SurveyMonkey’s Guide to Writing
Survey Questions Like a Pro
Look no further for survey-writing tips, tricks, and best practices
Survey Writing Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction ------------------------------------------3
Why Surveys? ---------------------------------------------------- 3
Why a survey question-writing guide? ----------------------- 3
Getting Started -----------------------------------4
Plan your survey -------------------------------------------------- 4
Set a goal ---------------------------------------------------------- 4
Ask yourself the big questions --------------------------------- 4
Determine your research questions --------------------------- 5
Narrow your focus ----------------------------------------------- 6
Question Writing Dos and Don’ts ----------------8
Consider your respondents ------------------------------------- 8
Be clear ------------------------------------------------------------ 8
Keep it personal -------------------------------------------------- 9
Provide a time frame -------------------------------------------- 10
Write unbiased questions --------------------------------------- 11
Different Question Types and Responses -------13
Closed-ended vs. open-ended questions -------------------- 13
Try to limit them to one selection ----------------------------- 14
Unipolar vs. bipolar questions --------------------------------- 15
Use yes/no questions cautiously ------------------------------ 16
Measuring “how much” ----------------------------------------- 17
Watch your ranges ----------------------------------------------- 18
Consider every option ------------------------------------------- 19
Flow and Best Practices ----------------------------20
Require answers to all questions ------------------------------ 20
Randomize answer choices when possible or relevant ---- 20
Use a natural question flow ------------------------------------ 20
The shorter, the better! ----------------------------------------- 21
Make sure the right people take your survey ---------------- 21
Include titles if possible ----------------------------------------- 22
Use page breaks (and mile markers) sparingly -------------- 22
Limit matrix/grid questions ------------------------------------ 22
Index of Terms and Resources --------------------23
If you see anything you want to learn more about, visit the last page for
the “Index of Terms and Resources” to find links to articles explaining the
concepts covered in this guide.
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Survey Writing Guide
Why Surveys?
Think about some of the decisions you’ve made in the past week.
Chances are, deciding what to eat for lunch yesterday didn’t take
much deliberation. But it could have if that lunch included 20 people,
and you needed to accommodate everybody’s preferences, dietary
restrictions, and schedules.
Surveys are wonderful because you can use them for just about
anything, including planning an event or collecting feedback from
customers, consumers, neighbors, students, patients, and almost
anybody you can think of. And any decision from what to eat for
lunch to what you need to do to manage your brand image c a n
be an informed one when you ask people what they think.
Why a survey question-writing guide?
At SurveyMonkey, we don’t stop at giving you the tools to create a
survey. We also believe in helping you use them in a way thats going
to get you the reliable data you need to make decisions, big or small.
Creating and sending out a survey as well as analyzing and reporting
on the results isn’t just a task: Its a journey. This question-writing
guide helps you with one part of this journey. Namely, from setting
a goal for your survey to writing survey questions that yield data
you can count on. We’ve even included a few survey design best
practices for good measure.
For a full list of articles on getting surveys right from start to finish,
visit our Surveys 101 resource center.
Introduction
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Survey Writing Guide
Plan your survey
Although the example survey questions in this guide touch on
different topics, lets take a look at one scenario in which you own
an ice cream shop and you want to collect customer feedback that
will inform how you run your business.
There are so many questions you could ask customers. Do you want
to know about the quality of the ice cream? How satisfied customers
are with your staff? The cleanliness of your store? As you can see,
there’s a ton of ground to cover and you don’t want to miss out on
asking the right questions. So where do you begin?
Set a goal
Before you start asking specific questions, its a good idea to set a
goal for your survey. What do you want to know? And why? As the
owner of an ice cream shop, your survey goal could look like this:
Your Goal: Get feedback from your customers to assess your shop’s
strengths and weaknesses so you can give customers an even
better experience.
Make sure you keep your goal in mind while you’re writing your
survey questions. That way, you won’t stray from the purpose of
your survey and you can make sure every question helps you reach
your goal.
Ask yourself the big questions
Once you know why you want to create your survey, ask yourself
these top-level questions that will help you determine which survey
questions to ask:
What are the questions I want to answer? What do I want to learn?
Who is my target population that is, who should take my survey?
What demographic groups do I want to look for within my pool of
survey respondents?
