8 Important Things To Consider When Designing Surveys

Designing surveys or questionnaires involves more than just framing right questions that you want to ask. There are different factors that can influence the failure or success of your project. So, ensure to consider below mentioned important things whenever you are designing surveys or preparing your survey questions.

Data Collection Mode

Whenever you are gathering data through the phone surveys or in person interviews, the actions and words of the interviewer will create a major impact on the final results. Online surveys, on the contrary, depend heavily on the question design and wording. You will not have the advantage of body language or inflection to help convey the meaning of your questions correctly. Color choice, phrasing, and layout will play the major roles in how the respondents interpret your questions. And these interpretations will majorly influence the final data accumulated.

Effects of Survey Questions Wording

Writing the questions with the right wording is one of the hardest parts of creating surveys. Asking questions does not sound that complicated, yet, take note that collecting data over the internet eliminates the ability to explain the correct meaning and provide additional information. If you’re using esoteric language, jargons or highly technical words, your respondents might not be willing to provide answers. It is also important to avoid combining two questions in one, or writing questions that can bias your respondents toward a certain type of response.

Survey Fatigue

There include those types of questions which include big grids of the radio buttons, thus, placing heavy burden on the respondents and increasing mental fatigue during the survey. There are times when these questions are necessary to ask, yet try to avoid them if you can.

How You Should Set the Flow Of Questions

Every survey question must follow a logical structure. Jumping from one topic to another might confuse your respondents, eventually leading them to skip the questions or abandon the complete survey altogether.

Various Survey Question Formats

Not every survey question is similar. Some of these questions, like the quantitative questions, will provide a limited selection of the available responses. Qualitative questions, on the other hand, enable individuals to answer in their own words. 

Accuracy of Answers

Majority of people do not have a flawless memory. No matter what your intentions are, the respondents won’t always provide you with accurate information. For example, people may answer the questions about their age and gender easily, but when it comes to measuring opinions and attitudes, some may face trouble formulating right answers.

Clear Structure of the Questions

The survey questions have 3 parts and each of these should work in harmony with others to acquire high quality data. These parts include additional instructions, question stem, and response options.

Visual Survey Design

The survey’s verbal part is important. if you are using the survey design elements consistently it may increase the burden on your respondents, as well as, prevent them from understanding the meaning of the survey completely. For example, using a variety of colors, strengths, and font sizes across different questions forces the respondents to relearn the meaning every time they are used.