Best Practices for Creating a Form
1. Key Objective
Clarifying your objectives from the outset is essential. This ensures that each question asked serves a specific purpose, thereby avoiding the collection of irrelevant data and contributing to more meaningful results.
2. Question Writing
The way questions are formulated plays a crucial role in the quality of responses obtained.
Simplicity
Using simple language and questions understandable to all participants is essential. Complex questions or the use of technical terms can lead to confusion and inaccurate responses. Simplicity ensures a uniform understanding of questions, thereby facilitating the collection of precise and relevant data.
Specificity
Favoring specific questions over general ones leads to more precise answers. General questions can result in vague and less informative responses. By asking specific questions, participants are guided towards detailed responses, thereby enriching the quality of the collected data.
Decomposition
Breaking down complex questions into a series of related questions facilitates understanding and responses. This avoids confusion caused by overly broad questions. Decomposition allows for addressing specific aspects of a subject, providing a detailed insight without overloading participants with excessive information.
3. Clear Choices
Providing clear and detailed response choices is fundamental. This minimizes the risk of ambiguity and facilitates subsequent analysis by providing more specific and actionable data.
4. Privacy Respect
Including a "Prefer not to answer" option respects participants' privacy. This encourages more open participation by giving respondents control over the information they share, thereby fostering trust.
5. Types of Questions
Using different types of questions is essential for obtaining a variety of data. Multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions, and rating scales offer qualitative and quantitative perspectives, providing a more comprehensive picture of players' experiences.
6. Funnel Technique
Organizing questions progressively, moving from general to specific, maintains participants' interest. This avoids a drop in engagement and ensures thoughtful responses until the end of the survey.
7. Patented
Limiting the length of the survey maintains participants' engagement. Shorter surveys maximize response rates by avoiding respondent fatigue and ensuring attentive and accurate responses.
8. Conditional Logic
Using conditional logic means tailoring questions based on participants' previous responses. This personalizes the survey experience, making questions relevant to each individual.
9. Bias Elimination
Asking neutral questions to avoid influencing participants' responses. This ensures objective and unbiased data, faithfully reflecting real opinions.
10. Avoiding Leading Questions
Asking questions in a non-leading manner to encourage frank and honest responses. Avoiding directing participants towards a specific answer, thus ensuring the validity of the results.
11. Error Checking
Avoiding formulation, grammar, or punctuation errors. Surveys without errors enhance credibility and professionalism, ensuring correct interpretation of questions.
12. One Idea per Question
Asking clear and focused questions to avoid confusion. Complex questions can lead to inconsistent responses, compromising data quality.
13. Form Testing
Conducting pilot tests to identify and address potential issues. This ensures a smooth experience for final participants, avoiding errors or misunderstandings.
14. Respecting Participants' Time
Short surveys respect participants' time, maximizing response rates. Participants are more likely to participate when the survey takes only a few minutes.
15. Mobile Optimization
Optimizing the survey for mobile devices, as many people respond via smartphones and tablets. This ensures a smooth user experience and maximum participation.
16. Avoiding Future Behavior Questions
Focusing on past experiences for more reliable data. Predictions about future behavior can be inaccurate, compromising the validity of the results.
17. Open-Ended Final Question
Encouraging additional comments at the end to capture unaddressed information. This allows participants to share specific details or opinions not covered by standard questions.
18. Avoiding Yes/No Questions
Avoiding binary questions to capture more nuanced opinions. Rating scales or open-ended questions provide a deeper understanding of participants' opinions.
19. Results Analysis
Analyzing results meticulously to detect trends and inconsistencies. This ensures reliable conclusions and a thorough understanding of the collected data.
20. Privacy Respect
Following privacy standards to protect participants' data. This enhances trust, encourages more open participation, and ensures information security.
References
How to write a playtest survey | Games User Research
https://www.mrs.org.uk/pdf/2014-09-01 Questionnaire Design Guidelines.pdf
Survey Design in the Wild: Lessons to be Learned from Bad Survey Questions - Elizabeth Zelle
How to Write Good Survey Questions