Resources

Ranking or Dot Vote: which should you use?

Last reviewed: 1 September 2026

Use Ranking when everyone should order the full list. Use Dot Vote when people should concentrate a limited number of dots on the prepared options they support.

The difference at a glance

Ranking asks each participant to put every prepared option in order. Use it when the relative position of the whole list matters.

Dot Vote asks each participant to allocate from 1 dot up to a configured allowance across prepared options. Use it when people should concentrate support rather than produce a complete order. Neither method is automatically better.

Use Ranking when

• You need a full order of preference rather than only the leading choices.
• Every option should be considered in each submitted response.
• The relative position of middle and lower options is useful.
• You want to compare the whole list using one scoring rule.

Use Dot Vote when

• Participants should concentrate dots on the options they support most.
• People may need to place several dots on one option.
• Identifying the options attracting most support matters more than ordering the full list.
• A participant should be allowed to leave part of their dot allowance unused.

What Ranking results mean

Ranking supports 2 to 10 prepared options. A valid response contains every option exactly once. With n options, first place receives n points, the next receives n minus 1, and the final position receives 1 point. PollSpark adds the points and displays the highest score first.

The percentage is an option’s points divided by its highest possible score, which is the number of options multiplied by the response count. It is not the percentage of participants who placed that option first.

What Dot Vote results mean

Dot Vote supports 2 to 10 prepared options and an allowance of 1, 2, 3 or 5 dots. Participants must use at least one dot, may use fewer than the allowance and may stack all their dots on one option.

PollSpark totals the dots received by each option. Percentages use the number of dots actually cast, so unused dots do not enter the denominator. One participant allocation is one response, not one response per dot.

Example: four workshop actions

Suppose a workshop needs to prioritise four prepared actions: update induction materials, simplify booking, improve follow-up and clarify ownership.

With Ranking, everyone orders all four actions. The result can distinguish first, middle and lower priorities across the complete list. With a three-dot Dot Vote, everyone can spend one, two or three dots across the same actions, including placing several on one action. The result shows where the dots were concentrated.

What neither method does

• Neither creates or clusters options automatically.
• Neither is a sticky-note board or collaborative whiteboard.
• Neither proves consensus or makes the final decision for the group.
• Neither result necessarily represents people who did not respond.

Using them in workshops

Prepare the options clearly and explain what the result will inform before participants respond. Choose the format before opening the question: a Ranking response and a Dot Vote allocation are different kinds of evidence and are not interchangeable.

PollSpark shows the combined result, but it does not decide what the group should do. Discuss the pattern, check whether important views are missing and keep the facilitator’s decision process clear.

Set them up in PollSpark

• Read the Ranking guide
• Read the Dot Vote guide
• Plan anonymous polling for a workshop
• Explore all question types
• Design effective polling questions