Questionnaire Design

“It is not every question that

deserves an answer.”
A QUESTIONNAIRE
IS ONLY AS GOOD
AS THE QUESTIONS
IT ASKS
 A Good Questionnaire Appears
• As easy to compose as a good poem
• But, it is usually the result of long,
painstaking work
 The Major Decisions in
Questionnaire Design
1. What should be asked?
2. How should each question be phrased?
3. In what sequence should the questions be
arranged?
4. What questionnaire layout will best serve
the research objectives?
5. How should the questionnaire be pretested?
Does the questionnaire need to be revised?
 What Should Be Asked?
• Questionnaire relevance
• Questionnaire accuracy
 Phrasing Questions
• Open-ended questions
• Fixed-alternative questions
 Classifying Surveys
by Degree of Structure and Degree of Disguise

Structured Unstructured

Example: Example:

Typical descriptive survey Survey with open-ended

Undisguised with straight-forward, structured
questions
questions to discover “new”
answers or focus group interview

Example: Example:

Disguised Survey interview to measure Projection techniques used

brand A’s image versus mostly for exploratory research
competitive brands’ images or
brand recall (unaided recall)
 Developing a Questionnaire
• No hard and fast rules
• Only guidelines
• Avoid Complexity: use simple, conversational
language
• Avoid leading and loaded questions

• Avoid ambiguity: be as specific as possible

• Avoid double-barreled items

• Avoid making assumptions

• Avoid burdensome questions

 Merits of questionnaires
• There is low cost even when the universe is large and is
widely spread geographically It is free from the bias of the
interviewer; answers are in respondents’ own words.
• Respondents have adequate time to give well thought out
answers.
• Respondents, who are not easily approachable, can also be
reached conveniently.
• It is free from the bias of the interviewer; answers are in
respondents’ own words.
• Large samples can be made use of and thus the results can
be made more dependable and reliable.
 Demerits of questionnaire
• Low rate of return of the duly filled in questionnaires; bias due to
no-response is often indeterminate.
• It can be used only when respondents are educated and
cooperating.
• The control over questionnaire may be lost once it is sent.
• There is inbuilt inflexibility because of the difficulty of amending
the approach once questionnaires have been dispatched.
• There is also the possibility of ambiguous replies or omission of
replies altogether to certain questions; interpretation of omissions
is difficult.
• It is difficult to know whether willing respondents are truly
representative.
• This method is likely to be the slowest of all.
1. Do you believe that private citizens have the right to
own firearms to defend themselves, their families, and
property from violent criminal attack?

Yes No Undecided
2. Do you believe that a ban on the private ownership
of firearms would be significantly reduce the number of
murders and robberies in your community?

Yes No Undecided
1a. How many years have you been playing tennis on a regular basis?
Number of years: __________

b. What is your level of play?

Novice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 Advanced . . . . . . . -4
Lower Intermediate . . . . . -2 Expert . . . . . . . . . -5
Upper Intermediate . . . . . -3 Teaching Pro . . . . -6

c. In the last 12 months, has your level of play improved, remained the
same or decreased?

Improved. . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 Decreased. . . . . . . -3
Remained the same . . . . . -2
2a. Do you belong to a club with tennis facilities? Yes . . . . . . . -1
No . . . . . . . -2

b. How many people in your household - including yourself - play tennis?

Number who play tennis ___________

3a. Why do you play tennis? (Please “X” all that apply.)

To have fun . . . . . . . . . . -1
To stay fit. . . . . . . . . . . . -2
To be with friends. . . . . . -3
To improve my game . . . -4
To compete. . . . . . . . . . . -5
To win. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6

b. In the past 12 months, have you purchased any tennis instructional

books or video tapes? Yes . . . . . . . -1
No . . . . . . . -2
 Questionnaire Design
• Question sequence
– Order bias
– Funnel technique
– Filter bias
• Question layout
Pretesting is Important
 Layout for Internet
Questionnaires
• Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Paging layout going from screen to screen
• Scrolling layout gives the respondent the
ability to scroll down
• Push buttons
• Status bar
 4 Common Question Displays
on a Computer Screen
• Radio button
• Drop-down box
• Check box
• Open-ended boxes
 Software that Makes
Questionnaires Interactive
• Boolean skip and branching logic
– hidden skip logic
• Variable piping software
• Error trapping - forced answering software
• Interactive help desks
WebSurveyor
THANK YOU !!!