4/8/2020 How to Develop a Questionnaire for Research: 15 Steps

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How to Develop a Questionnaire for

Research
Author Info | Reader-Approved
Updated: February 14, 2020 | References

A questionnaire is a technique for collecting data in which a respondent provides answers

to a series of questions.[1] To develop a questionnaire that will collect the data you want
takes effort and time. However, by taking a step-by-step approach to questionnaire
development, you can come up with an effective means to collect data that will answer
your unique research question.

Part
1 Designing Your Questionnaire

Identify the goal of your questionnaire. What kind of information do you

1 want to gather with your questionnaire? What is your main objective? Is a
questionnaire the best way to go about collecting this information?
Come up with a research question. It can be one question or several, but
this should be the focal point of your questionnaire.
Develop one or several hypotheses that you want to test. The questions that
you include on your questionnaire should be aimed at systematically testing
these hypotheses.

2
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Choose your question type or types. Depending on the information you wish
to gather, there are several possible types of questions to include on your
questionnaire, each with unique pros and cons. Here are the types of commonly
used questions on a questionnaire:[2]
Dichotomous question: this is a question that will generally be a “yes/no”
question, but may also be an “agree/disagree” question. It is the quickest
and simplest question to analyze, but is not a highly sensitive measure.
Open-ended questions: these questions allow the respondent to respond in
their own words. They can be useful for gaining insight into the feelings of
the respondent, but can be a challenge when it comes to analysis of data. It
is recommended to use open-ended questions to address the issue of
“why.”[3]
Multiple choice questions: these questions consist of three or more mutually-
exclusive categories and ask for a single answer or several answers.[4]
Multiple choice questions allow for easy analysis of results, but may not give
the respondent the answer they want.
Rank-order (or ordinal) scale questions: this type of question asks your
respondent to rank items or choose items in a particular order from a set.
For example, it might ask your respondents to order five things from least to
most important. These types of questions forces discrimination among
alternatives, but does not address the issue of why the respondent made
these discriminations.[5]
Rating scale questions: these questions allow the respondent to assess a
particular issue based on a given dimension. You can provide a scale that
gives an equal number of positive and negative choices, for example,
ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”[6] These questions are
very flexible, but also do not answer the question “why.”[7]

Develop questions for your questionnaire. The questions that you

3 develop for your questionnaire should be clear, concise, and direct. This will
ensure that you get the best possible answers from your respondents.
Write questions that are succinct and simple. You should not be writing
complex statements or using technical jargon, as it will only confuse your
respondents and lead to incorrect responses.
Ask only one question at a time. This will help avoid confusion
Beware of asking for private or “sensitive” information.[8] This can be
something as simple as age or weight, or something as complex as past
sexual history.

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Asking questions such as these usually require you to anonymize or

encrypt the demographic data you collect.
Determine if you will include an answer such as “I don’t know” or “Not
applicable to me.” While these can give your respondents a way of not
answering certain questions, providing these options can also lead to
missing data, which can be problematic during data analysis.
Put the most important questions at the beginning of your questionnaire.[9]
This can help you gather important data even if you sense that your
respondents may be becoming distracted by the end of the questionnaire.

Restrict the length of your questionnaire. Keep your questionnaire as

4 short as possible. More people will be likely to answer a shorter
questionnaire, so make sure you keep it as concise as possible while still
collecting the necessary information.[10] If you can make a questionnaire that
only requires 5 questions, do it.
Only include questions that are directly useful to your research
question.[11] A questionnaire is not an opportunity to collect all kinds of
information about your respondents.
Avoid asking redundant questions. This will frustrate those who are taking
your questionnaire.

Identify your target demographic. Is there a certain group of people who

5 you want to target with your questionnaire? If so, it is best to determine this
before you begin to distribute your questionnaire.[12]
Consider if you want your questionnaire to collect information from both men
and women. Some studies will only survey one sex.
Determine whether you want your survey to collect information from both
children and adults. Many surveys only target certain age ranges for which
the questions are applicable.
Consider including a range of ages in your target demographic. For
example, you can consider young adult to be 18-29 years old, adults to
be 30-54 years old, and mature adults to be 55+. Providing the an age
range will help you get more respondents than limiting yourself to a
specific age.
Consider what else would make a person a target for your questionnaire. Do
they need to drive a car? Do they need to have health insurance? Do they
need to have a child under 3? Make sure you are very clear about this
before you distribute your questionnaire.

