How to avoid common mistakes
Every questionnaire is unique – it pursues different objectives, is aimed at different participants and always has a different context.
Nevertheless, some rules apply to all questionnaires. This means that certain mistakes can occur in any questionnaire. To help you avoid these frustrating mistakes, we have put together some useful tips:
Read on to find out what else you should consider when creating questionnaires with an online survey tool:
Boring questionnaires
A boring questionnaire leads to high abandonment rates and, worse still, inaccurate results. In particular, experienced internet users have very short attention spans.
Questionnaires seem especially boring when successive questions repeatedly ask about the same topics in a monotonous or uniform way. Answering them is no longer engaging.
Include interesting questions at regular intervals that fit the flow of the questionnaire. This keeps respondents intellectually engaged and satisfied.
Questionnaire design
The design and arrangement of questionnaire items also play an important role. If the same rating question is asked 20 times in a row, concentration and interest decline. If this cannot be avoided, at least vary the design – for example, use icons instead of text. Do not overdo this either. Avoid making the questionnaire too playful, or respondents may experience information overload.
Demographic questions in questionnaires
The following applies to demographic questions: statistical details are of little interest to respondents. They provide information but learn nothing new themselves. If these questions drag on, respondents can quickly feel inconvenienced and that their time is being wasted. Live results can sometimes provide useful information, if desired and appropriate: each participant can then see other participants’ answers and compare their own position.
Provide information – increase motivation!
Tip: Take a fresh look at your own questionnaire. Remember that participation is voluntary. Would you be willing and motivated to complete it? If not, what bothers you most? Better still, seek objective opinions: with the LamaPoll survey tool, you can invite other people to test your questionnaire or simply add comment fields, launch a test run, make adjustments and reset it afterwards.
Find out how many questions are appropriate overall under Too many questions. For information on readability, see Typography unsuitable for the web.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is a survey tool for creating online questionnaires. Our survey tool lets you create, run and analyse online questionnaires quickly and easily. Create your questionnaire in just a few steps, customise it for your organisation and conveniently invite customers or employees by email. An online questionnaire enables you to gather insights quickly and easily to improve customer or employee satisfaction. You can register for the LamaPoll survey tool free of charge and immediately create and run online surveys with up to 50 participants. If you need more responses for your online questionnaire, simply choose one of our plans: billed monthly, cancel any month. You can also choose from our online questionnaire templates and examples.
