I would like to be able to choose “Histogram” as a summary option for single select fields, in order to get a quick overview over survey answers.

I run the same survey repeatedly in Airtable in order to track product performance (as part of a larger design research base), and I collect it all in one table. I group the answers by survey iterations, and I collapse the groups in order to get a quick overview of the performance over time. Unfortunately, I can’t get this overview for single select fields.

I have to use a workaround for this right now. I would ask something like “How was the experience?” and offer answers like “Broken,” “Annoying,” “Smooth.” In order to get a Histogram of those answers, I have to duplicate the field, switch out the words for numbers (1, 2, 3), and then convert it to a number field. Then I have to hide the original field to make it more readable.

The first problem with this is that this data does not update automatically when new answers come in, so I have to convert each individual answer into a number. Really annoying, especially for surveys with a lot of answers. The second problem is that it makes the table very messy, with lots of hidden fields.