Survey Design

Digital Inclusion, Skills and Creativity

Bad examples 1

Bad examples 2

What examples of bad form design have you seen?

Comparison

Google Forms

• Quick and easy to use
• Can be locked down to University of York members
• Can collect York email addresses automatically
• Can allow file uploads for York users
• Can output in real time to a Google Sheet

Qualtrics

• More question types than Google
• Rich-text editing
• Advanced branching options
• Can pick up embedded data from a pre-populated contact list
• Can be distributed by timed email with follow-ups and reminders
• Can be used to design, produce and distribute regular or real-time reports
• Advanced reporting

Side-by-side demo

Survey Tools guide (with links to both tools)

Ten steps to less annoying forms and surveys

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(Google Doc with everything in these slides and more!)

1. Plan what you’re actually doing

Why?

Who?

What (questions)?

Which (tool)?

How (will people access it)?

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Task 1 - Have a think about these questions.

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What’s the point?

DATA!

Output vs User Experience

Every form is a balance between the data you want and making it easy and friendly for the user.

Consider:

• What data do you need?
• How long is your survey going to be?
• In what context are people filling it out?

You might need to keep returning to these points as you work on your survey.

2. Don’t spam people

Emails and contact lists

Is email the best method?

How did you collect that contact list?

How often are you emailing people?

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University GDPR guidance

Marketing Your Survey

When sharing and promoting your survey:

• Be clear what the survey is about and how long it'll take.
• Think professionally - what represents your work best? Don't make it misleading/seem like "clickbait" if you want it to be taken seriously.

3. Consider your participants

Who will be filling it out?

How will they be filling it out?

Could you make your survey more welcoming?

Single submission?

Google Forms

Single submission?

Qualtrics

4. Only collect data you need

For good survey design (and GDPR), you should only collect data you are going to use.

Why are you collecting each item of data? Make sure you are purposefully choosing the data you need.

What kinds of data are you collecting? (personal data, special category data, etc?)

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Data ethics guide

How to ask for data nicely

• Don't collect information in two different ways
• Only 'force response' or make 'required' when necessary
• Make 'please explain' questions optional
• Give people space to define their own answer

5. Be clear and concise

Add descriptions to questions

Keep text concise

Avoid jargon

Be clear

Suggest how long it might take

Helping out your participants

Descriptions can add useful contextual information whilst keeping the question clear

Progress bars give a good indication of a survey’s length

Helping out your participants

Add a couple of front end form pics

Use good visual design

A survey isn't just about the questions…

Where you can customise visual design, consider:

• Use a clear font
• Ensure contrast between the text and background colour
• If you're using images, add alt text

Task 2 - Jamboard discussion

Jamboard link

Break

6. Don’t make it too difficult

Single vs Multiple choice

Are you restricting the user from giving you accurate information?

Is it as easy as possible?

• Keep the design simple
• Use images where necessary
• Use sections/pages/logic (if relevant)
• Group questions logically

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Submission point

Make the submission point clear

Add the submission point to the end of the last page and tell people what will happen.

7. Validate your data

Matrix Tables

Use sparingly, and with a familiar scale.

Task 3 - Form building exercise

Exercise sheet - task 3

Qualtrics IT Services page

Google Forms

8. Only show relevant questions

Sections & Survey Logic

9. Test it

• Ask other people to test your form (you can clear out their responses afterwards).
• If you use branching, test all of your different options. Check they all work.
• Put yourself in someone else’s situation: can you enter all of the data you need?

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Have you captured everything?

• Generate some test data�
• Look at the raw data and the different data types you have�
• Check you have collected everything to be able to sort/filter your data as needed

10. Analyse your test data

Data: a Practical Guide

Task 4 - Using branching and form testing

Exercise sheet - task 4

Further support

For any questions around using survey tools, contact itsupport@york.ac.uk