Questionnaire Design
| are a structured way of gathering information about a particular topic. |
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Questionnaire design can be helped by using a software package such as SNAP (http://www.snapsurveys.com), Pinpoint or other design packages. These sorts of software packages help you design and analyse your questionnaires and are particularly useful for large-scale survey work.
New Guideance on using Questionnaires and Surveys for Consultation
LARIA and the Market Research Society (MRS) are launching new guidance to tackle growing concerns about how surveys are being used during public consultation exercises. The guidance, Using Surveys for Consultations, is intended as a source of advice for local authority staff who use survey techniques to seek the views of the public on issues of local concern, such as the provision of new services or planning proposals. Covering subjects from data protection and respondents’ rights to ‘hints and tips’ for writing a clear and fair survey, the guidelines are structured to help local authority staff use research techniques more effectively. Go to http://www.laria.gov.uk/index.htm.
General Design Guidance
Using a 5-point scale helps establish net values of responses.
Net satisfaction is the total of column 1 plus column 2 (ignoring column 3) minus the total of column 4 plus column 5. A 3-point scale works this way as well. Sometimes people opt not to include a middle "neither"-type questions as they feel people will go for this answer each time, but in practice this rarely happens.
For instance, satisfaction or dissatisfaction?
Are you...
| 1. Very Satisfied | 2. Satisfied | 3. Neither Satisfied/Dissatisfied | 4. Dissatisfied | 5. Very Dissatisfied |
Or examples of how you can measure your service against your question:
Do you...
| 1. Strongly Agree | 2. Agree | 3. Neither Agree nor Disagree | 4. Disagree | 5. Strongly Disagree |
Is this...
| 1. Very Important | 2. Important | 3. Neither Important nor Unimportant | 4. Not Important | 5. Not Very Important |
Have Services...
| 1. Got Better | 2. Stayed the same | 3. Got worse | 4. Don’t know |
We’ve used a four-point scale for this one, but box one minus box 3 will give the same level of satisfaction score.
How often do you / have you used services... (will need tailoring to your questions and service area may need a "never" box)
| 1. Almost every day | 2. At least once a week | 3. About once a month | 4. Within the last six months | 5. Within the last year |
There are many other designs for questions, for instance a multiple choice option could look like this:
Alternative layouts
There’s not right or wrong way to set out a questionnaire, but try to make it easy to follow and complete. There are many other designs for questions, for instance a multiple choice option could look like this:
How would you rate the following facilities? (based on a swimming pool)
| Very good | Good | Ok | Poor | Very Poor | |
| Changing areas | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| The pool | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| The children’s pool | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| Refreshment area | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
What services do you use regularly (e.g. more than twice a month)? (based on a library)
| Book lending | □ |
| Computers | □ |
| Music lending (CDs) | □ |
| Reference library | □ |
Other points:
- Keep your questionnaire short 2 side of A4 is enough UNLESS you give careful thought to the design of your questionnaire.
- You MUST pilot your questionnaire: ask a few people to complete one to see if what you get back is what you were expecting, if the questions were easily understood and if you need to make any changes. It is surprising how often questions mislead, or are based on your expert understanding of an issue.
- Use Plain English at all times try the Flesch Readability Test. Using Microsoft Word highlight the text in your questionnaire, select the Tools menu and then grammar. This will carry out a grammar check where you can choose to ignore or alter words or phrases. When the grammar check is completed it will give you a readability score 90-100 = very easy, 0-30 = very difficult to understand.
- Limit the use of "open"questions. People will respond to them but they take longer to analyse. If an open question is appropriate, analyse it by picking out key themes that occur in answers given. For instance: Please write your comments about your local park here..... Lots of people may comment about the same things; these are your "key themes".
- Providing a pre-paid envelope or Freepost address aids response. Freepost can be set up via the post office.
- An incentive to complete and return the questionnaire can greatly increase response rates. E.G. 10 free swims (donated by the leisure centres) : a prize (donated by a local company) or buying a prize (such as a weekend holiday break).
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