If you apply these questions to your ice cream shop survey, you
may end up with answers like these:
What: Do people enjoy their experience at my ice cream shop overall?
What, specifically do they like? Dislike? Do they have any recommenda-
tions about how I can improve my shop?
Who: I want to send my survey to customers who have visited my shop.
This population can be broken up into a few demographic groups:
first-time customers, one-time customers, and returning customers.
Getting Started
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Survey Writing Guide
Determine your research questions
Now use the answers to your top-level questions to write your research questions:
Top-Level Question
Research Question(s)
What do I want to learn?
• How do customers rate my ice cream shop overall?
• What parts / aspects of my ice cream shop do customers like best?
• What parts / aspects of my ice cream shop need to be improved?
Who is my target population? • How do the answers to the above differ between returning customers, first-time customers,
and one-time customers (i.e., those who say they won’t visit my shop again).
Getting Started
Keep these questions in mind—they’re too general to ask in your survey,
but they will help you write survey questions that cover specific topics.
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Survey Writing Guide
Narrow your focus
Next, extract topics from your research questions and break them into subtopics:
Research Question
Topic(s) Subtopic(s)
How do customers rate my ice cream shop overall? Overall rating Satisfaction
What parts / aspects of my ice cream shop do
customers like the best? What needs to be improved?
Parts / aspects of shop that customers
like and / or need to be improved
Flavor selection
Ice cream quality
Service
Location
Cleanliness
cor
Price
Availability
How do the answers to the questions above differ
among demographic groups of customers?
Who visited my shop First-time customers
Returning customers
One-time customers
Getting Started
Pro Tip: Question Bank
Having trouble writing questions? Use SurveyMonkey’s Question Bank
to choose from hundreds of pre-written, expert-certified questions!
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Survey Writing Guide
Subtopic(s) Survey Question(s)
Satisfaction Overall, how satisfied are you with our ice cream shop?
Ice cream quality In general, how would you rate the quality of our ice cream?
Service Were the staff at our ice cream shop friendly, or not?
First-time customers How likely are you to visit our ice cream shop again?
Getting Started
And now you can use your subtopics to write your survey questions.
Remember: These questions aren’t set in stone. Creating a list of
these questions just helps you stay organized and focused so you
can make sure you gather the evidence you need to reach your
goal Here are just a few sample survey questions:
Pro Tip: Speak their language
Generally, you should strive to write questions using language
that is easily understood. Also think about what you can assume
your respondents already know. Do they have knowledge of
certain events, terms, and issues? The more you can focus on
writing good questions, not explaining things, the better.
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Question Writing Dos and Don’ts
Survey Writing Guide
Consider your respondents
Once you’ve got your goal and a list of the questions you want
to ask, you should make sure theyre appropriate for the who of
your survey more specifically, the people who are going to take
it. When you know whos going to take your survey, you can write
your survey using language, examples, and definitions that cater to
your population’s knowledge and needs.
Be clear
Regardless of who’s taking your survey, use clear, concise, and
uncomplicated language and try to avoid acronyms, technical
terms or jargon that may confuse your respondents. And make
sure to provide definitions or examples if you need to include
tricky terms or concepts. That way, you can be sure that almost
anybody can answer your questions easily, and theyll be more
inclined to complete your survey.
d
Avoid:
Do you own a tablet PC?
2
Use:
Do you own a tablet PC? (e.g. iPad, Android tablet)
d
Avoid:
What was the state of the cleanliness of the room?
2
Use:
How clean was the room?
Regardless of whos taking your survey, use clear,
concise, and uncomplicated language.
Pro Tip: Sensitive Questions
When asking a potentially sensitive question like Have you ever
cheated on an exam?make sure to assure respondents that their
responses are completely confidential. It helps to make that clear
in the surveys introduction. You can also help by pointing out that
theyd have plenty of company whether or not they had done the
behavior in question. Here’s an example: “In talking to people about
cheating on tests, we’ve found that people often cheated on tests
in school because they were too busy or tired to study. How about
you? Have you ever cheated on a test, or not?
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Question Writing Dos and Don’ts
Survey Writing Guide
Keep it personal
Answering survey questions can be a little scary. Respondents may
be intimidated by your survey if they don’t think they’re qualified to
answer questions, or they might not feel comfortable sharing their
true opinions.
