Questionnaire Design

Designing your questionnaire has never been easier. SmartSurvey allows your to design online questionnaires easily in just a few simple steps.

Tips for designing online questionnaires

When an individual creates a questionnaire, it’s important to know how to properly write out the questions to yield the most accurate results from the individuals taking it. There’s much more to it than just writing down all of the questions that come to mind. With the right kind of questionnaire software, as well as practice, an individual will have an easier time creating the most effective online questionnaires. When writing down questions, it is important to make sure the questions are clear and will be easily understood. 

Keep the wording simple

As much as an individual might want to add in technical terminology to make their questionnaire more sophisticated, they should refrain from doing so. This is because there is a good chance that some people will not understand the meaning behind all of the words, which can confuse them. This often leads to them just choosing any answer because the question was not clear enough to them. 

Only use individual questions

Sometimes when the opportunity presents itself, an individual might want to add two questions in one. This is also something that should be avoided. This is because each question might have different results. If an individual only has the option to choose one answer, the results will not be accurate. 

Allow users to choose "other"

When creating multiple choice free online surveys, it really helps to have "other" as an option that individuals can choose. This is because not everyone will feel like certain answers reflect on how they think and feel about a certain matter. If someone does not see an answer that best fits one that they would like to select, and if they do not have the option to choose the "other" option, there is a good chance that they will just choose any answer.

Be specific 

An individual should always make sure their questions are specific. Broad questions can become confusing and unclear. Make sure to explain exactly what you are looking for in terms of results. If you want to ask if they like a certain thing, make sure to specify what exactly you want to know about.

Offer the option to skip personal questions

There are a lot of online questionnaires that request personal information from the person taking completing it. Not everyone is comfortable providing information too personal. If an individual wants to add personal questions to their questionnaire design, they should allow a person to skip the question if that is what they feel most comfortable with. To do this, you can add an answer that says "prefer not to say" instead of an actual answer, and make sure your question is not set to mandatory. This will make individuals feel better because you won't be forcing an answer out of them. 

Summary

When creating an online questionnaire, it helps for an individual to keep in mind their target audience. This will help them to use the proper terminology, and ask the questions in the most effective way. Keep your questions simple so that everyone will understand what you are looking for. Be specific with your questions so that the question does not come off as unclear by the people taking the online survey. Keep in mind that not everyone wants to answer questions that are too personal, so individuals should offer the option to skip these questions. With the right amount of practice, an individual can create a great questionnaire.

Create a questionnaire

SmartSurvey is an online questionnaire software, it requires no technical knowledge to create online questionnaires. You can create questionnaires or surveys from scratch or use one of our questionnaire templates from the library. Start today by signing up for free.

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