How to Create the Best Questionnaires for Effective Data Collection: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

The questionnaire is an organized research tool and technique involving a set of questions or inquiries created to collect objective, standardized data from a population of respondents. These are comprised of close-ended questions with predetermined responses, open-ended questions that provide respondents the opportunity to respond using their own words, or even a combination of these two types of questions. Being the principal means of conducting survey research, the questionnaire acts as the primary means of interaction between the researcher and the respondents to achieve certain research objectives. A well-developed questionnaire is characterized by clarity, conciseness, logical arrangement of questions, and user-friendliness, making the task of data collection easier.

Importance of questionnaire in research

Speed and Efficiency

They provide an extremely convenient way of gathering a lot of data from many people in a fairly short period of time.

Anonymity and Confidentiality of Respondents

They provide anonymity for respondents, thus serving as a very effective tool to maintain the confidentiality of information provided by them.

Data Management Ease

Closed-ended questions are presented in a structured form that helps speed up the process of data entry and coding as well as reduces mistakes made while managing data.

Flexible Scalability

It is easy to scale down or up the volume of the questionnaire in order to meet the demands of the research.

Measuring Qualities

They are able to measure both qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the studied concepts.

Standardization

They provide standardization by posing the same set of questions to all participants.

Main types of questionnaires

The questionnaire mainly consists of two parts.

1. Structured questionnaire

2.Unstructured questionnaire

1. Structured questionnaire

Structured questionnaire refers to a standardized data-gathering instrument which is based on the specific, predetermined, and fixed pattern of sequence of questions. All individuals are presented the identical set of questions in the same sequence and wordings. Structured questionnaires have gained great importance in quantitative research due to their ease of administration, low biasness on the part of the researcher, and generation of consistent data that can be easily processed and analyzed. Types of structured questionnaires include:

1.1. Dichotomous (Yes/No) Questions

These are simple, fact-gathering questions where the respondent is forced to choose between only two possible outcomes.

Example:

Do you eat bread? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Do you own a tractor? Yes [ ] No [ ]

1.2. Choice of Categories (Multiple-Choice)

These provide a range of predefined, mutually exclusive categories from which the respondent must select one option.

Example:

What is your marital status?

Single [ ]

Married [ ]

Divorced [ ]

Widowed [ ]

1.3. Likert Rating Scales

Used to measure the intensity of attitudes, agreement, or satisfaction along a balanced continuum.

Example:

Statistics is an interesting subject;

Strongly disagree [ ]

Disagree [ ]

Cannot Decide [ ]

Agree [ ]

Strongly Agree [ ]

1.4. Numeric Rating Scales (Differential Scales)

These ask respondents to assign a numerical value along a scale anchored by opposite extremes to evaluate a specific concept.

Example:

"How important is it to study math at school? Please give a score from 1 to 10, where 1 means totally unimportant and 10 totally important."

^{Totally
Unimportant} [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] ^{Totally Important}

1.5. Table or Matrix Questions

These group several related questions together in a grid layout that shares the same response scale, saving visual space.

Example:

“To what extent are the following problems affecting the area where your family lives?"

Neighborhood Problem	Very	Fairly	Little	Not at all	Do not Know
*Dirty roads*			✔
*Traffic*	✔
*Air pollution*	✔

Note : Please keep in mind that you should clearly state whether they should tick or cross the matching rows, like using a tick (✔) or a cross (✖).

2. Unstructured questionnaire

An unstructured survey consists of questions that do not limit the respondent to a set of predefined choices but allow him or her to answer without any boundaries and using only his or her own words.

Unstructured surveys are commonly used in qualitative studies, in exploratory research, and in initial testing stages. Unstructured surveys are most suitable when there is an abundance of potential answers, and the researcher does not know anything about the possible answers beforehand.

According to the measurement criteria, unstructured questions can be grouped into several different categories.

2.1. Attitudinal & Opinion Questions

These questions try to establish how people rate a certain issue.

Example:

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of the new educational policy?
What is your opinion about tax breaks to encourage healthy eating?

2.2. Descriptive & Experiential Questions

This will prompt them to provide a description of an event or provide a vivid picture of their emotions and recollections.

Example:

Using your own words, tell how did you feel having a big meal of carbohydrates.
Tell about your experience of losing weight by dieting.
Tell about your experience of watching the Indian cricketers perform in IPL 2022.

2.3. Behavioral & Knowledge Questions

These find out what respondents believe or actually do in their day-to-day lives.

Example:

What habits do you believe increase a person’s chance of having a heart attack?
How often do you eat fresh vegetables?

2.4. Evaluation & Feedback Questions (Case Study)

Commonly used after programs or webinars to gather honest feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Example:

Please share your thoughts on the strengths of the webinar and how it was helpful.
Please share your thoughts on areas for improvement to improve future webinars in this series.
What suggestion do you have to improve the soya fruit drink?

What are ethical considerations in a research questionnaire?

1. Respecting Autonomy

Respecting Autonomy is an essential element of ethical research. This means that taking part in a questionnaire should be voluntary. People cannot be coerced, threatened, and forced to take a survey; they cannot be asked to cooperate unwillingly with researchers. Any participant can choose freely whether he or she wants to spend time filling out a questionnaire and sharing information with researchers.

Two important aspects of respecting autonomy are the right to withdraw and the right to skip some questions. People must be able to say no to answering any questions that are making them uncomfortable or that they simply do not want to answer. Also, people must be allowed to leave the process of taking a survey without any consequences at any moment they feel like doing so. Researchers should construct their questionnaires in such a way that participants have the option to skip certain questions or not to answer them.

