Questionnaire Design | Methods, Question
Types & Examples
A questionnaire is a list of questions or items used to gather data from respondents about
their attitudes, experiences, or opinions.
Questionnaires can be used to collect quantitative and/or qualitative information.
Questionnaires vs. Surveys
A survey is a research method where you collect and analyze data from a group of people.
A questionnaire is a specific tool or instrument for collecting the data.
Designing a questionnaire means creating valid and reliable questions that address
your research objectives, placing them in a useful order, and selecting an appropriate
method for administration. (cause sb to receive sth)
But designing a questionnaire is only one component of survey research. Survey research also
involves defining the population you’re interested in, choosing an appropriate sampling
method, administering questionnaires, data cleansing and analysis, and interpretation.
1. Questionnaire methods
Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered.
Self-administered questionnaires are more common because they are easy to implement and
inexpensive, but researcher-administered questionnaires allow deeper insights.
Self-administered questionnaires
Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in
person or through mail.
All questions are standardized so that all respondents receive the same questions with
identical wording.
Self-administered questionnaires can be
1. cost-effective
2. easy to administer for small and large groups
3. anonymous and suitable for sensitive topics
4. self-paced
But they may also be:
unsuitable for people with limited literacy or verbal skills
susceptible to a nonresponse bias (most people invited may not complete the
questionnaire)
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Researcher-administered questionnaires
Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in-person,
or online between researchers and respondents.
Researcher-administered questionnaires can
1. help you ensure the respondents are representative of your target audience
2. allow clarifications of ambiguous or unclear questions and answers
3. have high response rates because it’s harder to refuse an interview when personal
attention is given to respondents
But researcher-administered questionnaires can be limiting in terms of resources. They are:
costly and time-consuming to perform
more difficult to analyze if you have qualitative responses
likely to encourage social desirability bias in responses because of a lack of anonymity
2. Open-ended vs. closed-ended questions
Your questionnaire can include open-ended or closed-ended questions or a combination of
both.
Using closed-ended questions limits your responses, while open-ended questions enable a
broad range of answers. You’ll need to balance these considerations with your available time
and resources.
Closed-ended questions
Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to
select from. Closed-ended questions are best for collecting data on categorical or quantitative
variables.
Examples of closed-ended questions
*Nominal variables include categories that can’t be ranked, such as race or ethnicity. This
includes binary or dichotomous categories.
*Ordinal variables include categories that can be ranked. Consider how wide or narrow a
range you’ll include in your response items, and their relevance to your respondents.
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*Likert scale questions collect ordinal data using rating scales with 5 or 7 points.
Pros and cons of closed-ended questions
Well-designed closed-ended questions are easy to understand and can be answered quickly.
However, you might still miss important answers that are relevant to respondents. An
incomplete set of response items may force some respondents to pick the closest alternative
to their true answer.
To solve these problems, you can make questions partially closed-ended, and include an open-
ended option where respondents can fill in their own answer.
Open-ended questions
Open-ended, or long-form, questions allow respondents to give answers in their own words.
Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that
researchers may not have otherwise considered. For example, respondents may want to
answer “multiracial” for the question on race rather than selecting from a restricted list.
Example: Open-ended questions
1. How would you describe your personality?
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2. In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle for productivity in online work?
Open-ended questions have a few downsides:
They require more time and effort from respondents, which may block them from completing
the questionnaire.
For researchers, understanding and summarizing responses to these questions can take a lot
of time and resources.
3. Question wording
Question wording can influence your respondents’ answers, especially if the language is
unclear, ambiguous, or biased. Good questions need to be understood by all respondents in
the same way (reliable) and serve exactly what you’re interested in (valid).
A. Use clear language
You should design questions with your target audience in mind. Consider their familiarity with
your questionnaire topics and language and adjust your questions to them.
Avoid jargon or overly complex language. Don’t use double negatives because they can be
harder to understand.
B. Avoid leading questions
Leading questions guide respondents towards answering in specific ways, even if that’s not
how they truly feel, by explicitly or implicitly providing them with extra information.
It’s best to keep your questions short and specific to your topic of interest.
Example: Leading questions
*Experts agree that a well-balanced diet provides sufficient vitamins and minerals, and
multivitamins and supplements are not necessary or effective. Do you agree or disagree that
multivitamins are helpful for balanced nutrition?
C. Keep your questions focused
Ask about only one idea at a time and avoid double-barreled questions.
Double-barreled questions ask about more than one item at a time, which can confuse
respondents.
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This question could be difficult to answer for respondents who feel strongly about the right to
clean drinking water but not high-speed internet. They might only answer about the topic they
feel passionate about or provide a neutral answer instead – but neither of these options
capture their true answers.
Instead, you should ask two separate questions to gauge respondents’ opinions.
4. Question order
You can organize the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex.
Using a logical flow to your question order means starting with simple questions and ending
with more complex, sensitive, or controversial questions.
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Step-by-step guide to design
Step 1: Define your goals and objectives
The first step of designing a questionnaire is determining your aims.
What topics or experiences are you studying?
What specifically do you want to find out?
Once you’ve specified your research aims, you can operationalize your variables of interest
into questionnaire items. Operationalizing concepts means turning them from abstract ideas
into concrete measurements.
Every question needs to address a defined need and have a clear purpose.
Step 2: Use questions that are suitable for your sample
Create appropriate questions by taking the perspective of your respondents. Consider their
language proficiency and available time and energy when designing your questionnaire.
Are the respondents familiar with the language and terms used in your questions?
Would any of the questions confuse them?
Do the response items for any closed-ended questions capture all possible answers?
Do the respondents have time to respond to open-ended questions?
Consider all possible options for responses to closed-ended questions.
Step 3: Decide on your questionnaire length and question order
Once you have your questions, make sure that the length and order of your questions are
appropriate for your sample.
Step 4: Pretest your questionnaire
When you have a complete list of questions, you’ll need to pretest it to make sure what you’re
asking is always clear and unambiguous. Pretesting helps you catch any errors or points of
confusion before performing your study.
Ask friends, classmates, or members of your target audience to complete your questionnaire
using the same method you’ll use for your research. Find out if any questions were particularly
difficult to answer or if the directions were unclear or inconsistent, and make changes as
necessary.