Questionnaire Design

QUESTIONNAIRES AND OBSERVATION

FORMS
 Standardise data collection for survey and observation,
respectively.
 Ensure comparability of the data, increase speed and
accuracy of recording and facilitate data processing.

Definition
 Formalized set of questions for obtaining information
from respondents
OBJECTIVES OF A QUESTIONNAIRE
 Translate the information needed into a set of specific
questions that the respondents can and will answer
 To uplift, motivate, and encourage the respondent to
become involved in the interview, to cooperate, and to
complete the interview
 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN PROCESS
Specify the information needed

Specify the type of interviewing method

Determine the content of individual questions

Design the questions to overcome the respondent’s inability and unwillingness to answer

Decide on the question structure

Determine the question wording

Arrange questions in proper order

Identify the form and layout

Reproduce the questionnaire

Eliminate bugs by pretesting
SPECIFY THE INFORMATION NEEDED
 Consider the constructs
[theory, hypotheses/research question developed
earlier]

 Keep in mind the target population and ask questions

appropriately
(eg. Children, rural polpulation)
TYPE OF INTERVIEWING METHOD
Personal interviews
 Lengthy, complex and varied questions

Telephone interviews
 Short and simple questions

Mail questionnaire
 Simple questions, detailed instructions
INDIVIDUAL QUESTION CONTENT
Is the question necessary?
 Every question should contribute to the
information needed or serve some specific
purpose.

[questions to develop rapport, questions which disguise

the purpose or sponsorship of the project, questions may
be duplicated for the purpose of assessing reliability or
validity]
INDIVIDUAL QUESTION CONTENT CONT.

Are several questions needed instead of one?

 Avoid ambiguity and double barrel questions.

Do you prefer to patronise a department store close to

your home or work?
OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER
Is the respondent informed?
 Filter questions are often used to ascertain familiarity,
product use and past experience

Are you the main grocery buyer in the household?

Have you purchased car tyres in the last 3 months?
OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER CONT.

Can the respondent remember?

Recency effect
 The ability to remember events are influenced by
 the event itself
 time elapsed since the event
 presence/absence of other events that would help memory
OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER CONT.

Can the respondent articulate?

 Respondents may be unable to describe the situation
accurately
 Inability to articulate may lead to
 respondents ignoring questions
 refusing to respond to the rest of the questionnaire
OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO
ANSWER
Effort required of the respondent
 Unwilling to devote a lot of effort to provide information

Context
 Unwilling to respond to questions which are considered
inappropriate for the given context
OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER
CONT.

Legitimate Purpose
 Unwilling to divulge information which they do not see
as serving a legitimate purpose

Sensitive information
 Unwilling to disclose sensitive information because this
may cause embarrassment or threaten the respondent’s
prestige/ self-image
INCREASING THE WILLINGNESS OF
RESPONDENTS
 Place sensitive topics at the end of the questionnaire
 Preface the question with a statement that the behaviour
of interest is common
 Ask the question using the 3rd person technique

 Provide response categories rather than asking for

specific figures
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE
Unstructured questions
 Open-ended questions that respondents answer in their
own words
 Express general attitude

 Interviewer bias is high

 Coding is costly and time consuming

What were you expecting by attending this event?

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT.

Structured questions
 Specify the set of response alternatives and the response
format
 Types: multiple-choice, dichotomous, or a scale
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT.
Multiple-choice questions
 Respondents are asked to select one or more alternative

Which of the following people had an influence on your choice of

university?
None 
Parents 
Friends 
Ex-Uni student 
Teachers at secondary school 
Careers teachers at secondary school 
Colleagues 
Other please specify…………………. 
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT.

Dichotomous questions
 Only two response alternatives

Have you stayed in Bombay?

Yes  No 
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT.

Scale
 Can be comparative or non-comparative

Do you intend to buy a new computer within the next 6 months?

Definitely Probably Undecided Probably Definitely

will not buy will not buy will buy will buy
1 2 3 4 5
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT.

About structured question

 Can be administered quickly

 Coding and processing is less costly and less time

consuming
 Effort required in designing alternatives

 May require exploratory research for determining

choices
 Bias response because people pick alternatives offered
CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING
Define the issue
 Define the issue by considering

6 Ws

Use ordinary words

 Match the vocabulary level of the respondents

 Avoid jargon and technical marketing words

Avoid ambiguous words

 The word should have a single meaning which is known
to the respondents
DETERMINING THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS CONT.

Logical order
 All questions that deal with a particular issue/topic
should be asked before proceeding to a new topic
 Use branching questions to direct respondents to other
questions
FORM AND LAYOUT
 Format, spacing and position are important
 A questionnaire can be divided into several parts

 All questions should be numbered

 Questionnaires are sometimes pre-coded where each

possible response to a question is associated with a
unique number (or letter)
 Questionnaire should be serially numbered
PRE-TESTING
 Testing the questionnaire on a small sample of
respondents to identify and eliminate potential problems
with [Question content, wording, sequence, form and
layout, question difficulty, instruction]
 After each significant revision of the questionnaire,
another pre-test should be performed with a different
sample
 Responses obtained should be coded and analyses
OBSERVATIONAL FORMS
 Specify the who, what when, where, why and way of
behaviour to be observed
 Offers consistency, structure, completeness