The Fowler book is a very good book. I like the very practical book: Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2009). Internet, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (Third Edition). New York, NY: Wiley. This is perhaps the best and comprehensive book on survey design. This is the latest book from Don Dillman, a guru of questionnaire and survey design. Dillman's book is full of practical advice backed up by decades of research.
The comments by others are very good. The length of the survey will depend on how usable the survey is, the motivation of your respondents, the relevance of the questions, and the trust that people have in your survey. The Dilllan book has many tips on how to ensure trust and indicate how the survey will benefit the respondents. Thanks, Chauncey On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 3:29 PM, live <[email protected]> wrote: > Yeah, I suggest picking up a book about survey writing for research. I like > Survey Research Methods by Fowler. > Also, simple small thing which can make a big difference: make sure to the > user how many pages/what page they are on. > > On Jan 20, 2010, at 12:08 PM, Linda/JingYing Chen wrote: > >> Hi Everyone, >> >> I am in the process of designing a survey for work. The survey consists of >> 45 questions to be conducted online using a the Checkbox tool ( >> http://www.checkbox.com/ which seems to be down at the moment). >> >> Because it is a lengthy survey, I am worried about a couple of things: >> 1. Does the number of question per page matter? If so what is the average >> number of questions a participant should answer per page before they lose >> patience? >> 2. Alternatively, what is the maximum number of pages a survey should >> have? >> 3. 30 of the 45 questions will be requesting the answers to be on a scale >> of >> 1 - 5. Each of these ratings will have an associate description. What is a >> good length (e.g. 4 - 5 words) for these rating descriptions? >> 3. And lastly, are there any good books / online resources that I could >> use >> to answer these questions? >> >> Any response is much appreciated! >> >> Take care, >> >> lin. > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
