Questionnaires play a crucial role in research. They let us gather data that could reveal hidden information about people. But they are not without their limitations.
Questions can be self-administered, with participants answering all questions themselves, or researcher-administered, where the research team interviews a sample of respondents by phone, in-person, or online. Self-administered questionnaires tend to have lower response rates than researcher-administered questionnaires, due in part to the impersonal nature of mailed paper surveys and automated telephone menu systems.
Web-based surveys offer a range of advantages, including a larger reach than surveys that are conducted by telephone or mail and the ability to reach an international audience. However, they do pose some challenges including the challenge of reaching a demographically representative sample. They can also be affected by factors such as screen dimensions, hardware platforms, operating systems, and browser settings.
When creating a questionnaire, it is essential to take into consideration the research goals and objectives. When you’re creating questions, it’s essential to know your target audience. For instance you must know whether they are able to comprehend and respond to the question or if they have the time to finish a lengthy questionnaire.
To ensure that new questionnaires function as intended, it’s crucial to test them beforehand using qualitative methods such as focus groups, cognitive interviewing, or pretesting. Questions are susceptible to “question-order effects” in which answers to earlier questions may influence the responses to subsequent ones.