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Ensure you can protect privacy. Make your plan to protect respondents’
6 privacy before you begin writing your survey. This is a very important part of
many research projects.
Consider an anonymous questionnaire. You may not want to ask for names
on your questionnaire. This is one step you can take to prevent privacy,
however it is often possible to figure out a respondent’s identity using other
demographic information (such as age, physical features, or zipcode).
Consider de-identifying the identity of your respondents. Give each
questionnaire (and thus, each respondent) a unique number or word, and
only refer to them using that new identifier. Shred any personal information
that can be used to determine identity.
Remember that you do not need to collect much demographic information to
be able to identify someone. People may be wary to provide this information,
so you may get more respondents by asking less demographic questions (if
it is possible for your questionnaire).
Make sure you destroy all identifying information after your study is
complete.

Part
2 Writing your questionnaire

Introduce yourself. Your introduction should explain who you are, and what
1 your credentials are. You should clarify if you are working alone or as a part
of a team. Include the name of the academic institution or company for whom
you are collecting data. Here are some examples:
My name is Jack Smith and I am one of the creators of this questionnaire. I
am part of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan,
where I am focusing in developing cognition in infants.
I’m Kelly Smith, a 3rd year undergraduate student at the University of New
Mexico. This questionnaire is part of my final exam in statistics.
My name is Steve Johnson, and I’m a marketing analyst for The Best
Company. I’ve been working on questionnaire development to determine
attitudes surrounding drug use in Canada for several years.

Explain the purpose of the questionnaire.[13] Many people will not answer
2 a questionnaire without understanding what the goal of the questionnaire is.
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No long explanation is needed; instead, a few concise sentences will do the

trick. Here are some examples:
I am collecting data regarding the attitudes surrounding gun control. This
information is being collected for my Anthropology 101 class at the
University of Maryland.
This questionnaire will ask you 15 questions about your eating and exercise
habits. We are attempting to make a correlation between healthy eating,
frequency of exercise, and incidence of cancer in mature adults.
This questionnaire will ask you about your recent experiences with
international air travel. There will be three sections of questions that will ask
you to recount your recent trips and your feelings surrounding these trips, as
well as your travel plans for the future. We are looking to understand how a
person’s feelings surrounding air travel impact their future plans.

Reveal what will happen with the data you collect. Are you collecting
3 these data for a class project, or for a publication? Are these data to be used
for market research? Depending on what you intend to do with the data you
collect from your questionnaire, there may be different requirements that you
need to pay attention to before distributing your survey.
Beware that if you are collecting information for a university or for
publication, you may need to check in with your institution’s Institutional
Review Board (IRB) for permission before beginning. Most research
universities have a dedicated IRB staff, and their information can usually be
found on the school’s website.
Remember that transparency is best. It is important to be honest about what
will happen with the data you collect.
Include an informed consent for if necessary. Note that you cannot
guarantee confidentiality, but you will make all reasonable attempts to
ensure that you protect their information.[14]

Estimate how long the questionnaire will take. Before someone sits
4 down to take your questionnaire, it may be helpful for them to know whether
the questionnaire will take them 10 minutes or 2 hours. Providing this
information at the onset of your questionnaire is more likely to get you more
complete questionnaires in the end.
Time yourself taking the survey. Then consider that it will take some people
longer than you, and some people less time than you.

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Provide a time range instead of a specific time. For example, it’s better to
say that a survey will take between 15 and 30 minutes than to say it will take
15 minutes and have some respondents quit halfway through.
Use this as a reason to keep your survey concise! You will feel much better
asking people to take a 20 minute survey than you will asking them to take a
3 hour one.

Describe any incentives that may be involved. An incentive is anything

5 that you can offer as a reward at the end of the questionnaire. Incentives
can be many types of things: they can be monetary, desired prizes, gift
certificates, candy, etc. There are both pros and cons to offering incentives.
Incentives can attract the wrong kind of respondent. You don’t want to
incorporate responses from people who rush through your questionnaire just
to get the reward at the end. This is a danger of offering an incentive.[15]
Incentives can encourage people to respond to your survey who might not
have responded without a reward. This is a situation in which incentives can
help you reach your target number of respondents.[16]
Consider the strategy used by SurveyMonkey. Instead of directly paying
respondents to take their surveys, they offer 50 cents to the charity of their
choice when a respondent fills out a survey. They feel that this lessens the
chances that a respondent will fill out a questionnaire out of pure self-
interest.[17]
Consider entering each respondent in to a drawing for a prize if they
complete the questionnaire. You can offer a 25$ gift card to a restaurant, or
a new iPod, or a ticket to a movie. This makes it less tempting just to
respond to your questionnaire for the incentive alone, but still offers the
chance of a pleasant reward.