If you want people to feel comfortable sharing opinions, regardless
of their expertise or beliefs, make them feel at ease by setting the
right tone. Use phrases like, do you think,do you feel,and “in
your opinion,so that your respondents get the sense that you’re
really listening, and that your survey is not a quiz. It will help them
share their opinion without feeling like theyre taking a stance or
risking being wrong.
d
Avoid:
Is the price of our ice cream too high, too low, or about right?
2
Use:
Do you feel that the price of our ice cream is too high, too
low, or about right?
d
Avoid:
Which flavors of ice cream should our shop offer?
2
Use:
In your opinion, which flavors of ice cream should our shop offer?
Pro Tip: Time Frame
Include your time frame up front for added emphasis and smoother
question flow. Here are some examples of how you can begin your
question with a specific time frame:
Yesterday, did you…
In the past week, have you…
How many times in the past 30 days have you…
In the next 12 months, will you…
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Question Writing Dos and Don’ts
Survey Writing Guide
Provide a time frame
How many hours of TV do you watch?
Umm… when? Daily? Weekly? Make estimation easier by giving
your respondents a time. Their answers will be better-informed,
and your data will be better too.
d
Avoid:
How much do you usually spend on groceries?
2
Use:
In the past week, about how much did you spend on groceries?
Also, use a time frame that makes it easy for respondents to come
up with an answer. If you asked them, for example, how much they
spent on groceries in the last year, it could be really hard for them
to give you an accurate response if shopping for food is something
they do each and every week.
d
Avoid:
In the past year, how much did you spend on groceries?
2
Use:
In the past week, about how much did you spend on groceries?
And if you don’t have a specific time period in mind, begin questions
with “In general,“Overall,or “Typically,to be sure respondents
are thinking about their behaviors on average. But be warned:
These general questions can be more difficult for respondents to
answer, which may yield less precise results.
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Question Writing Dos and Don’ts
Survey Writing Guide
Write unbiased questions
Want high quality data that represents how your respondents truly
feel? Read on to see ve common mistakes that can lead to low
quality results: leading, loaded, unbalanced, double-barreled, and
confusing questions.
1. BEWARE: Leading questions
You want your respondent to make their own choices, so
make sure you’re not forcing their hand or influencing their
answer with a leading question. (One that implies that there
is a single, “right” answer.)
d
Avoid:
Does our excellent new online shopping service make
your life more convenient?
2
Use:
How do you feel about our new online shopping service?
2. BEWARE: Loaded questions
Make sure your personal opinions don’t sneak into your
questions biased questions can influence your respondents’
answers, especially if they contain loaded language that may
produce strong connotations or emotions with respondents.
d
Avoid:
In the past week, how many hours did you waste
watching TV?
2
Use:
In the past week, how many hours of TV did you watch?
3. BEWARE: Double-barreled questions
Make sure you’re only asking one question at a time! Look at
this question:
Do you eat healthy foods and exercise every day?
What if your respondent only eats unhealthy food but they
exercise each day? Or never exercise but love kale? Would
they answer “yes” or “no?
d
Avoid:
Do you eat healthy foods and exercise every day?
2
Use:
In the past seven days, how many days did you exercise?
In the past seven days, how many days did you eat
healthy foods?
See how we also used a relevant time frame?
Pro Tip: Balanced Questions
In the above example, the question, “Do you like Spinach,
or not?is a minimally balanced question, meaning we’ve
done the bare minimum to balance it. You can increase
balance but sacrifice brevity which is a good thing when it
comes to question writing by writing a formally balanced
question: Do you like spinach, or do you not like spinach?
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Question Writing Dos and Don’ts
Survey Writing Guide
4. BEWARE: Unbalanced questions
Help your respondents feel comfortable expressing their
opinion by including both sides in your question.
d
Avoid:
Do you like spinach?
2
Use:
Do you like spinach, or not?
5. BEWARE: Overly broad questions
Imagine you want someone to respond to the question, What
do you think about our newspaper?” in a comment box.
What should they write about? The accuracy of reporting?
The stories covered? The papers subscription price? If you
want to get the information you’re looking for, be specific.
And if you have several specific things you want to learn
about (e.g., accuracy of reporting, topics covered) write one
question for each of them.
d
Avoid:
What do you think about our newspaper?
2
Use:
How accurate is the reporting in our newspaper?
To get the information
you’re looking for, be
specic when writing
survey questions.
Pro Tip: Text Analysis
When possible, we recommend using closed-ended questions
because the responses from open-ended questions can be difficult
to analyze with answers hard to classify. At the same time, we
now have a Text Analysis feature that will help you make the most
out of your open-ended feedback (available in our GOLD and
PLATINUM plans).
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Closed-ended vs. open-ended questions
When you want results that are easy to quantify, used closed-ended
questions that ask your respondents to choose from pre-specified
answer choices. These multiple-choice questions give results in
terms of simple percentages (e.g. “62 percent of moms preferred
brand X!”) that are more actionable and easier to share.
Example
What was the single most important reason you gave our ice cream
shop a low rating?
O Price was too high
O Didn’t like the ice cream taste
O Location isn’t convenient for me
O Staff isn’t friendly
On the flip side, open-ended questions ask respondents to answer
in their own words. They give respondents the freedom to express
themselves and share more thoughtful answers.
Example
What was the single most important reason you gave our ice cream
shop a low rating? (Please write your answer in the box below.)
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Try to limit them to one selection
Just like the responses you collect from open-ended questions,
the answers to “Select all that apply” questions can be difficult
to interpret. If someone picks three things, are they all equally
important? When in doubt, keep respondents focused (and your
results manageable) by limiting your use of questions that allow
your respondents to check multiple boxes. Note that SurveyMonkey
offers multiple choice and 14 other question types if you need them.
Use words, not numbers
“On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst ice cream you’ve ever
tasted and 10 being the best, how much did you enjoy our ice cream?
“Three.
Wait what does “three” mean? People tend to think in words, not
numbers so you should ask them to express their opinions with
scales that use words.
Rating scales (also known as Likert scales) are methodologically-
sound sets of answers that help you measure the frequency,
intensity, amount, quality, and probability of your respondents
attitudes and behaviors.
Example
How likely are you to eat our ice cream again?
O Extremely likely
O Very likely
O Moderately likely
O Slightly likely
O Not at all likely
Sure, you could use a rating scale based on a number from 1 (not
at all likely) to 5 (extremely likely), but when you put answers in
words, you reduce the ambiguity between what a 2 means to the
respondent versus a 3.
To keep respondents focused, limit your use of
questions that ask them to check multiple boxes.
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Unipolar vs. bipolar questions
But how many answer choices should there be when it comes to
rating with words instead of numbers? Survey methodologists have
spent a lot of time developing best practices. To save time and get
you good results, here’s what you need to know:
When you write a unipolar question that only asks your respondent to
rate one attribute (like how enjoyable something is, or how comfort-
able or likely), a standard 5-point rating scale yields reliable estimates.
Example: Unipolar question (5-point)
How flavorful is our strawberry ice cream?
O Extremely flavorful
O Very flavorful
O Moderately flavorful
O Slightly flavorful
O Not at all flavorful
When you ask a bipolar question, youre asking someone to describe
the intensity of their feelings based on two opposite dimensions (such
as “like” and dislike”) of something, its good to include a middle
(“neutral”) option and 1, 2, or 3 options on each side. If there are 2
options on each side, you would have a 5-point scale (including the
neutral option). And 3 options on a side would give you a 7-point
rating scale.
There is no single, superior number of points on a scale and its
easier to think about odd-numbers but too many points can
make the decision hard for respondents. Basically, you should think
about how much granularity a respondent can understand, and
how much you want to be able to analyze at the end.
Example: Bipolar question (5-point)
Do you like the ice cream selection at our store, neither like it nor dislike
it, or dislike it?
O Like a lot
O Like a little
O Neither like nor dislike
O Dislike a little
O Dislike a lot
Pro Tip: Yes / No Answers
A yes/no answer choice is a good thing when you’re measuring something
absolute. For example, there are no shades of gray when you ask someone
whether they own a dog. Yes/no answers can also be useful for qualifying
potential survey respondents (see page 21).
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Use yes / no questions cautiously
Do you like to exercise? Yes or no? Chances are there are some days
you do and other days you don’t have the energy. But you can only
pick one answer here. What should you say?
