I am debating what I should and should not BOLD in Question/Answer sets on a survey I just created.
Currently, I have the Question as “normal”, and the Number/Labels in my Answers as “bold”.
Should I make the Labels “normal”?
And should I make the Questions “bold”?
Here is a screen-shot of what I have currently…
Thanks,
Debbie
Yes please make the Labels bold and the questions normal. The eye can scan through the labels more easily this way.
Steve
Does that include making the Text portion (i.e. “Poor Article” and “Excellent Article”) bold as well?
Thanks,
Debbie
Personally I would not make the Text portion bold (i.e. “Poor Article”). Bold labels only.
Steve
Well, to be precise, “1 Poor Article” and “10 Excellent Article” are the LABELS in my HTML. (I just wrap the Text with a <span> for formatting purposes.)
Here is what I believe you are saying…
To be honest, that looks to faint to me…
Debbie
Hi,
The numbers are (for example) are still bold therefore the <span><label… does look dim in comparison. I would not make the numbers bold or the <span><label… but that’s just me. If you don’t like the look of it then go with it being bold. In the end, the eye should be the final judge.
Steve
I personally like the way you have it in your first screenshot. It focuses the eye on the range of answers instead of all the answers. IMO it will help your survey-taker to focus their brain on their options as well. However, I think it’s a matter of personal taste. I’ve seen it done both ways. Generally, though, bolded text is only used for emphasis, not for visual aesthetics.
I would recommend removing the word “Article” at each end, as it’s redundant. The question asks you to rate the article, to that word is implicit. The user just needs to know which end is which, and “poor” is enough to indicate that number 1 is the low end.
As for the bold, I’d be inclined to remove it and perhaps use italics instead, to distinguish it from the questions themselves. Whatever is bolded is most important on the page, and “poor” and “excellent” are not the most important text. They are really just little asides to clarify what the numbers mean.
If anything, I would bold the questions, as these are really the most important parts, and bolding them would help the eye distinguish them. (You know for sure where each one starts and ends.)
Interesting conversation so far!
To Ralph’s point, here is a sample flipping the bolding paradigm around…
I think that looks good, and I agree with some of Ralph’s ideas about the Question being the most important.
The only problem, is that if you look at my Survey form from the top then I think my original scheme looks best…
What do you all think?
Debbie
I’d still like to see you remove the word “Article” from the options. 
It’s under “Management Review”.
I’ll get back to ya on that… 
Any thoughts on the latest screen-shots that I posted?
Debbie
They both look OK to me, but I can understand why you wouldn’t want too much bold at the top of the page. You could perhaps lighten the color of the questions to compensate (a slightly lighter gray, for example).