Survey Add/remove

Purpose:

A survey is a time efficient and accessible tool for gathering data from respondents. Surveys can be used in the problem exploration phase to understand needs, behaviors and preferences of users, or in the solution development phase to get feedback or testing results on your solution proposal(s). It is crucial to develop a concise, well-designed survey, and to target the relevant respondents to successfully use surveys in your work.

Step by step Materials needed Goes well with

Tips to include participants who are not able to:

Hold

If a participant is unable to hold make sure to have a partner to spar with that can do the writing of questions or use a software for writing that can be controlled with other means than hand gestures.

Touch

If a participant is unable to touch make sure to have a partner to spar with that can do the writing of questions or use a software for writing that can be controlled with other means than hand gestures.
Ability to see

See

If participants are unable to see, make sure to have a partner to spar with that can do the writing of questions. This could be a helper, documenter, facilitator or other group members.
You can also use speech-to-text technologies.

Overview

Input

Goal for obtaining knowledge

Output

Respondent answers informing your goal

Complexity

Complex

Time

1 week

Participants

No minimum

Activity

Core abilities:

  • Formulating questions
  • Reflecting
  • Goal setting
  • Analyzing

Step by step:

  1. Surveys can be conducted either online or in-person. Decide what is the best fit for your survey depending on the target group’s preferences and the physical proximate availability of respondents.

    Several platforms offer free tools for creating an online survey.

  2. Define the goal of the survey. What would you like to know by the end of the data collection?

    All questions, you decide to ask, must inform your goal. See the goal as a guiding star to maximize your output of the method, and avoid ending up with questions that are not all that relevant.

  3. Define the target population. Who are you going to reach out to to get relevant answers, and how/where will you reach them?

  4. Formulate the survey questions. This is an important point – it often takes longer than anticipated to formulate concise, relevant and unbiased questions. Tips for question creation are:

    • Beginning with questions on demographics is important
    • Formulate questions clearly, and only ask about one thing at a time
    • Avoid using biased language, priming participants in a direction
    • Ask yourself if the question is relevant for the goal
    • Think about creating a logical and intuitive flow

  5. All good surveys are pilot tested before being distributed to real participants. See our method ‘Pilot testing’ to find out more.

  6. Distribute the survey! Be creative – forums on social medias can sometimes help you reach engaged respondents.

  7. Analyse your results. Did you reach your goal for the survey?

Materials needed:

Any survey creation tool, search online to know more