By making your respondents choose between “yes” and “no,you’re
asking them to think in black and white. Thats not a good choice
if your real aim is to understand shades of gray. So sometimes its
better to give them a little wiggle room by using a 5- or 7-point
rating scale. Itll make your survey easier to answer when the choices
aren’t clear-cut to respondents.
d
Avoid:
Will you visit our ice cream shop again?
O Yes
O No
2
Use:
How likely are you to visit our ice cream shop again?
O Extremely likely
O Very likely
O Moderately likely
O Slightly likely
O Not at all likely
Pro Tip: Aggregated Results
If you want to present aggregated results as an average, consider
having respondents enter an exact number, or percentage, not
verbal or numeric scales.
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Measuring “how much”
Want to know how much respondents spend their time, money,
or energy on something? Use a 5- or 7-point scale with words
when respondents might not be able to easily recall precise
numbers, and you don’t need exact numbers in your analysis.
However, if its possible for respondents to accurately answer
precisely and that detail is important to your survey goal (e.g.
you want to present exact numbers), use numeric intervals.
Here’s what we mean:
Example (verbal scale)
About how much of your food budget do you spend on ice cream?
O All of my food budget
O Most of my food budget
O About half of my food budget
O Some of my food budget
O None of my food budget
Example (numeric intervals)
About how much of your food budget do you spend on ice cream?
O 0-20%
O 21-40%
O 41-60%
O 61-80%
O 81-100%
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Watch your ranges
Its important that you don’t include overlapping ranges in your
answer choices. For example, take a look at the questions below.
When you do provide respondents with ranges, give them between
5-7 options, with 7 being the maximum number of different choices
most people can keep in their heads at one time. Also, try to make
your ranges roughly the same size.
d
Avoid:
In a typical day, about how much time do you spend watching TV?
O 1 hour or less
O 1-2 hours
O 2-5 hours
O 5-10 hours
If someone spends 2 hours watching TV, should they choose the
second or third answer category? Should 5 hours be category three
or four? Make questions easier to answer by making sure every
possible answer is accounted for. Offer a “more than” option at the
top of the range, for example. Also, try to keep all answers in the
same scale (e.g. hours, dollars, kilometers).
2
Use:
In a typical day, about how much time do you spend watching TV?
O Fewer than 2 hours
O 2-4 hours
O 5-7 hours
O 8-10 hours
O More than 10 hours
Make sure your ranges don’t overlap and give
respondents between 5 to 7 answer choice options.
Pro Tip: Skip Logic
We advise against using a none of the above,” “don’t know,” or
“not applicable” option because that may encourage respondents
to use the option to skip answers. Instead, you can get good data
and save them time by using skip logic when someone answers a
question in a way that makes other questions irrelevant.
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Different Question Types and Responses
Survey Writing Guide
Consider every option
When you’re asking a question that has many different possible
responses for example, Which cable service provider do you
use?you may not be able to account for everybody’s answers.
Don’t force your respondents to choose an option thats not a good
fit. Include an “Other (please specify)” option.
d
Avoid:
In the past 30 days, which website have you used most to
watch TV shows?
O Netflix
O Amazon Prime
O Hulu Plus
2
Use
In the past 30 days, which website have you used most to
watch TV shows?
O Netflix
O Amazon Prime
O Hulu Plus
O Other (please specify)
Don’t force your
respondents to choose
an answer thats not a
good t. Give them an
“Other option.
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Survey Writing Guide
“Satisficers” is one of the particularly troublesome terms in survey
science: these are people who rush through surveys, finding “good
enough” answers that may not have been their real choice if they’d
considered the options more carefully. When youre smart about
survey format and question flow, you can minimize this behavior,
and collect more reliable data. How?
Require answers to all questions
When creating online surveys, require all questions to be answered
so you avoid missing key data when respondents might skip a
question by mistake or click the “next page” button too early.
Randomize answer choices when possible or relevant
Respondents disproportionately choose the first or last answers
from a list of options because those are the easiest ones to spot. With
the exception of questions based on a scale or range, randomizing
the order of answer choices is a smart way to reduce order bias.
