Types of survey questions and how to use them

In market research, the quality of a study hinges on the intricacies of questionnaire design. The art and science of designing an effective survey lies not just in asking the right questions, but also in engineering them thoughtfully. A curiosity for how your customers perceive your brand can be translated into a single question, yet sometimes also requires a series of them to give the insights you need.

It is therefore helpful to understand how you can strategically work with a range of question types to design a questionnaire that is unbiased and at the same time, pilots you towards actionable insights. Here, we take you on a quick tour of our Canvas dashboard, the latest answer to brands’ need for greater ease and flexibility with a full suite of survey design tools.

Question types we offer:

Content Only:

A text-only question/card designed for providing context, instructions or definitions without response options. It helps respondents understand the subsequent questions better, and can also be used as a “mental rest stop” to give respondents a break between questions.

Single-select:

This question type allows respondents to select only one response, and it is often used in yes/no or range-based questions.

Multi-select:

Respondents can select more than one response in this question type, and we have equipped it with a few features that provide better control for the researcher, while also keeping the survey-taking experience seamless and intuitive:

• Ability to set the minimum or maximum number of options that respondents can select, which comes in useful for questions such as one requiring them to choose their top 3 choices from a list of brands
• Randomisation of options to reduce top-choice bias
• Anchor options where necessary to exclude them from randomisation, such as “Others” or “None of the above” options

While tempting to cram in as many options as possible to extract more insights, we recommend keeping option lists short - no more than 10 options per question - to reduce top-choice bias and respondent fatigue.

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Rating:

Similar to single-select, this question format additionally assigns numerical values to answers so that the mean or median score can be calculated. They are suitable for scale-type (eg. agree/disagree scales) or NPS questions.

Ranking:

A ranking question allows respondents to rank a list of attributes or brands,  and we recommend limiting it to eight or fewer options to avoid overwhelming respondents.

Open-ended:

Here, respondents can freely provide text, numeric, or ranged numeric responses, perfect for gathering organic verbatim feedback.

Aided Open Ended:

This version of an open-end question sets rules on how or what respondents can type. Variations of them include:

• Open-ended alphanumeric: Respondents are required to enter free form text for each option.
• Open-ended numeric: Respondents are required to enter a number for each option.
• Min-Max: Respondents are required to indicate a number between a specified range for each option.
• Total Up: Respondents are required to allocate a number to each option that adds up to a specified total quantity.

Image Portrait and Image List:

These display either a single image or a series of images respectively along with captions, and a zoom function for ease of viewing.

Logic Cards:

Logic cards direct respondents to only questions relevant to them based on their previous responses, which ensures a smoother and more intuitive survey-taking experience, and also keeps data clean. Here are a few examples of logic cards you can find on Canvas:

Screen Out:

This screens out respondents who do not fit in your target group based on their responses. It is shown as a message that you can input to inform them of the end of the survey.

Quality Control:

This is usually an attention or logical check where you can sift out respondents who may be providing poor quality responses, ensuring data integrity.