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How to Design Questionnaires | 7 Key Strategies for Designing Powerful Surveys | 2024 Reveals

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Leah Nguyen • 21 March, 2024 • 8 min read

Designing a good questionnaire is no easy feat.

As the person sending it out, you want to actually learn something useful from those who fill it out, not just frustrate them with a mess of badly worded questions, right?

In this guide on how to design questionnaires , we will cover all the dos✅ and don'ts❌ of a good survey question.

After this, you'll be much more likely to end up with thoughtful, nuanced answers that actually inform your work.

Table of Contents

The characteristics of a good questionnaire, #1. define objectives, #2. develop questions, #3. format questionnaire, #4. pilot test draft, #5. administer survey, #6. analyse responses, #7. interpret findings, how to create a questionnaire in google forms, how to create a questionnaire in ahaslides, frequently asked questions.

More Tips with AhaSlides

• Online Poll Maker
• Questionnaire Sample for Students
• How to give feedbacks?

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AhaSlides' polling and scale features make it easy to understand audience's experiences.

To make a good questionnaire that really gets what you need, it should satisfy these points:

• Clarity: The questions should be clearly worded so respondents understand exactly what information is being asked.

• Conciseness: Questions should be concise but not so brief that important context is missing. Long, wordy questions can lose people's attention.

• Specificity: Ask specific questions, not broad, general questions. Specific questions yield more meaningful, useful data.

• Objectivity: Questions should be neutral and objective in tone so as not to influence how respondents answer or introduce bias.

• Relevance: Every question should be purposeful and relevant to your research goals. Avoid superfluous questions.

• Logic/flow: The questionnaire structure and flow of questions should make logical sense. Related questions should be grouped together.

• Anonymity: For sensitive topics, respondents should feel they can answer honestly without fear of identification.

• Ease of response: Questions should be easy to comprehend and have a simple way to mark/select answers.

How to Design Questionnaires

First, think about why you're doing the research - Is it exploratory , descriptive, explanatory or predictive in nature? Why do you really want to know X or understand Y?

Focus objectives on the information needed, not processes, such as "understand customer satisfaction levels" not "administer a survey".

Objectives should guide question development - Write questions relevant to learning the objectives . Be specific and measurable - Objectives like "learn customer preferences" are too broad; specify exactly what preferences they have.

Define the target population - Who exactly are you seeking responses from to address the objectives? Picture them as individuals so your questions truly resonate. 

Once your objective is defined, it's time to develop the questions.

Brainstorm a long list of potential questions without censoring ideas. Ask yourself what different types of data/perspectives are needed.

Review each question against your objectives. Only keep those that directly address an objective .

Refine weak questions through multiple rounds of editing feedback. Simplify complex questions and choose the best format (open, closed, rating scale and such) based on question and objective.

Organise questions into logical sections based on related topics, flow, or ease of response. Ensure each question directly serves a magnetic objective. If it doesn't align, it risks boring or just ending up as clutter.

The visual design and layout should be clean, uncluttered, and easy to follow through sequentially.

You should provide context for respondents upfront regarding the purpose, how long it will take, and confidentiality aspects in the introduction. In the body, explain clearly how to respond to each question type, for example, select one answer for multiple choice.

Leave enough whitespace between questions, sections, and responses for readability.

For digital surveys, clearly show question numbers or progress trackers for better ease of navigation.

The formatting and visual design should support clear communication and optimise the respondent experience. Otherwise, the participants would click back right away before they read the questions.

This trial run allows refining any issues before a larger launch. You can test with 10 to 15 representatives of your target population.

By getting the questionnaire tested, you can measure how long it will take to complete the survey, know if any questions are unclear or difficult to understand, and if testers follow the flow smoothly or have any issues moving through sections.

After completion, have individual conversations to get in-depth feedback. Ask open-ended questions to probe misunderstandings and make revisions iteratively until unsure responses are eliminated.

Thorough pilot testing considers both quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback to refine your questionnaire before full rollout.

Based on your target sample, you can determine the best mode of distribution (email, online, postal mail, in-person and such).

For sensitive topics, obtain informed consent from participants that ensures confidentiality and anonymity.

Focus on why their voices matter. Convey how feedback helps shape decisions or ideas that could really make a difference. Appeal to their inner desire to contribute!

Send polite reminder messages/follow-ups to boost response rates, especially for mail/online surveys.

Consider optionally offering a small token of appreciation for time/feedback to further motivate responses.

Most of all, engage your own excitement. Share updates on learnings and next steps so respondents feel truly invested in the journey. Keep relationships vibrant even after submissions close.

Compile responses systematically in a spreadsheet, database, or analysis software.

Check for errors, inconsistencies, and missing info and address them before analysis.

