How to write a good survey

What a survey is for

A survey asks lots of people the same questions and collects the answers in one place. Finding a date for a meetup, counting heads for a party, hearing how a class went: all surveys.

Good surveys are short, ask one thing per question, and have a clear next step once the answers are in. Write down what you'll decide with the results first, and the questions you don't need drop out on their own.

Ground rules for questions

Don't ask two things at once. "Were the content and the pace good?" should be two questions, or someone who liked only one has nowhere to answer.

Drop words that push people one way. "How was the event?" beats "How was the event everyone loved?"

Make options that don't overlap and don't leave gaps. With "1 to 3" and "3 to 5", people with 3 don't know where to go. If none might apply, add "None" or "Other".

What Seolmun does

There are seven question types: multiple choice and dropdown (pick one), checkboxes (pick several), short answer, paragraph, scale and date.

You can split questions into sections. For each option in a multiple-choice or dropdown question, you can choose which section comes next. You can only send people forward or to submit. If a section has several of these questions, the last one wins.

Each survey takes up to 1,000 responses. See results as charts, one response at a time, or as a CSV file that opens cleanly in Excel.

What's not here: file uploads, email alerts, sign-in-only surveys, and editing a response after it's sent.

The basics

Open with something easy. An easy multiple-choice question up front gets more people to the end. Put heavier questions, like names, later and only if you need them.

Only mark questions required when they really are. When everything is required, more people close the tab halfway.

Label both ends of a scale. Write "Very unhappy" and "Very happy" so nobody wonders whether 1 or 5 is good.

Before you publish, answer your own survey once in preview. That's where you check the sections jump the way you meant.

Going further

Use sections to keep it short. People who aren't coming don't need the menu question. Send the "No" option straight to submit.

To find a date, use checkboxes with several candidate dates. In the summary, the longest bar is the date most people can make.

If you collect personal details, say in the description what you collect, why, and when you'll delete it. You're the one collecting them. Seolmun only stores them.

For personality quizzes, mix the direction of your statements. If "agree" always points to the same letter, anyone who just clicks "agree" lands on the same type.

Where people get stuck

Lost the manage link? It can't be recovered. There's no account, so the link is the key. If you're on the same browser, it's still under "Surveys made in this browser" on the home page.

Seeing "Blocked word"? Something in your survey asks for a password, card number, national ID number or verification code. We block those questions to stop phishing.

Answer screen closed? At the top of the manage page, check whether responses are switched off, the cap is full, or the survey was closed after reports.

Editing after you publish keeps the answers you already have. If you delete an option, answers that picked it drop out of the summary.