is encrypted at the device of one user, and can be decrypted at the device of another user. Before the data is sent to our servers, it will be encrypted on your device. So no one in between can record the data and even if someone had access to our databases, he/she can't read anything from the encrypted data.
AES encryption
We use the secure AES encryption method with a key length of 256 Bit.
Share encryption key
To share the encryption key to your encrypted PollUnit, you should use a safe channel like SMS or encrypted messaging services.
Encrypted data
We encrypt the title, location, description and comments of a PollUnit. Free text options are completely encrypted and for images the title. In addition, for all option types the subtitle and link is encrypted. We are not able to encrypt date fields and images yet, because we have to process them on our servers.
Admin
Besides editing a PollUnit, you can use as admin further functions to manage your online group decision.
Close PollUnit
When you close your PollUnit, your invited users will automatically be notified about the result off your poll.
Once you have closed your PollUnit, it will not be possible to vote. In order to close your PollUnit you have to visit your PollUnit via admin link.
Delete options
To delete an option, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click the delete icon under the corresponding option.
Delete comments
As admin, you can also delete comments from other participants. To delete a comment, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click on the delete icon on the corresponding comment.
We have implemented this feature to allow the owners of PollUnits to delete inappropriate or abusive comments. For the most transparent group decision, the deletion of a comment is saved in the Activity Log of your PollUnit.
Deleting comments from others is a premium feature.
Delete votes
As admin, you can delete participants from your PollUnit. To remove a participant from your group decision, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click the delete icon next to the user's name.
We have implemented this feature to allow the owners of PollUnits to delete duplicate and unauthorized votes. To make group decisions as transparent as possible, deleting voices is stored in the Activity Log of your PollUnit.
Deleting participants and theire votes is a premium feature.
Evaluation
Evaluate PollUnit directly
To get to the evaluation, open your PollUnit and click on evaluation. You will get an overview of the options as well as your participants. If you have used the invite function, you will also see which users have not yet voted.
Evaluation of a single option
To get an overview of a single option, click on the corresponding option under Options in the evaluation. A list with the participants is displayed. You get an overview of who votes for this option and who does not.
Export PollUnit as CSV
As an admin of a poll, you can export the participants and their votes as CSV. You can open and evaluate this CSV file in the office program of your choice (such as Open Office, Excel, ...).
Administation, Account
As a registered user, you have some advantages with PollUnit that we can not make accessible to anonymous users. When logged in, you will see your name in the main menu. Under this menu item you will find the links to your PollUnits, Themes, Logos and your Account Settings.
My PollUnits
Here is a list of PolUnits you can access. These are PollUnits you have created, but also polls where you have participated.
For additional options open the context menu by clicking the three dots.
Member Link
This is the link to your PollUnit.
Admin Link
This is the link to your PollUnit with administration rights. Do not share this link with others who do not shall edit or delete your PollUnit!
Edit PollUnit
By clicking edit you can get to the Wizard of your PollUnit.
Clone PollUnit
This means that your poll with all its options will be cloned to a new PollUnit. You can then customize and re-vote for it.
Share
Here you can share your PollUnit via different social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc.
Embed PollUnit
You can embed a PollUnit in your website. To do this, you have to approve the host of your website here. We also provide you with a small piece of code to quickly add the poll to your website.
Excel and CSV Export
By exporting your PollUnit as XLSX or CSV you can save the data on your computer and e.g. edit it with Excel.
Close PollUnit
This closes your PollUnit. Participation is then no longer possible. The votes of the participants of a private PollUnit become visible.
Delete all participations
This removes all votes of all participants. You can clear your PollUnit. Deleting entries is shown in the activity log.
Delete PollUnit
This will delete your PollUnit and all data belonging to this poll.
My Groups
Here you can create groups and teams. A group consists of a list of e-mail addresses. You can select these groups in the »Invitations« step and automatically send invitations to your PollUnit. Ideal for recurring surveys for your friends, family or colleagues.
To manage groups you need a premium account.
Create new groups
By clicking "Create new group" you can create a new group. You can manage an unlimitted amount of groups.
Edit group
Open the context menu and click edit to add or remove group members.
Delete group
Open the context menu and click delete to delete your group.
My Themes
Here you can manage your own themes. A theme consists of a background graphic and a color scheme. You can choose this when creating your PollUnit in the Wizard Step 3 (Design).
Create new theme
By clicking "Create new theme" you can create your own theme.
Edit theme
Open the context menu and click edit to change your theme.
Delete theme
Open the context menu and click delete to delete your PollUnit and all participations.
My Logos
Here you can create your own logos. You can choose this when creating your PollUnit in the Wizard Step 3 (Design).
Create new logo
By clicking "Create new logo" you can upload your own logo.
Edit logo
Open the context menu and click edit to reupload your logo or to change the link to your landing page.
Delete logo
Open the context menu and click delete to delete your logo.
My Account
Here you can edit your personal data such as name, email, password and language.
You can also delete your account here. By deleting your account, all your PollUnits, votes, themes, logos and premium purchases will be deleted. You can not undo this!
Missing a feature?
You need more help or you have a feature that could help you and other users make more effective decisions? Feel free to contact us at support@pollunit.com.