Cvent Survey

The most common question type is the interval question. They appear in almost every questionnaire or survey and are often used in survey templates.

As we briefly touched on in the last post, interval questions can lead to powerful analysis, including:

• Averages and standard deviations
• Correlations and regressions
• Addition and subtraction
• Frequency distributions

Interval scales are usually used to find degrees of agreement, satisfaction, likelihood of an action, etc. It is important to note that each interval should be equally spaced—whether your scale is 1 to 5 or Extremely unsatisfied to Extremely satisfied.

(If your interval spaces are not equal, you have an ordinal scale. To see what analysis ordinal data allows for, check out our last post.)

It is also important to note since interval scales do not have a true zero, you cannot say someone is twice as satisfied as someone else.

Surveyors have preferences regarding how many intervals to use. However, the most common scales are the 1 to 5 and the 1 to 7 scales. Beyond 7 intervals, we believe it becomes difficult to accurately interpret the variation between the intervals.

When designing a survey, it's sometimes difficult to determine which question type is appropriate or what kind of scale would be best. For extra help with question design, Cvent's Professional Services Group is happy to consult and make recommendations on any questionnaire.