If you were to look at some examples of surveys, you’d notice that most contain numerous types of questions. That is not only normal, but good surveys actually take advantage of different types of questions to make questions easier to answer and acquire more useful data.
While there are many different types of questions that you may want to include when creating your online surveys, there are a few that are especially important:
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Multiple-choice single-answer questions
In this type of question a single answer will be selected from multiple options that are available. It can sometimes take the form of a list, radio buttons, or scales of any kind.
The advantage of this option is it allows you to nail down a specific response to the question that you’re asking. However that limitation can cause bias in itself, or may affect the accuracy of the data as some people may just choose a random answer.
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Checkboxes
Essentially checkboxes are the most popular type of multiple-choice multiple-answer question. Instead of selecting just one answer, people will be able to pick several answers.
It is best to use checkboxes when more freedom is required by the question, or when multiple items from a list may need to be picked out.
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Rating and Likert scales
Both of these types of questions are similar insofar as they consist of a ‘scale’ of answers. In a rating scale the answers would require a specific numbered rating (i.e. 1 to 10, or 1 to 100), whereas in a Likert scale the answers would be a range of options such as ‘not at all likely’ all the way up to ‘very likely’.
Likert scales generally provide more context, both to the survey as well as the person answering it – and are often the preferred option. However rating scales can be good for certain types of questions such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) questions, but need to be contextualized properly.
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Open-ended questions
Unlike multiple-choice questions that are closed and have pre-defined responses, open-ended questions are free-form and give people the chance to provide more detail. It is good to have a few open-ended questions as it can help you to gain deeper insights.
Unfortunately the responses you collect will vary in terms of quality and length, and it will be more difficult to analyze the data too.
In most surveys you will want to use a mix of the questions listed above – and possibly others as well. It is important that you’re able to add them to your survey form, and using tools such as AidaForm Online Form Builder can make that part easier.
It would help to explore other types of questions as well, to better understand the scope of options at your disposal. Once you do you should be able to figure out how to structure each type of question, based on the information that you’re hoping to be able to obtain by including it in your survey.
