Research Tips

Take Advantage of Web Capabilities When Creating Web Surveys

One of the great things about Web surveys is the capability to select, alter, and check questions and responses dynamically. The most obvious example is using logic functions to ensure that respondents don’t even have to see questions that are not applicable to them based on answers they’ve given to previous questions. Other examples include using content from a previous response to form part of a subsequent question, or checking to make sure that a response falls within the valid range and letting the respondent know if it doesn’t.

Unfortunately, many Web surveys do not take advantage of all of these capabilities. This may be confusing or annoying to respondents, who, for example, may wonder why they are being asked a question to which the answer is obvious based on their responses to previous questions. Not taking advantage of these capabilities also means it takes longer for respondents to answer the same number of questions; taking advantage could reduce the time required of respondents or allow more questions to be asked without increasing the time commitment required.