Designing a survey isn’t easy. It requires thoughtful planning to make sure the flow of the survey is easy to follow, the questions are clear to the respondent, and that the output will yield accurate data.
Here are some of the more important tips to consider when designing a survey:
Use standard survey questions. Luckily, surveys have been around for quite some time, resulting in standardized questions that are commonly used in the industry. Examples include Net Promoter Score, System Usability Scale, etc. Before spending time designing a survey, check to see if there are standardized survey questions available that may help in answering your research questions. If so, use those rather than reinventing the wheel.
Now, sometimes it’s necessary to ask open-ended survey questions. When doing so, just be mindful of the above factors, and explore other survey question types first. If you end up with a lot of open-ended questions, reconsider your methodology. It may be more appropriate to start with an interview, and then run a survey to get a larger volume of answers.