Today’s Plan:
- Surveys
Fundamentals to Surveys
Surveys typically collect three kinds of information:
- Attitudes and Preferences
- Opinions and/or Reactions
- Demographic information
Generally, you measure attitudes and preferences using multiple choice, ranking (favorite to least favorite) or likert scales. While the term likert scale might be unfamiliar, I can almost guarantee you’ve encountered one before.
- It is very likely you have encountered a Likert scale
- It is likely you have encountered a Likert scale
- It is neither likely or unlikely you have encountered a Likert scale
- It is unlikely you have encountered a Likert scale
- It is very unlikely you have encountered a Likert scale
Note: social scientists and marketers often omit the middle option above. Doing so forces a respondent to make a decision (the middle option provides them an opt out).
Note: If you do a ranking scale, make sure you tell someone whether 1 is their favorite or 1 is their least favorite.
We can collect more information in surveys via open ended, free write questions. There’s a few issues with these though. One is that people are likely to skip them. If you have more than one of these in a survey, your response rate is likely to plummet. The other difficulty is that these require quite a bit of time to “code”: that is, to go through and synthesize responses. However, that time is usually rewarded.
Collecting demographic information is tricky because (some) people are skeptical of surveys. People can become suspicious if they think they know what your survey is attempting to prove. This can, if they disagree with you, create animosity. This is one reason it is important to create neutral, objective, balanced questions that do not preference a particular response. This skepticism manifests itself in a resistance to supplying demographic information. However, sometimes demographic information is extremely important! So we should spend some time investigating how to ask demographic questions.
There’s more information on question types and some tips in this article.
What Not to Do in a Survey
Some general tips (emphasis–avoid loaded words). Some more tips (emphasis–use audience’s language).
Ok, let’s try and exercise.A classic example of how not to construct a survey.
Build a Survey
