Questionnaire Design

Questionnaire design is one of the most crucial exercises for dissertations, with a view to collecting data via surveys, interviews and focus group discussions.

Cover page

A questionnaire should start with a well-designed cover page containing at least the following:

• Your research title
• A brief description of the purpose and objectives of your research
• Ethical statements on the voluntary participation of the respondent and his/her right to withdraw at any given moment
• Assurance of anonymity, confidentiality and data protection
• Your contact details (email address and/or phone number), should there be any query from respondents

Questionnaire content

Among the various criteria to be taken into consideration, here are a few main ones:

• Give brief, but clear, instructions to your respondents, wherever and whenever necessary in your questionnaire
• Ascertain that your questions are addressing your research objectives effectively, or will accommodate for testing the validity of your proposed conceptual model
• Ensure that your proposed answers/options to each question cover the entire range of possibilities. When in doubt, provide an "Other (please specify)" option.
• Ensure that there are no overlapping options (e.g., it would be incorrect to label age subgroups as "10-20", "20-30", etc, thus creating confusion for a person aged 20)
• Avoid questions that are lengthy, ambiguous, double- or multiple-barrelled, leading, irrelevant, and take things for granted
• Avoid, as far as possible, branching questions (e.g., "If No, go to Section C" or "If No, skip the next two questions")
• Avoid ranking questions if you have too many options
• Verify whether your questions/statements are measured on appropriate scales, in view of the statistical tests/techniques that you intend to use for data analysis
• Formulate questions that are suitable to, and understandable by, your target population