Calculate frequencies, percentages, means, modes etc. for closed-ended questions. Go through open-ended responses systematically to identify common themes and categories.

Once themes crystallise, dive deeper. Crunch numbers to back qualitative hunches or let stats spill new stories. Cross-tabulate to see their personalities from unique angles.

Note any factors that could impact interpretation such as low response rates. Proper analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the responses collected through your questionnaire.

Always revisit objectives to ensure analyses and conclusions directly address each research question. Summarise consistent themes emerging from patterns in the data.

Note whether inferential analyses show strong influences or effects.

Cautiously formulate hypothetical generalisations that require further testing.

Factor in external context, and prior research when framing interpretations. Quote or present examples from responses that illustrate key points.

Identify new questions prompted by gaps, limitations or inconclusive areas. Spark further discussions wherever they may lead!

Google Forms are the most common method to craft a simple survey. Here's how to design questionnaires on it:

Step 1: Go to forms.google.com and click "Blank" to start a new form or choose one of the ready-made templates from Google.

Step 2: Choose your question types: Multiple choice, checkbox, paragraph text, scale etc., and write your question name/text and answer options for the selected type. You can reorder questions later.

Step 3: Add additional pages if needed by clicking the "Add section" icon to group-related questions. Customise appearance using the "Theme" option for text style, colours and Header image.

Step 4: Distribute the form link by clicking "Send" and choose email, embedding or direct sharing options.

Here are 5 simple steps to creating an engaging and quick survey using the 5-point Likert scale. You can use the scale for employee/service satisfaction surveys, product/feature development surveys, student feedback, and many more👇

Step 1: Sign up for a free AhaSlides account.

Step 2: Create a new presentation or head to our ' Template library ' and grab one template from the 'Surveys' section.

Step 3: In your presentation, choose the ' Scales ' slide type.

Step 4: Enter each statement for your participants to rate and set the scale from 1-5.

Step 5: If you want them to do it right away, click the ' Present ' button so they can access your survey through their devices. You can also head to 'Settings' - 'Who takes the lead' - and choose the ' Audience (self-paced) ' option to gather opinions anytime.

💡 Tip : Click on the ' Results ' button will enable you to export the results to Excel/PDF/JPG.

What are the five steps in designing a questionnaire?

The five steps to design a questionnaire are #1 - Define the research objectives, #2 - Decide on the questionnaire format, #3 - Develop clear and concise questions, #4 - Arrange the questions logically and #5 - Pretest and refine the questionnaire.

What are the 4 types of questionnaire in research?

There are 4 types of questionnaires in research: Structured - Unstructured - Semi-structured - Hybrid.

What are 5 good survey questions?

The 5 good survey questions - what, where, when, why, and how are basic but answering them before starting your survey would help drive a better result.

Leah Nguyen

Words that convert, stories that stick. I turn complex ideas into engaging narratives - helping audiences learn, remember, and take action.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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How to design a questionnaire / survey - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

