Question design is important in most methods of human-subject data collection, but it is vital in surveys. Since you aren’t there to ask follow-up questions, if you do not get your questions right the first time, you may miss out on valuable information that you will never be able to get.
Harvard has a great tip sheet on survey question design that you can access here: Questionnaire Tip Sheet
Also see this SlideShare Presentation on Survey Question and Questionnaire Design:
Below are my favourite tips:
Best Practices:
- Wording of survey questions is challenging, so create a draft and pilot the survey before launching. Test on a few people if possible
- Questions need to be clear and easy to understand for different kinds of people.
- In our case, they also need to be clear in both official languages.
- Avoid leading questions.
- Make questions specific and detailed:
- For example, asking someone the age of their spouse, will not work if the respondent has no spouse.
- What is your income? Seems simple, but may not be – do you mean family income? Personal income? Before tax? After tax? Etc.
Things to Avoid:
- Avoid double-barreled questions – that is avoid asking two questions in one.
- Avoid asking questions that imply an alternative.
- For example, “Do you think most manufacturing companies that lay off workers during slack periods could arrange things to avoid layoffs and give steady work right through the year?” suggests that layoffs are avoidable when they may or may not be.
- Avoid unintentional bias:
- For example “did you vote last year” would be better presented as “were you able to get to the polls last year” and may reveal more.
- Avoid asking questions that imply an alternative.
Question Order:
- Be aware of question order bias, and answer order bias if multiple choice:
- Be mindful of which questions follow other questions.
- Keep in mind that most people will tend to choose answers in the middle of a list or the second alternative of two.
- When possible change the order of responses between participants.
- Question order:
- Open with easy, welcoming questions; establish trust.
- Introduce sensitive topics later.
- Put classificatory or demographic data at the end.
- Group similar questions together.
Appearance and other Considerations:
- Follow language and accessibility standards.
- Make use of ample white space.
- Don’t put too many questions on a page – overwhelming.
- Give participants an estimated time to completion. Also, when possible offer a gage of how far they are through the survey.
Test your Knowledge:
Design a few questions to help assess views on banning different plastic items (plastic bags, straws, plastic packaging, plastic cutlery) in your local municipality. Try to use different types of questions, and make sure to design your questions as effectively as possible.