Developing Questions and

Designing the Questionnaire

Lecturer: Insert your name here

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 Developing Questions and Designing
the Questionnaire
Outline
• Designing a Questionnaire
• Question Development and Questionnaire Design
Process
• Question Development
• Questionnaire Organization
• Questionnaire Design

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 Designing a Questionnaire
• A questionnaire presents the survey questions to
respondents.
• Questionnaire design is a systematic process in
which the researcher contemplates (Consider)
various question formats, considers a number of
factors characterizing the survey at hand,
ultimately words the various questions carefully,
and organizes the questionnaire’s layout.

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 Question Development and Questionnaire Design
Process
Stages of Questionnaire Design Process

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 Question Development and Questionnaire Design Process

Questionnaire
Design Process

Burns,
Marketing
Research

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 Question Development

1st Part of the process “Question Development” 6

 Question Development

• Question development is the practice of

selecting appropriate response formats and
wording questions so that they are
understandable, unambiguous, and unbiased.

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 Question Development

Dos and Don’t in Question Development

A question should be:

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 Question Development

Dos and Don’t in Question Development

A question should not be:

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 Question Development

Dos and Don’t in Question Development

• Do Not Use a “Double-Barreled” Question.
double-barreled question is really two
questions posed in one question
– Were you satisfied with the restaurant’s food and
service?”

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 Question Development

Dos and Don’t in Question Development

• Do Not Use a Extreme Absolutes such as all, always,
any, anybody, best, ever, every, never, etc
• They place respondents in a situation where they must
either fully agree or they must completely disagree.
– Do you always observe traffic signs?
– Do you agree MacDonald's always have on time
delivery service?

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 Questionnaire Organization

2nd Part of the process “Questionnaire Organization”

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 Questionnaire Organization

• Questionnaire organization is the sequence of

statements and questions that make up a
questionnaire.
• Questionnaire organization affect the quality
of the information that is gathered. It also
motivate respondents to complete the
questionnaire
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Questionnaire Organization

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 Questionnaire Organization

The Introduction is what a potential respondent

reads or hears before he or she begins
answering survey questions.
First, the interviewer introduces him/herself at
the beginning of a survey.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Additionally, the sponsor of the survey may be

identified or not depending on survey’s
objectives, client/researcher agreement and
whether revealing the name of the sponsor will
affect respondents’ answers
– Undisguised survey the sponsoring company is
identified
– Disguised survey the sponsor’s name is not known to
respondents.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Second, the general purpose of the survey

should be expressed generically in one or two
sentences.
Third, prospective respondents must be made
aware of how and why they were selected.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Fourth, prospective respondents must be asked

for their participation in the survey.
– Incentives are offers to do something for the
respondent to increase the probability that the
respondent will participate in the survey. i.e.
monetary incentive, a sample of a product, …etc.

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 Questionnaire Organization

– Other incentives encourage respondent

participation by letting them know the importance
of their participation: “You are one of few,
randomly chosen, to express your views on a new
service.”
– Or highlight topic importance: “your opinion will
help the company to improve the service and
products offerings.”

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 Questionnaire Organization

– Other forms of incentives address respondent privacy

concerns.
– Ensuring anonymity, in which the respondent is not
known and therefore is assured that neither the
respondent’s name nor any identifying designation
will be associated with his or her responses.
– Confidentiality which means the respondent’s name
is known by the researcher but is not revealed to a
third party, namely, the client.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Fifth function of the introduction is to qualify

prospective respondents
• Screening questions are used to identify
respondents who do not meet qualifications
necessary to take part in the research study.
• It will determine whether the potential
respondent qualifies to participate in the survey
based on certain selection criteria the researcher
and client agreed upon.
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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
• Question flow is the sequencing of questions
or blocks of questions, including any
instructions, on the questionnaire.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
1) Screen Questions , it is the first questions
asked, Used to select the respondent types
desired by the researcher to be in the survey
– i.e. Have you shopped at Carrefour in the past
month?”
– Do you own an I-phone?
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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
2) Warm-Ups Immediately after screens
questions, it is easy to answer questions;
shows respondent that survey is easy to
complete; generates interest
– “On what days of the week do you shop for
grocery?”

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
3) Transitions (statements and questions) Prior to major
sections of questions or changes in question format. It
Notifies respondent that the subject or format of the
following questions will change
– “Now, for the next few questions, I want to ask about your
Shopping Experience.”
– “Next, I am going to read several statements and, after
each, I want you to tell me if you agree or disagree with
this statement.”

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
• Transitions include “skip” questions. The response to a skip
question affects which question will be answered next.
• “Do you use mobile Internet?” If the person responds is “no” asking
the details of mobile internet usage will not be logical. Accordingly
the questionnaire will instruct the respondent (or the interviewer, if
one is being used) to skip over those questions.
• If the researcher has a great number of transition and skip
questions, a flowchart of the questions can be made to ensure
there are no errors in the instructions.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
4) Complicated and difficult to answer questions middle of the
questionnaire; close to the end.
Scaled-response questions or other questions that require some
degree of mental activity, such as evaluating choices, voicing
opinions, recalling past experiences, indicating intentions, or
responding to “what if” questions, are kept till middle of
questionnaire:
– Rate each of the following stores on the quality of service
– On a scale of 1 to 5 “How likely are you to purchase each of the
following items in the next week?”

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
– If the questionnaire is self-administered, the
respondent will see that only a few sections of
questions remain to be answered.
– If the survey is person administrated it should have
prompts included for the interviewer to notify the
respondent that the interview is in its final stages.
– Online surveys often have a “% complete” bar or
indication that the survey is close to completion.

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
• 5) Classification and demographic questions
last section, are used to classify respondents
into various groups for purposes of analysis.
Personal questions such as demographic
information are placed at the end of the
questionnaire

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 Questionnaire Organization

Question Flow
• Computer-assisted questionnaire design refers to software
that allows users to use computer technology to develop and
disseminate (Distribute) questionnaires and to retrieve and
analyze data gathered by the questionnaire.
• Computer-assisted, questionnaire design is easy, fast, friendly,
and flexible.
• i.e. Qualtrics, QuestionPro, Survey Monkey, Snap Survey
software
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 Questionnaire Design

3rd Part of the process “Questionnaire Design” 32

 Questionnaire Design
Coding the Questionnaire
• Coding or using numbers associated with
question response options to facilitate data
analysis after the survey has been conducted.
• Online questionnaires typically do coding
automatically.

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 Questionnaire Design
Pretesting the Questionnaire
• A pretest involves conducting a dry run (trial) of the survey on a small,
representative set of respondents to reveal questionnaire errors before
the survey is launched.
• Pretest participants should be representative of the target population
• Participants are informed of the pretest, and their cooperation is
requested in spotting aspects of the questionnaire that appear confusing,
difficult to understand, or problematic
• 5 to 10 respondents are involved in a pretest
• The researcher looks for common problem across this group

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