I have to carryout a questionnaire in a few weeks regarding what some people may perceive as a sensitive topic. I also have a 15-minute interview that needs to be dealt with.
I initially thought that this would be a breeze, I mean anyone can ask a few questions on any topic, get some information from the answers and fluff out some interesting finds. Well apparently not. After no more than a few minutes research I discovered that people actually take this stuff seriously. That not only the questions you ask are of significantly high importance but you also need to consider;
- How you ask the question
- The order of the questions
- How to answer the question
- What information are you trying to find
- Does this required qualitative or quantitative information
- How do I make the questionnaire interesting
- How do you maintain interest throughout
- How do you avoid offending the participant
The list definitely doesn’t end there.
Being in a group for this task is definitely proving to be an immensely positive thing. We were discussing a previously decided topic that we were going to look into, and found it next to impossible to pull out even one succinct question.
One member brought up the possibility of moving on from this topic, another had been thinking about a different topic, and voila, with in about 15 minutes we had a pilot survey consisting of 10 rough questions.
Once our direction was set in concrete the cogs started clicking and we were away. The way in which our survey participants would answer the questions and how this affected what we were asking became our next debatable topic. Through the use of a variety of qualitative and quantitative questions, some being answered in regards to a scale, whilst other are simply yes or no, and a few required an in depth response. The last of these answer styles is best kept at a minimum in regards to maintaining the participants attention. If too much time and effort is required, then generally they may disengage before the questionnaire is even complete. This would leave our survey unanswered, or with answers that have no firm meaning or reason behind them.
We need a draft by the end of the week so we can test run our questions at our next gathering. I believe with a few more tweaks we can get a smooth flowing questionnaire that our participants are going to want to be involved in.
my side of the story 