Use a natural question ow
Engage your respondents by giving them easier (and not overly sens-
itive) questions in the beginning. Keep related questions together,
and make sure that the first questions in your survey are directly
related to your surveys topic. For example, don’t start by asking
them how much money they make, and don’t start a survey about
TV-viewing habits with a question about their political party affilia-
tion. Ask unrelated questions or demographic questions at the
end of the survey, after a little rapport has been created.
Flow and Best Practices
Ask sensitive questions
later in your survey
after you’ve created
a little rapport with
respondents.
Pro Tip: Text Analysis
If you’re having trouble finding the right people to take your survey,
SurveyMonkey Audience can help! Tell us who you want to take
your survey, and we’ll find you the people you need. Learn more
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Survey Writing Guide
The shorter, the better!
When it comes to questions and surveys, be succinct and don’t ask
unnecessary questions. Respondents spend more time thinking
about their answers if the survey is shorter and they’re less likely
to drop out. From the millions of surveys we’ve run, we see a
direct correlation between the length of surveys and decreasing
completion rates. However, there are times when your survey needs
to be long especially if you’re trying to capture many dimensions
of a workplace, school, etc.
Make sure the right people take your survey
We talk a lot about the importance of writing accessible surveys
and provide tips about the best ways to get people to take them.
But sometimes its better if you limit who completes your survey.
If you want to know how people like your ice cream shop, you
definitely don’t want people who haven’t been there to take your
survey. In that case, use a qualifying question and skip logic.
Example
Have you visited our ice cream store before, or not?
O Yes
O No
If the respondent chooses “no,they will skip over the survey and
land on a page that thanks them for taking the survey or informs
them that they are not eligible to take the survey.
Speaking of skip logic, you can customize your respondents’ survey
experience with skip logic so theyll only see questions that are
relevant to them.
Using your ice cream shop survey, for example, you might first ask
whether they have had one of your milkshakes before asking a
series of questions about your milkshakes. Respondents who have
been to your shop, but haven’t had one of your milkshakes, could
skip ahead, avoiding questions that don’t apply to them, keeping
them engaged and giving you better data.
Flow and Best Practices
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Survey Writing Guide
Include titles if possible
If you think using survey and page titles will bias your respondents,
hide them. But note that titles help organize the survey and give
your respondents a sense of order.
Use page breaks (and mile markers) sparingly
We recommend that you don’t use progress bars because they can
be distracting. Similarly, telling respondents that theyre “halfway
there!may cause them to rush through the second half of a survey.
Don’t let them focus on the time keep them focused on answering
the questions.
Limit matrix / grid questions
Take a look at this survey question. Its a Matrix of Choices question
type with multiple answers allowed per row.
Where did your eyes go rst? Were they bouncing around the
grid? Thats a lot of questions to take in all at once! Now imagine
doing this on a smartphone where you’d have to scroll around to
see all the options. When considering a matrix question, try to limit
the number of both rows and answer options to be mindful of how
respondents interact with the information to form a judgment. In
many cases, it will actually be better to ask questions one at a time,
limiting respondent frustration and encouraging careful consider-
ation of each of their answers.
Flow and Best Practices
23
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Index of Terms and Resources
Survey Writing Guide
Email to a Friend
Get feedback with
3 Easy question creation: Build custom surveys or rely on
expert templates
3 Send surveys to anyone: Use email, the web, or social
media it's up to you
3 Smart reporting: Turn data into insights and create
custom reports
Getting Started
Setting a goal for your survey
Jumpstart survey design
(9-part video tutorial covering survey
goal, question list, multiple choice
questions, and more)
Question Writing Dos
and Don’ts
Anonymous surveys
Biased questions
Clear, unbiased questions
Double-barreled questions
Keep it personal
Question Bank
Time frame
Tips for effective and relevant questions
(leading, loaded, jargon, etc.)
Different Question Types
and Responses
Don’t knowanswer choice
Not applicableanswer choice
Ranges
Unipolar vs. bipolar questions (rating scales)
Words vs. numbers
Yes/no questions
Flow and Best Practices
Design
(length, page breaks, colors, logos,
titles, and more)
Disqualify a respondent
Matrix/grids
Question order
Randomization
Require responses
Satisficing
Skip logic
Survey length
Heres a list of the terms and concepts we covered in this guide. Click a term or phrase to learn more about it!