How to design a questionnaire / survey

How to design a questionnaire / survey sarah dennis, senior research fellow primary health care research network what this session is an introduction to basic ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• Sarah Dennis, Senior Research Fellow
• An introduction to basic concepts about designing and using questionnaires and surveys
• An opportunity to use these concepts to design your own questionnaire and surveys
• A focus on structured rather than unstructured questionnaires
• All you ever need to know about questionnaires
• A detailed consideration of survey methodology
• A detailed discussion of validation methods
• The only thing you need to know about doing research or evaluating a program or conducting a needs assessment
• A means of collecting quantitative information from a particular population about a particular topic
• Structured and standardised
• Questionnaire
• A tool frequently used in surveys to collect quantitative information
• cheapest, wide coverage, standardised, low response rate (?)
• low cost, wide coverage, (?) low response rate, standardisation
• medium cost, wide coverage, medium response rate, standardisation depends on interviewer
• Face to face
• most expensive, coverage depends on personal contact, highest response rate
• Poor response rates may introduce selection bias
• determine characteristics of non-responders, if possible
• Aim for a high response rate
• What is a high response rate?
• lt80-85(NHMRC, Cochrane collaboration)
• Edwards, Roberts, Clarke et al BMJ 2002 324 1183
• 292 randomised controlled trials evaluating 75 different strategies for increasing postal response rates amongst professionals (including clinicians and health personnel) and members of the community (including patients).
• Incentive vs no incentive
• Short vs long
• Coloured questionnaire vs white
• Personal vs not personal
• Recorded delivery vs regular post
• Pre-contact vs no pre-contact
• Follow-up vs no follow up
• More interesting vs less interesting
• University vs other
• Request explanation for not completing vs no request
• Best used when
• There is a large sample
• You want fairly straightforward information
• You want standardised data from identical questions
• You are more interested in what occurs rather than why or how
• Can be superficial - difficult to capture the richness of meaning
• Cannot deal with context - information is collected in isolation of environment
• Information is not causal - cannot attribute cause-effect relationships
• Information is self-report - which does not necessarily reflect actual behaviour
• Is a questionnaire appropriate?
• Identify the resources that are available
• Decide what information you need
• Select items for inclusion
• Design the individual questions
• Search the literature
• bibliographic databases (eg MedlineCinahl Psychinfo)
• Citation searches of key articles
• Preliminary research
• focus groups
• key informants interviews
• Compose the wording
• Use plain language and simple questions
• Use mostly closed ended questions
• Determine layout
• Prepare a first draft
• What will your data look like and what do you want to do with it?
• Spreadsheet
• Data dictionary
• Discuss it with your colleagues
• Pilot it with the target group and as you intend to administer it
• Evaluate and modify on basis of pilot
• Type of information
• Type of questions
• Common wording problems
• Types of response
• Problems with response
• Reliability
• Knowledge - what people know
• Opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values - what people think about an issue
• Behaviour - what people do
• Attributes - what are peoples characteristics
• Remember - based on self-report
• What is the recommended interval between eye checks for patients with uncomplicated diabetes?
• What do you think are the major issues affecting general practice in Australia at the moment?
• ________________________________
• Have you developed a care plan for any of your patients?
• When did you graduate from university?
• _______________________
• What? why? how?
• No predetermined responses given
• Able to answer in own words
• Useful exploratory research and to generate ideas
• Requires skill in asking questions and interpreting results
• Answers can lack uniformity and be difficult to analyse
• What do you think about the quality of discharge summaries from the ED at hospital X?
• ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
• Designed to obtain predetermined responses (Yes/No True/False strongly agree-strongly disagree, etc..)
• Easy to count and analyse
• Easy to interpret
• May not have catered for all possible answers
• Questions may not be relevant or important
• The discharge summaries from hospital X allow me to provide adequate care to my patients
• Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
• agree disagree
• Please rate the quality of the discharge summaries from hospital X
• Filter questions useful to ensure respondents only answer relevant parts of questions
• If you use a medical software program, which one do you use?
• Do you use a medical software program?
• ? No - jump to next question
• ? Yes - which one?
• Skips in questionnaires more easily managed if these are computer-assisted
• Consider including not applicable category
• In the past week, how often have you used MEDLINE
• ? Not at all
• ? At least once
• ? More than once
• ? I do not have access to MEDLINE
• Question wording
• Questions need to be clear, simple and precise
• Poorly written questions lead to ambiguity and misunderstandings and can be wasteful
• open, closed, what type of response set will you use?
• Do you prefer being examined by a doctor of your own sex?
• Would you rather be examined by a
• Male doctor ?
• Female doctor ?
• Either/doesnt matter ?
• Taken altogether, how happy are you with your stay in hospital?
• Have you seen a doctor during the past year?
• Overall, how would you describe the care you received in hospital?
• In the last 12 months, have you visited a general practitioner?
• How long has it been since you last visited a general practitioner? (within the last month, between 1 and 12 months ago, more than 12 months ago)
• Do you think evidence-based medicine is a waste of time?
• What do you think of evidence-based medicine?
• How often do you smack your child?
• Do you know enough about treating patients at risk of stroke?
• How often do you use each of the following to discipline your child?
• How would you rate your knowledge of X for treating patients at risk of stroke
• (I know very little, I need to learn a little more, I need to learn a lot more etc..)
• Two concepts in one question
• Have you had a neck ache or a back ache since your last visit?
• Since your last visit, have you had any of the
• following symptoms (tick as many that apply)
• Neck ache ?
• Back ache ?
• Avoid using negative wording not, rarely, never, or words with negative prefixes
• in-, im-, un-.
