What are representative samples? For most market research surveys it is impractical, in terms of time, budget and other factors, to interview everyone in your target population. To get a view of how the population of the UK feels we don’t need to interview everyone in the country, instead we ask a sample for their opinions. As far as possible the…
Survey Design: Hints, Tips and Advice
Designing surveys for children
Quantitative surveys can be used with children aged 7 and above but extra care needs to be taken to ensure that questions are understandable and answerable. The golden rule of considering respondents when constructing questions is even more pertinent for children’s surveys. There is an obvious difference in cognitive ability between adults designing the surveys and children completing them; a…
Should you really be using an email survey?
In today’s research world online surveys via email, conducted using customer lists or dedicated research panels, seem to be the default option. Speed, cost and convenience often mean they are the best route but sometimes alternative data collection methods can be superior. Below are some factors to consider before deciding if an online email questionnaire is right for your survey: …
Think like a fox: Avoiding the direct approach to questionnaire design
The ancient Greek poet Archilochus was attributed with saying “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows just one big thing”. Hedgehogs move slowly and directly to where they want to go, leaving them vulnerable to death caused by predators and motor vehicles. Foxes, on the other hand, move quickly and tend to dart all over the place looking…
One question at a time
When presenting questions to respondents as part of an online survey it is best practice to show one question at a time on screen. The benefits of the one question per screen approach are listed below: It eliminates or reduces the need for respondents to scroll down their PC screens making the process easier for them (it is also best…
To pay or not to pay: using "incentives" in survey research
The use of incentives in research is widespread. Respondents frequently receive something in exchange for giving their views. But often the incentive is a relatively small amount of cash. Nobody ever became a millionaire from completing surveys. Increasing the value of incentives is likely to have a marginal impact on the level of survey response i.e. raising an incentive from £1 to…
Optimising online survey invites
The way you introduce surveys to respondents can have a significant impact on their success. It doesn’t matter how well constructed your questionnaire is if you can’t get people to complete it. Survey invites should be designed to get as many people as possible completing your survey. The better the response the quicker you can get the interviews you need….
Getting properly anchored: How to improve the accuracy of respondent estimates
Generally, humans are bad at making estimates without some form of context. If someone asks us how loud something is we can’t articulate our answer any better than saying something vague like “quite loud”. But ask us to compare two noises and we’ll definitely be able to say which one is louder and even give an estimate by how much…
Actions speak louder than words
Market research is commonly used to find out why people do what they do but its rarely as straightforward as just asking for the reasons behind their actions. Below are some of the reasons why: Low involvement – for low involvement decisions, like buying tins of sweetcorn, people often can’t really remember why they did what they did. A lot of our…
Don’t show question numbers in online surveys
It’s fairly common to see online surveys with numbers in front of the question text (an example is shown below): Question numbers shouldn’t be shown to respondents. They are irrelevant to them and an added complication. If respondents are routed round questions then question numbers can be missed out and respondents can see themselves going from, for example, Q7 to Q12….
- The Austin Research approach to survey design
It's easy to design surveys but very difficult to design surveys well. At Austin Towers ...Read More
- Avoid binary options when writing attitude statements
I've just received a survey from an insurance company that recently provided me with a ...Read More
- In questionnaire design clarity trumps brevity
When designing survey questions two considerations that should be uppermost in your mind are making ...Read More
