[Survey Guide] How To Rank Any List Of Images or Pictures
“Most survey tools can’t rank images at all. Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Qualtrics and Microsoft Forms have no image-ranking format, mostly because ranking questions are hard to fit on a small mobile screen. The best way to rank a list of images or photos is pairwise ranking: you show two images at a time and ask people to pick the better one, then score each image by how often it wins. It works on any screen size, and OpinionX is the only free image ranking tool that does it, with unlimited surveys, questions and ranking options, no time limit or credit card required.”
You can't use any of the most popular survey tools to rank images. The format isn't available on Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Qualtrics, Microsoft Forms, Jotform, Zoho Surveys, Slido, or Mentimeter, to name just a few.
Why can't most survey tools rank images?
As of 2022, over 56% of all surveys were answered on mobile, but our small phone screens are pretty terrible for most ranking questions, especially image ones. So most of the top survey tools never bothered building a format for ranking images at all.
Here's how the common survey tools stack up:
| Survey tool | Can it rank images? |
|---|---|
| Google Forms | No |
| SurveyMonkey | No |
| Typeform | No |
| Qualtrics | No |
| Microsoft Forms | No |
| OpinionX | Yes, using pairwise image ranking |
^ Example of an image survey on OpinionX
How to rank images with pairwise ranking
The best way to rank images, one that's easy for participants on any screen size, is an approach called Pairwise Ranking.
Pairwise Ranking takes your list of options and breaks it into a series of head-to-head pairs for participants to vote on. It then scores each option by the percentage of pair votes it won (e.g. if it appeared in 10 pairs and got picked 8 times, it scores 8/10 = 80%).
Pair voting is great for participants: a series of easy micro-decisions is far less mental work than one giant ranking task. And because it only shows two options at a time, pairwise ranking is uniquely suited to people on phones.
There's only one tool for pairwise image ranking on the internet, and it's called OpinionX (my team and I made it). You can create image surveys, and a bunch of other ranking formats, free on OpinionX. The free version gives you unlimited surveys, unlimited questions, and unlimited ranking options per question, with no time limit or credit card.
What can you use image ranking for?
Image ranking works anywhere the options are visual and a text label wouldn't do them justice:
Product photos, packaging designs or ad creative before a launch.
Logo options or brand directions, with your team or your customers.
Which design mockups or UI screens people prefer.
The strongest images for a website, campaign or pitch deck.
Because pairwise ranking scores every image on the same 0-100 scale, you get a clear, ordered result you can act on, not a pile of scattered opinions. If you're not sure which ranking format fits your project, our guide to choosing a survey ranking method walks through the options.
Frequently asked questions
Can you rank images in Google Forms or SurveyMonkey? No. Neither Google Forms nor SurveyMonkey has an image-ranking format, and nor do Typeform, Qualtrics or Microsoft Forms. To rank images you need a purpose-built pairwise image ranking tool like OpinionX.
What's the best way to rank a list of images? Pairwise ranking: show participants two images at a time and ask them to pick the better one, then score each image by how often it wins. It keeps cognitive load low and works well on mobile, which most other ranking formats don't.
Is there a free image ranking tool? Yes. OpinionX ranks images on its free tier, with unlimited surveys, questions and ranking options, and up to 25 participants per survey, no time limit or credit card required.
How does pairwise image ranking scoring work? Each image scores by the percentage of head-to-head pairs it wins. If an image appears in 10 pairs and gets picked 8 times, it scores 8/10 = 80%. The result is a clean 0-100 score for every image in your list.
Create your first image ranking survey right now in less than 5 minutes on OpinionX.
Daniel Kyne