• Doctors should not be required to see patients outside surgery hours agree / disagree
• Doctors should be required to see patients outside regular hours Agree/Disagree
• On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate for each of the 12 categories listed below, your level of knowledge, confidence and experience.
• Please complete the table below about your level of knowledge, confidence and experience in each of the following areas.
• Please complete the table below about your level of knowledge, in each of the following areas.
• Closed ended questions are usually followed by a set of responses
• Choose type of scale
• continuous (summed items with ordinal response scale)
• What is your marital status
• Separated ?
• Limited choices of responses, lack of consistency in what a yes/no, agree/disagree response means
• Do you have trouble climbing stairs?
• Attitudes and behaviours lie on a continuum To what extent do you experience difficulty when
• climbing stairs in your house?
• Quite a bit
• I do not have stairs in my house
• Cancer stage
• What is the highest level of education you have reached
• Did not complete primary school
• Completed primary school
• Up to, but not including year 10
• Completed year 10 or equivalent
• HSC or equivalent
• TAFE education
• Visual analogue scales
• Overall, how much pain have you experienced in the previous hour?
• No pain A lot of pain
• Provide adjectives for points along the line (adjectival scales)
• Painless Some pain Very painful
• My illness is
• Painful Painless
• Serious Mild
• Rate agreement with a series of statements.
• To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements
• Strongly Agree
• Strongly disagree
• How many steps/boxes should there be?
• five to seven response categories ideal
• People averse to extreme ends of a scale
• avoid absolutes eg almost always vs always, almost never vs never
• add throw away categories at either end
• Should there be an even or odd number of categories
• not an issue if your scale goes from not at all to very much (unipolar scales)
• If your scale is bipolar (eg strongly agree to strongly disagree), decide whether you want a neutral point
• Individuals vary in their interpretations of categories. For example
• Highly probable 60 to 99
• Usually 15 to 99
• Rather likely 1 to 75
• Cannot be excluded 7 to 98
• During your last consultation with your doctor, did the doctor discuss medications to help lower your blood pressure?
• What is meant by discuss? relies on recall of discussion
• Many respondents will tick a response that is satisfactory that is, to just tick a box.
• Fatigue/boredom/disinterest
• agree with everything
• just say dont know
• always choose first response
• randomly respond without considering the question
• Social desirability
• Aversion to extreme ends of the scale
• Keep task simple
• Eg easier to recall more recent events
• Keep words short and easy to understand
• Maintain motivation of participants
• ensure task is relevant
• Ask people to justify their responses
• It is difficult
• Instruct that it is ok not to know something
• Avoid absolutes never, always
• Expand number of categories by including throw away categories at the end
• never, almost never, infrequently, sometimes, usually, almost always, always
• Ceiling effects
• Halo effects
• Framing effects
• Average response doesnt have to be middle response
• Unsatisfactory Average Above Very Outstanding average much
• above average
• often occur when evaluating individuals
• judgements made on aspects of a persons performance influenced by overall impression of the person
• a global summary just as informative
• With treatment, your chance of dying from cancer of the big toe is reduced by about 34.
• Without treatment, your chance of dying from cancer of the big toe is 6 out of 1000.
• With treatment, your chance of dying from cancer of the big toe is 4 out of 1000.
• With this this treatment, 500 adults would need to be treated to prevent one death from cancer of the big toe.
• Framing outcomes in terms of survival or dying will also influence responses
• Be careful how you frame your questions aim for neutral terms
• If unavoidable, present all relevant information
• May be more likely to endorse first or last response
• Preceding questions may influence responses to questions that follow
• Randomise order of response sets between individuals
• Randomise order of items within questions
• May be possible to randomise order of questions
• Dont always present positive or negative sounding response first
• Easier to randomise in computer-assisted interviews than paper pen questionnaires
• Sequence should be logical to the respondents and flow smoothly from one question to the next
• Questions tend to flow from
• general to specific
• impersonal to personal
• easy to difficult
• Does the question measure what you claim it measures?
• Problems with self-report
• looks like it is going to measure what it is supposed to - subjective
• captures full scope of given concept
• tests the hypothesis it is measuring
• tested against Gold standard
• the degree to which it can predict future events
• Results are reproducible or consistent with similar groups of respondents,
• over time and when other people administer the questionnaire
• Questions measures consistently
• Test-re-test
• Inter-rater
• Internal consistency
• Sensitivity
• capture actual changes/differences
• Specificity
• discriminative ability
• Response style
• Interviewer
• investigators views influence outcome
• difference between truth and what observer records
• Random measurement error
• Reactive effects
• awareness of being studied influences response
• Translation
• Translate forward and back again using two translators, blinded
• Assess with blinded review panel
• Just as important as wording
• Aim for a professional look
• cover letter/introductory page giving study title, organisation, aims of the survey
• enough space for open-ended questions
• font large enough to read without strain
• consistent and clear instructions
• dont split questions or answers across pages
• enough white space
• Foddy W (1993). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires Theory and practice in social research. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
• Oppenheim AN (1992). Questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. Pinter Publishers, London
• Schuman H, Presser S (1996). Questions and answers in attitude surveys experiments on question form, wording, and context. Sage Publications, San Diego.
• Streiner DL, Norman GF (1995). Health Measurement Scales a practical guide to their development and use, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
• http//student.bmj.com/back_issues/0601/education/ 187.html
• Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage, or in terrorist activities or genocide or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?
• From I-94 form US Citizenship and Immigration Services