Make sure your questionnaire looks professional. Because you want

6 people to have confidence in you as a data collector, your questionnaire
must have a professional look.
Always proof read. Check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
Include a title. This is a good way for your respondents to understand the
focus of the survey as quickly as possible.
Thank your respondents. Thank them for taking the time and effort to
complete your survey.

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Part
3 Distributing Your Questionnaire

Do a pilot study. Ask some people you know to take your questionnaire
1 (they will not be included in any results stemming from this questionnaire),
and be prepared to revise it if necessary.[18] Plan to include 5-10 people in the
pilot testing of your questionnaire.[19] Get their feedback on your questionnaire
by asking the following questions:
Was the questionnaire easy to understand? Were there any questions that
confused you?
Was the questionnaire easy to access? (Especially important if your
questionnaire is online).
Do you feel the questionnaire was worth your time?
Were you comfortable answering the questions asked?
Are there any improvements you would make to the questionnaire?

Disseminate your questionnaire. You need to determine what is the best

2 way to disseminate your questionnaire.[20] There are several common ways
to distribute questionnaires:
Use an online site, such as SurveyMonkey.com. This site allows you to write
your own questionnaire with their survey builder, and provides additional
options such as the option to buy a target audience and use their analytics to
analyze your data.[21]
Consider using the mail. If you mail your survey, always make sure you
include a self-addressed stamped envelope so that the respondent can
easily mail their responses back. Make sure that your questionnaire will fit
inside a standard business envelope.
Conduct face-to-face interviews. This can be a good way to ensure that you
are reaching your target demographic and can reduce missing information in
your questionnaires, as it is more difficult for a respondent to avoid
answering a question when you ask it directly.
Try using the telephone. While this can be a more time-effective way to
collect your data, it can be difficult to get people to respond to telephone
questionnaires.

Include a deadline. Ask your respondents to have the questionnaire

3 completed and returned to you by a certain date to ensure that you have
enough time to analyze the results.

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Make your deadline reasonable. Giving respondents up to 2 weeks to

answer should be more than sufficient. Anything longer and you risk your
respondents forgetting about your questionnaire.
Consider providing a reminder. A week before the deadline is a good time to
provide a gentle reminder about returning the questionnaire. Include a
replacement of the questionnaire in case it has been misplaced by your
respondent.[22]

Community Q&A

Question

How can I develop a questionnaire involving children?

Community Answer

Questions need to be direct and simple. Keep the number of questions low
since children get easily distracted and have limited attention spans.

Question

How do I develop a questionnaire for integration of drawing with geometry?

Community Answer

Think of questions that give you the conclusions you need, and make sure
people can only answer "yes" or "no."

Question

What design considerations should be included when creating a

questionnaire?

Community Answer

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If you want to generate comparable data, use true/false questions, multiple

choice, or numerical scales. To gather more detail, use open-ended questions.
When wording the questions, consider the age range, cultural background, and
educational level of your intended participants.

Question

How do I formulate a questionnaire on the role traffic police play in traffic

management?

Community Answer

First, figure out who you will be providing questionnaires to - who is your
audience for obtaining the sample responses? Use multiple choice, typically 4-5
suggested answers for each question. Think about the purpose of the study -
are you trying to determine whether the role that traffic police play in traffic
management is one with a positive effect? Also, you want your questionnaire to
have as little bias as possible. That might mean that it should be written in
multiple languages so that no one answering the questionnaire is forced to use
a language that isn't their first language.

Question

I need a questionnaire on the factors preventing access to healthcare by the

elderly. What can I do?

Community Answer

Since most seniors have been cautioned about revealing their personal info
(identity theft and HIPAA compliance regulations), most seniors will opt out of
participation when it comes to their health care. Try preparing a very carefully-
worded questionnaire to be posted on Survey Monkey and/or distributed
through through faith-based or senior resource centers. Get the local health
department to collaborate with you to achieve your goal. As long as you are not
using this info for commercial purposes, you should be OK.

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References

1. http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/qdesign/
2. http://survey.cvent.com/blog/cvent-survey-blog/guide-to-the-five-types-of-survey-q
uestions
3. http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2685/
4. https://www.questionpro.com/a/showArticle.do?articleID=survey-questions
5. http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2685/
6. http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2685/
7. http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2685/
8. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_survey.sht
ml
9. http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/hdr/design/2.4.3.html
10. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_survey.sht
ml
11. http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e05.htm
12. http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e05.htm
13. http://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/questionaires.htm
14. http://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/questionaires.htm
15. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-rewards/
16. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-rewards/
17. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-rewards/
18. http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e05.htm

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19. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_survey.sht
ml
20. http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-develop-a-questionnaire
21. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/take-a-tour/?ut_source=header
22. http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/hdr/design/2.4.3.html

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