Online Questionnaire Best Practices (Anyone remember that Interactions article?)

Chad Jennings:

> I am looking for a resource which outlines list best practices for
> online questionnaire creation. Want to provide some guidance to our
> marketing team. I remember reading a great one or two page article on
> "Top Ten Best Practiced for User Questionnaires" or something like
> that in an issue of Interactions magazine a year or so ago, but cannot
> for the life of me track it down. It had a some great items such as
> starting with easy to answer questions and to not include a middle,
> neutral point (i.e. Satisfied, Neutral, Dissatisfied), etc..
>
> Anybody remember this article or have a similar resource?

Can't help you with that specific article, but here are some bits I've
written.

First of all, my rant about why I think it is *crucial* to include a
midpoint in rating scales:
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article1269.asp

And two articles that discuss the process of creating a good survey:

Survey response rates: 2% is not good enough
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2528.asp

What is an acceptable response rate?
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4209.asp

Best
Caroline Jarrett
-----------
Interested in designing for people who don't read easily? Visit
www.designtoread.com and come to our next workshop: Cairns, Australia, 8
December 2008

Chad -

Try http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=461 (you'll need digital
library access)

Thanks,

Jon

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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=34633

The reference that Steve gave is a good one. Here are some additional
references:

Dillman, D. A. (2007). *Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design
method 2007 update with new internet, visual, and mixed-mode guide**.* New
York, NY: Wiley.**

Robson, C. (2002). *Real world research (Second edition)*. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.

Robson provides a readable and detailed handbook of experimental designs,
data collection methods, data analysis, and data presentation. There are
detailed chapters on interviews, surveys, and observational methods.

Schuman, H. & Presser, S. (1996). *Questions and answers in attitude
surveys: Experiments on question form, wording, and content.* Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.

Schuman and Presser report a set of studies on attitude surveys. The studies
focus on question-answer issues in surveys such as: the assessment of no
opinion, measuring middle position, acquiescence, and open versus closed
questions. The studies were largely done in the 1980s using carefully design
probability samples. The research reported by the authors is compared with
similar research done in the 1940s and some observations are made about
changes over time.

Sudman, S., Bradburn, N. M., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Thinking about answers:
The application of cognitive processes to survey methodology. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
*Thinking About Answers* explores cognitive issues associated with survey
methods. These issues include: context effects in surveys, order effects,
event dating, counting and estimation, and autobiographical memory. The
final chapter summarizes implications of cognitive research for survey
design, administration, and interpretation.

One of the issues that I try to impress on my colleagues is that
questionnaire design is not a simple activity. A questionnaire is a complex
design problem where you have to consider things that a single word can
change results substantially and the order of questions and type of scale
and the type of labels and the physical layout of questions can influence
the respondents' interactions with the instrument.

Chauncey

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 6:29 PM, Steve Baty <stevebaty at gmail.com> wrote:

> Chad,
>
> If you want to get into the question component in-depth, I'd highly
> recommend "Improving Survey Questions" by Floyd J Fowler.
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Improving-Survey-Questions-Evaluation-Research/dp/0803945833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224628035&sr=8-1
>
> Regards
> Steve
>
> 2008/10/22 Chad Jennings <cjennings at blurb.com>
>
> > Howdy all -
> > I am looking for a resource which outlines list best practices for online
> > questionnaire creation. Want to provide some guidance to our marketing
> team.
> > I remember reading a great one or two page article on "Top Ten Best
> > Practiced for User Questionnaires" or something like that in an issue of
> > Interactions magazine a year or so ago, but cannot for the life of me
> track
> > it down. It had a some great items such as starting with easy to answer
> > questions and to not include a middle, neutral point (i.e. Satisfied,
> > Neutral, Dissatisfied), etc..
> >
> > Anybody remember this article or have a similar resource?
> >
> > As an aside, this Quant research will be complimented with some
> Qualitative
> > studies, just mentioned to avoid starting a thread on the pros and cons
> of
> > each.
> >
> > Thanks for the help.
> > Cheers,
> > Chad
> >
> > ...........................................................
> > Chad Jennings
> > VP, Design and User Experience
> > chad at blurb.com
> >
> > Blurb, Inc.
> > ...........................................................
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------
> Steve 'Doc' Baty B.Sc (Maths), M.EC <http://m.ec/>, MBA
> Principal Consultant
> Meld Consulting
> M: +61 417 061 292
> E: stevebaty at meld.com.au
>
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>
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