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• Imperial Home
• Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship
• Education evaluation toolkit
• Tools and resources for evaluation
• Questionnaires

Best practice in questionnaire design

The following guide to developing questionnaire items and organising the questionnaire is based on best practice (Gehlbach & Brinkworth, 2011; Gehlbach & Artino Jr., 2018). These best practices have been tested across over 40 years of research (Krosnick & Presser, 2010; Schwarz, 1999).

Best practice for creating items

• Word items as questions rather than statements and avoid 'agree-disagree' response options
• Use verbal labels for each response option
• Ask about one idea at a time
• Phrase questions with positive language
• Use at least five response options per scale
• Maintain equal spacing between repsonse options. Use additional space to visually separate non-substansive response options

Agree-disagree response options may introduce acquiescence bias, which is the tendency to agree with an item regardless of its content (Wright, 1975). Asking respondents to rate their level of agreement to different statements can be cognitively demanding, which increases respondent error and reduces respondent effort (Fowler, 2009). Instead, use verbally labelled response options that reinforce the underlying topic (e.g., the responses for “How happy are you?” would be not at all happy, slightly happy, somewhat happy, quite happy, extremely happy). Empirical evidence demonstrates that agree-disagree response options diminish item quality (Saris, Revilla, Krosnick, Schaeffer, & Shaeffer, 2010), and are among the “worst ways to present items” (Gehlbach & Artino Jr., 2018, p. 361).

Use verbal labels for each response option, rather than labelling only the end points of the response options or labelling with both numbers and verbal labels. This helps to focus the attention of the respondent and reduce measurement error (Artino, Jr. & Gehlbach, 2012).

Ask about one idea at a time rather than using double-barrelled items, which ask about two or more ideas in the same question (e.g., instead of asking, “How happy and engaged are you?” ask two questions, one about happiness and one about engagement). If you use double-barrelled items, you risk students responding to only one part of that item (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2014)

Phrase questions with positive language rather than using reverse scored or negative language, which students tend to have trouble understanding. Negative words are more difficult to process cognitively, which leads these items to take longer to answer and leads to misresponses (Swain, Weathers, & Niedrich, 2008).

Use at least five response options per scale to capture a wider range of perceptions. Research indicates that the “sweet spot” of the number of response anchors is about five (Weng, 2004; Nielsen, Makransky, Vang, & Danmeyer, 2017). A five-item scale that assesses a representative cross-section of a student’s experience should improve measurement (Gehlbach & Artino Jr., 2018).

Maintain equal spacing between response options, and use additional space to visually separate non-substantive response options. This will reinforce the notion that conceptually, there is equal distance between each response option, which yields less biased responses. Moreover, this will help align the visual midpoint with the conceptual midpoint, reducing measurement error (Artino, Jr. & Gehlbach, 2012). This is especially important if you are administering your questionnaire on paper. Electronic questionnaire administrators such as Qualtrics will space response options equally, and you will have to be aware to add an extra space to separate non-substantive response options (e.g., ‘N/A’). To see some examples, check out the resources for evaluating self-efficacy and take a look at this visual guide ).

Best practice for organising the whole questionnaire

This guidance has been summarised from Gehlbach and Artino (2018).

• Ask the more important items earlier in the questionnaire
• Ensure each item applies to each respondent
• Use scales rather than single items
• Maintain a consistent visual layout of the questionnaire
• Place sensitive items (e.g. demographic questions) later in the questionnaire

This will increase the likelihood that respondents will answer these questions whilst they are focused and have energy.

Make sure that item content applies to each respondent and is worded accessibly, or you risk alienating respondents to whom the item does not apply (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2014).

Scales bolster accuracy, with each question addressing a representative cross-section of the experience.

This helps maintain clarity for the respondent, who can then complete the questionnaire more efficiently.

Respondents will feel more comfortable sharing this information later on in the questionnaire.

Artino, Jr., A. R., & Gehlbach, H. (2012). AM Last Page: Avoiding Four Visual-Design Pitfalls in Survey Development. Academic Medicine, 87 (10), 1452. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hunter_Gehlbach/publication/231210670_AM_Last_Page_Avoiding_Four_Visual-Design_Pitfalls_in_Survey_Development/links/5a835de6aca272d6501eb6a3/AM-Last-Page-Avoiding-Four-Visual-Design-Pitfalls-in-Survey-Development.pdf

Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Gehlbach, H., & Artino Jr., A. R. (2018). The survey checklist (manifesto). Academic Medicine, 93 (3), 360-366. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2018/03000/The_Survey_Checklist__Manifesto_.18.aspx#pdf-link

Gehlbach, H., & Brinkworth, M. E. (2011). Measure twice, cut down error: A process for enhancing the validity of survey scales. Review of General Psychology, 15 (4), 380-387. Retrieved from https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8138346/Gehlbach%20-%20Measure%20twice%208-31-11.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Krosnick, J. A., & Presser, S. (2010). Question and questionnaire design. In P. V. Marsden, & J. D. Wright (Eds.), Handbook of Survey Research. Bingley, England: Emerald Group Publishing.

