Questionnaire Design: How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey Material for Effective Market Research

Will your questionnaire work as well as it needs to by today’s standards? Use this new edition of the bestselling guide to make sure it does.

Good data is central to information-based decision making. Increasing access to online survey software is allowing more organizations to benefit from contact with their customers, employees and the public. However, the challenges facing the questionnaire writer remain and the greater volume of surveys and demands on potential respondents’ time is making the task even harder. Your questionnaire needs to work better than ever to keep their attention. Questionnaire Design provides comprehensive and practical guidelines to plan, structure and compose questionnaires across all industries and purposes, ensuring valuable data insights are captured with accuracy and efficiency.

You can’t write a good questionnaire unless you know exactly what you are trying to achieve. This updated fifth edition recognizes this fundamental challenge, with advice for gaining the clarity needed to plan and focus your questionnaire. It continues to provide guidance for those using interviewer administered surveys, but now reflects the primacy of online and the challenges that brings. With pressure on everyone’s time, this revised edition makes it even easier to navigate to the key points with new bullet-pointed takeaways at the end of each chapter.

Ian Brace, based in Oxford, UK, is a fellow of the MRS and runs training courses on questionnaire design. He was previously director of research methods at TNS UK and a visiting professor in market research at Bristol Business School.

Kate Bolton, based in Surrey, UK, is a certified member of the MRS and has been its key industry trainer for questionnaire design for over 20 years as well as being an examiner for the MRS Advanced Certificate. She previously led the Foundations Research Skills Programmes at Kantar.