To give a proper consent in a way that is autonomous, participants need to have complete information on the implications of their involvement. The process of giving consent is known as the process of informed consent, which needs to be done right at the start of the questionnaire in a dedicated cover letter or letter. In this letter, one needs to mention the objectives of the study, who is sponsoring it, how long will it take to fill out the questions, how the information collected from the respondents will be handled (either confidentially or anonymously), and what are the uses of the results.

2. Co-Designing with a Culturally Sensitive Lens

It involves developing a questionnaire that is culturally appropriate, sensitive, and representative of the different cultural backgrounds of all your target population. It is not about developing a survey from one narrow perspective but working with other people in designing the questions to get a more ethical survey. The collaboration will make sure that the questionnaire takes into account the cultural context, values, and communication style of the different groups, which will help avoid any demographic bias.

Example:

In case you have a research project on mental health care services for children, it is important that you work on the formulation of your questions in collaboration with a broad advisory committee of youth and their parents. In this way, you can ensure that the questions you frame are culturally respectful.

.3. Removing Language and Literacy Barriers

This would require that disparities in literacy levels, educational background, or even native language not serve to preclude some individuals from participation in the research process. Accessible questionnaires have to be drafted using language that is easily comprehensible, devoid of technical jargon, complex acronyms, or regional slang. In cases where important words could have varied definitions in different regions, it becomes essential to offer a working definition that ensures all parties are referring to the same thing. If your target respondents use languages other than English as their native tongue, you might want to translate your questionnaire.

Example:

§ While it may not be advisable to ask a highly technical question such as, “Have you ever been vaccinated with pneumococcus?”, it would be wise to ask, "Have you ever been vaccinated against flu?"

§ The simple term such as "bread roll" may differ from one region to another within the same country (for instance in the UK, some regions refer to a bread roll as "stottie," "bap," "barm cake," or "muffin"). The term should be defined in order for the participants to give a proper response.

4. Adapting for Physical and Sensory Disabilities

Accessibility means that the presence of sensory, physical or learning disabilities is not an impediment in filling out your survey. By using the universal design approach, you will make sure that the format of your questionnaire is appropriate for all participants, making it easy for them to provide their feedback. The process of making it accessible includes the modifications of visual elements of physical questionnaires and digital compatibility of your questionnaire.

Example:

§ If you are going to distribute your survey through digital media, you need to make sure that the platform that you use is fully compatible with the screen reader technology utilized by visually impaired participants.

§ For the case of paper surveys, you need to offer alternative options such as large print versions for older participants with vision problems and easy read formats for learning-disabled people.

5. Avoiding Leading and Loaded Wording

In designing your survey questions, the wording will be as important as the questions themselves because it can have a significant impact on how the respondent understands and answers the questions. Using biased, loaded, or emotional wording in your questions may lead to a serious mistake on the part of both an ethicist and a scientist who would be forcing the respondents to give a particular response. This is called response bias which is likely to happen if the questions are not neutral, hence making it easier for the respondent to choose one option over the other. You should take steps to prevent falling into two traps in your questions: leading questions and loaded questions.

Leading questions are designed in such a way as to push, encourage, or even force the respondent to choose a particular "desired" response. Leading questions tend to emphasize only one side of the issue or present it in such a way that there is only one right answer or one socially acceptable answer which gives rise to social desirability bias among researchers.

For example, when asking "Our ready meals are the best that there are, right?", you are directly putting pressure on the participant to concur with your preconceived notion. Another question which constitutes leading is "Are you in favour of soil conservation?". This question is leading because it only offers the positive attitude towards soil conservation, while a much better approach is to ask "Are you in favour or not of soil conservation?". The last leading trap is "All people at NHS England love their jobs. How much do you love your job at NHS England?". It clearly suggests that all people at NHS England love their jobs and is very uncomfortable to answer otherwise.

Loaded questions, on the other hand, are meant to catch the respondent off-guard or deceive them based on unproven assumptions about their behavior, tastes, or lifestyle before even posing the question. When the participant is asked a loaded question, they find themselves agreeing with the assumption behind the question whether it fits them or not. One such straightforward example would be a question like, "Where do you enjoy shopping for food?". This question is loaded in that it makes an assumption that the participant enjoys shopping for food. An even more exaggerated example would be, "Which public houses do you enjoy drinking in?".

Even some loaded questions go ahead to use very emotionally loaded and/or highly judgmental and/or hostile words to make the respondent agree to something. For instance, when you say, "Do you think that our program is worth getting funded more than what the greedy politicians give?" you are using very emotionally loaded words such as "greedy" while forcing the respondent to accept a very bias opinion. "Do you love your children like a good parent does?" is another loaded question that is highly unethical since it assumes that loving your children means you are a good parent.

In order for your questionnaire to be ethically and statistically sound, you need to ensure that you use neutral, clear and direct language. Ensure that all your questions are balanced such that they provide equal weightage to the positive and negative responses while ensuring that you do not make any assumption regarding the lives of your subjects prior to the survey. A good way of identifying any biases in your questionnaire prior to conducting the actual study would be to perform a pilot or cognitive interview among a select few members of your audience.

Conclusion

To sum up, a questionnaire is an extremely effective, cost-efficient, and standardized technique that allows gathering quantifiable data from a large number of people in an equal way. Depending on your needs, you may choose to create either a structured questionnaire with questions that require the answer in the form of either multiple choice or rating scales to be statistically analyzed, or an unstructured one with open-ended questions that allow gathering qualitative data expressed in respondents' own words. Whatever type of questionnaire you decide on, its creation will necessarily include respect for research ethics, which means the necessity to ensure such fundamental ethical principles as informed consent and voluntary participation, equality and accessibility by eliminating language and physical barriers, and neutrality of all questions.

References

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