Nielsen, T., Makransky, G., Vang, M. L., & Danmeyer, J. (2017). How specific is specific self-efficacy? A construct validity study using Raschmeasurement models. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 53 , 87-97.

Saris, W. E., Revilla, M., Krosnick, J. A., Schaeffer, E. M., & Shaeffer, E. M. (2010). Comparing questions with agree/disagree response options to questions with item-specific response options. Survey Research Methods, 4 , 61-79.

Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports: how the questions shape the answers. American Psychology, 54 , 93-105.

Swain, S. D., Weathers, D., & Niedrich, R. W. (2008). Assessing three sources of misreponse to reversed Likert items. Journal of Marketing Research, 45 , 116-131.

Weng, L. -J. (2004). Impact of the number of response categories and anchor labels on coefficient alpha and test-retest reliability. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64 , 956-972. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0013164404268674

Wright, J. D. (1975). Does acquiescence bias the 'Index of Political Efficacy?'. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 39 (2), 219-226.

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• Questionnaire Design Tip Sheet

This PSR Tip Sheet provides some basic tips about how to write good survey questions and design a good survey questionnaire.

PSR Resources

• Managing and Manipulating Survey Data: A Beginners Guide
• Finding and Hiring Survey Contractors
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• Overview of Cognitive Testing and Questionnaire Evaluation
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• Introduction to Surveys for Honors Thesis Writers
• PSR Introduction to the Survey Process
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• Other Links

Introduction to Questionnaire Design

Sep 01, 2014

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Introduction to Questionnaire Design. Questionnaire refers to any list of questions, which can be self-administered by the respondent or read to the respondent by an interviewer. Process of Constructing the Questionnaire. Decide on the type of questionnaire that will be constructed.

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Presentation Transcript

Introduction toQuestionnaire Design

Questionnaire refers to any list of questions, which can be self-administered by the respondent or read to the respondent by an interviewer

Process of Constructing the Questionnaire • Decide on the type of questionnaire that will be constructed. • Write down the questions. • Combine all questions and decide on which order to present them. • Write the introductory statement or cover letter. • Write the instructions to interviewers or respondents. • Design the Form. • If the study is a nationwide survey, translate the questionnaire to other major languages. • Pretest the questionnaire.

Strategies in Writing the Questions • Use the research objectives as the basis for your questions. • You may borrow questions that were already asked in past studies. • Anticipate the possible problem that you might encounter in extracting information from the respondents. • Consider the resources available. • Consider the medium used in acquiring the responses • Consider the level of measurement required by the analysis that you have in mind.

Types of Questionnaire Structured wording and order of questions are uniform for all respondents Unstructured wording and order of questions can vary for different subjects; usually used for qualitative studies like FGDs, case studies, etc.

Types of Questions in Survey Research • Open-Ended Questions • Closed-Ended Questions

Types of Questions Open – ended :response categories are not specified; the respondents are free to answer as they please Example: We would like to get your opinion regarding the effectiveness of the project in your barangay. a. What do you think are the strengths of the project? Why did you say so? b. How do you think can the project still be improved to meet its objective?

Types of Questions Closed - ended respondent selects one or more of the specific categories provided by the researcher or the question is asked as an open question and the interviewer allocates the answer to the appropriate code category. Example: Do you practice family planning? __ Yes __ No If YES, what methods did you use? __ Condom __ Pills __ Ligation __ IUD __ Injectables __ Natural __ Others, specify ____________________

Advantages of Closed-Ended Questions • The answers are standard, and can be compared from person to person. • The answers are much easier to code and analyze, and often can be coded directly from the questionnaire. • A respondent who is unsure about the meaning of the question can often tell from the answer categories what is expected. • Irrelevant responses are avoided.

Disadvantages of Closed-Ended Questions • It is very easy for a respondent who does not know the answer or has no opinion to try to guess the appropriate answer or even to answer randomly. • The respondent may feel frustrated because the appropriate category for his/her answer either is not provided at all or is not provided in sufficient detail . • Variations in answers among the different respondents may be eliminated artificially by forced-choice responses.

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions • They can be used when all of the possible answer categories are not known, or when the investigator wishes to see what the respondent views as appropriate answer categories. • They allow the respondent to answer adequately, in all the detail he/she likes, and to qualify and clarify his/her answer. • They can be used when there are too many potential answer categories to list on the questionnaire. • They allow more opportunity for creativity and self-expression by the respondent.

Disadvantages of Open-Ended Questions • They may lead to collection of worthless and irrelevant information. • Coding is often very difficult and subjective, leading to low inter-coder reliability. • Open-ended questions require superior writing skills, better ability to express one’s feelings verbally, and generally a higher educational level than do closed-ended questions. • Open-ended questions require much more of the respondent’s time and effort, and may engender a high refusal rate.

