Designing a Web Survey Questionnaire

Abstract

This chapter focuses on quite complex surveys, where the web survey questionnaire may be directed to individuals, households, or businesses. It also focuses on design issues that are specific to web survey questionnaires. The chapter provides an overview of the various possible question types and shows how these question types should be formatted. Special attention is paid to handling “don't know” in web surveys. Incorrect visualization of questions will result in measurement errors and thus in biased results. This is especially relevant in mobile web surveys. The layout of the question includes aspects like font type, font size, and use of colors. All these aspects are called the language of questions. The two basic question types were mentioned: open questions and closed questions. The answer options can take the form of an unordered list. The answer options can also take the form of an ordered list like a rating scale.

Authors 2

1. Silvia Biffignandi

   University of Bergamo

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Bergamo, Italy

2. Jelke G. Bethlehem Aachen Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences Institute of Political Science

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands