An important part of designing good surveys is minimizing the burden on your respondents wherever possible. Here are several tips on how to decrease the time and effort it takes to complete your surveys:
Use primarily close-ended questions and response options. Unless you’re in the exploration stage or trying to define a concept, you’ll want to write questions that have common, well-defined meanings, and response option lists. For example, if you ask respondents’ gender, don’t make them type it in a text box. You can also use “Other (please specify)” choices and a catch-all at the end, such as “Please provide any comments you may have here” to capture additional thoughts.
Make sure your questions are clear and appropriate for the audience. Survey respondents feel they should know the answers to your questions, and confusion is a sure-fire way to decrease your response rate. If there are still questions that respondents might not be able to answer, include “don’t know” and/or “not applicable” as response options.
Be careful with the use of graphics. An online survey full of graphics and pictures takes longer to load on respondents’ computers, and some may not be using a high-speed connection. Try to limit your use of graphics to your logo and (maybe) a progress bar, unless the survey specifically addresses multimedia.
For non-anonymous surveys, don’t duplicate data you already have. If you have demographic or other information from another source or an existing database, you can shorten your survey by omitting these questions and linking to the data elsewhere.
Finally, be honest about how long it will take to complete the survey. Respondents like to know that you value and respect their time. If they feel the web survey is taking longer than they were told, they will be more likely to abandon it mid-stream.
Use primarily close-ended questions and response options. Unless you’re in the exploration stage or trying to define a concept, you’ll want to write questions that have common, well-defined meanings, and response option lists. For example, if you ask respondents’ gender, don’t make them type it in a text box. You can also use “Other (please specify)” choices and a catch-all at the end, such as “Please provide any comments you may have here” to capture additional thoughts.
Make sure your questions are clear and appropriate for the audience. Survey respondents feel they should know the answers to your questions, and confusion is a sure-fire way to decrease your response rate. If there are still questions that respondents might not be able to answer, include “don’t know” and/or “not applicable” as response options.
Be careful with the use of graphics. An online survey full of graphics and pictures takes longer to load on respondents’ computers, and some may not be using a high-speed connection. Try to limit your use of graphics to your logo and (maybe) a progress bar, unless the survey specifically addresses multimedia.
For non-anonymous surveys, don’t duplicate data you already have. If you have demographic or other information from another source or an existing database, you can shorten your survey by omitting these questions and linking to the data elsewhere.
Finally, be honest about how long it will take to complete the survey. Respondents like to know that you value and respect their time. If they feel the web survey is taking longer than they were told, they will be more likely to abandon it mid-stream.
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