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Incorrect ordering of questions Q7. How would you rate the scent of lotion X? Q8. What do you think of lotion X? Improvement: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ • Double-barreled questions “Does your department have a special recruitment policy for ethnic minorities and women?” Improvement: ____________________________________ _____________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Words with double meaning “Does your household participate in the activities of the barangay?” The National Statistics Office defines the household as an aggregate of persons generally but not necessarily bound by ties of kinship, who live together under the same roof and eat together or share common the household food.

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Difficult words or technical terms “What proportion of your evening viewing time do you spend watching news programs?” Improvement: ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Presuming questions “Do you think the Clean Air Act is being implemented properly by local authorities?” Improvement: _____________________________________ ____________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Sensitive or Threatening Questions “Do you masturbate? Yes _____ No _____ If yes, how often? Once a week, once a month, everyday?” Improvement: ___________________________________________ ________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Unrealistic questions “What brand of perfume do you think you will be using three years from now?” Improvement: ___________________________________________ __________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Incomplete/non-exhaustive listing “Did you learn about the brand from TV, radio, newspaper, or friends?” Improvement: ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Biased Wording “Do you think that decent, low-cost funerals are sensible? Improvement: ___________________________________________ _________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Leading questions “The majority of physicians in the Philippines feel that smoking is harmful; do you agree?” Improvement:__________________________________ ______________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Double Negatives especially in agree/disagree items “Please tell me whether you agree or disagree with the following statement about teachers in public schools: Teachers should not be required to supervise students in the halls, the lunchroom and school parking lots.” Improvement: ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Dangling Alternatives “Would you say that it is very often, frequently, seldom, or never that you and your boss disagree about advertising campaigns?” Improvement: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Insufficiently Specific or Unidimensional “Are you satisfied with your canteen?” Improvement: ___________________________________________ __________________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Hypothetical Questions “If you are the president of the Philippines, would you push through with the Charter Change?” Improvement: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction • Vague questions “How often do you wash your hair?” Very often  Often  Not too often  Never Imrovement: ______________________________________ __________________________________________

Example to Avoid Unrealistic Questions Getting information on number of hours spent shopping • Did you go shopping in the past week? (IF YES) How many hours did you spend shopping in the past week? • On a typical week, how many hours did you spend shopping? Or, on the average, how many hours do you spend shopping in a week? • Do you go shopping? (IF YES) On your last shopping trip, how many hours did you spend shopping?

Use of Simple Words • WORD SIMPLER WORD • acquaint inform, tell • assist help • consider think • initiate begin, start • major important, chief, main, principal • materialize come about, happen, occur • purchase buy • sufficient enough • terminate end

Exercise: Evaluate the following statements: • According to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the court should be free of bribery and corruption. • Do you think that the Congress, as an institution, is definitely free from external controls, influence or pressure? • Does the government agency have criminal and civil cases? • What is the nature of the complaint against the Chief of the Division? Have you ever filed an administrative complaint against a Division Chief? • Do you accept money for a favorable decision? If yes, how often? • Approximately how many administrative cases did you have in your agency from 2005 to 2008?

Filter and Contingency Questions A contingency question is a question whose relevance to the respondent is determined by the response to an earlier filter question. • There are some questions that are not relevant to all of the respondents in the study, particular if the population under study is very heterogeneous. • Instead on using separate questionnaires for the different subgroups, only one questionnaire containing filter and contingency questions is used.

Possible Format of Filter and Contingency Questions • Instructions telling which to answer next in the event of the category being chosen are placed beside each response category. In the past two months, did you have any illness that kept you in bed, indoors, or away from your usual activities? Yes …………(ASK A)……………1 No…………..(SKIP TO Q.25)……2 Or Yes…………………….1 ASK A No ……………………. 2 SKIP to Q.25

Possible Format of Filter and Contingency Questions • Used boxed contingency questions with no arrows leading to them. Have you ever had a miscarriage? ( ) Yes ( ) No If YES: How old were you when you had your first miscarriage? ____________

Response Category Format • Response categories should be exhaustive. • Response categories should be mutually exclusive. • Response categories should be made easy to data collectors, respondents, or coders to select appropriate options. • Response categories should include the “Other” option with sufficient space for writing answers. • Response categories should anticipate analytical needs and enable the collection of data that are suitable for those analyses. • It should be decided whether single or multiple answers are to be allowed.

Response Category Format Number of Categories • There is no optimal number of categories. • 5 to 6 categories are commonly used Odd or Even Number of Categories • If odd, usually the middle category is the neutral position. • If even, there will be no neutral category. Thus, the respondent is forced to take a position.

Some Types of Category Formats Verbal rating scale • This requires a respondent to indicate their position by selecting among verbally identified categories. • Examples: Strongly agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree Very important, Important, Somewhat Important, Not at all Important Excellent, Good, All right, Poor, Bad

Some Types of Category Formats Graphic Rating Scale • This requires a respondent to indicate his position on a continuum which ranges from one extreme of the attitude in question to the other extreme. • Since the respondent is not using a predetermined set of response categories, the researcher cannot determine how a particular respondent has subdivided the continuum. • Example: “To what extent do you feel employees should have a voice in determining performance evaluation content?” Employees should make Performance evaluation matters the decisions about 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 should be left entirely performance to the Administration evaluation matters

Some Types of Category Formats Rank-Order Scale • This involves having the respondent rank various objects with respect to the attitude in question. • This is actually a forced scale. • It is possible that respondent actually dislikes all of the objects they were asked to rank according to a favorable characteristic. This attitude is not captured by the scale. • Example: The following are some of the problems faced by the local government. Please rank them in terms of importance, from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important). _____ Pollution _____ Garbage _____ Traffic _____ Drug Addiction _____ Crime

Some Types of Category Formats Checklist Question • provides more than two alternatives from which the respondent can choose as many responses that apply to them. • Example: What kind of ball sports do you like to play? basketball volleyball football tennis baseball water polo others, pls. specify _____________

Question Order • The order of questions should be in logical sequence so that the trend of thought of the respondent is not broken. • The first part of the questionnaire are on Identification Information consisting of the geographic identification, interviewer’s record and the information about the sample. • Sensitive questions are placed towards the end of the interview schedule or questionnaire.

Approaches to Question Sequence Funnel Approach • Uses a general-to-specific question flow. Work Approach • Requires that difficult to answer questions are placed deep inside the questionnaire. Sections Approach • Arranges the questionnaire into sections or topic category divisions that are dictated by the objectives of the study

Approaches to Question Sequence Quintamensional Design • This 5-question approach was developed by George Gallup to cover the most essential features of an opinion: • Open-ended question on awareness/knowledge of the issue • Open-ended question on the attitudes toward the issue • Closed-ended question on attitude towards specific issues • Open-ended question on reason behind attitude • Closed-ended question on the intensity of attitudes

Questionnaire Lay-out & Design • Flow of questions should be respondent-friendly . • Vary questions by length and type. • Place scale items according to response required. • Separate reliability-check question pairs.

Physical Design of a Questionnaire • The appearance of the form should be simple and well spaced; • The size and type of font used should be readable; • The font size and type used for questions and directions should be different.

Basic Contents of the Cover Letter/Introduction • Identification of the persons or organization conducting the study • Explanation of the importance of the study and reason/s why it is being conducted • Reason why the respondent should be the one to answer the questionnaire • Assurance of no right or wrong answers • Guarantee the confidentiality of answers

Example of an Introduction Good morning/afternoon/evening. I am Josie Almeda from the UP School of Statistics Research Foundation. This study seeks to know how Filipinos feel about various issues and problems affecting their lives. This information is valuable both for planning and for scientific research. Your household is very important to this survey because it represents hundreds of others which are not in our sample. Everything you tell us will be strictly confidential. Your name will be in no way connected to the findings of this important study.

The Pretest Objective: To determine if there are errors in the questionnaires or areas that need improvement such as ordering of questions, wording, and the natural flow from one section to another. Respondents: No rules on who the respondents should be in the pretest and on the size of the sample.

Types of Pretest Participating Pretest • Respondents are told that this is a practice run, and are asked to explain their reactions and answers. • This allows for a very detailed probe on certain questions such as: What did the whole question mean to you? What did the (term) make you think of? Undeclared Pretest • The respondent is not told that this is a questionnaire under construction, and the interviewer plays it straight.

Evaluating the Pretest • Before the pretest, tell interviewers to write marginal comments on the questionnaire. • Conduct an oral debriefing after the pretest so that the interviewers can report on their experience. Some of the issues that can be discussed are: • Were there questions that made the respondent uncomfortable • Which questions have to be repeated • Did the respondent misinterpret any question • Which questions were the most difficult or awkward to read • Did any of the sections bore the respondent • Were there questions that respondent found stupid • Were there any section in which the respondent would have liked the opportunity to say more

Evaluating the Pretest • Review answers to open-ended questions • Tabulate the number of no responses, unable to answer, and don’t knows for each question. • Investigate questions that yield too many such answers. • Watch out for response sets. • Look at the variability of responses.

WORKSHOP Write a short questionnaire to measure employees’ job satisfaction on their current position. Incorporate topics on the employees’ preferences. Put questions regarding the personal characteristics of employees like age, sex, department, position, and others. Maximum of 15 questions only. Keep in mind the guidelines on questionnaire construction. Include a question that allows for multiple response.

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