Transcript Typography & Layout Top Tips!

Typography & Layout
Top Tips!
FOLIOz ASQ Course
March 2012
Some Typography Tips
• Always make sure that the text on your
questionnaire is large enough and clear
enough for people to read.
• A slight reduction in type size may
reduce the length of your questionnaire
- but make sure it will still be readable
for your respondents.
Font Style Recommendations
• Times New Roman and Arial are the preferred font
style for high levels of legibility and readability.
Verdana is also a good choice.
• Both the Basic Skills Agency (BSA)
(http://www.basic-skills.co.uk/) and the Royal
National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
(http://www.rnib.org.uk/) express a slight
preference for san serif fonts (such as Arial).
Font Size Recommendations
• The RNIB recommends a font size of 12
points for documents intended for general
readers, and a minimum of 14 points if
readers are likely to have a visual
impairment.
Line Spacing
Recommendations
• It is recommended to use at least
double spacing between one question
and the next, and between a question
and the first related response category.
Within a set of response categories, 1.5
line spacing is recommended.
Some More Typography Tips
• Use a combination of bold and/or underlining
where appropriate to provide emphasis in the
text of a question and to distinguish
instructions from questions.
• However, be aware that if you use underlining
on an online questionnaire, people may
confuse it with hypertext links.
Some Layout Tips
• The quality of your questionnaire
represents your organisation - make
sure it looks professional.
• Try not to overfill the page - using lots of
lines, borders and boxes can make the
page appear too “dense”.
• Don’t split questions over pages.
The Order of Questions
• The order of the questions on your
questionnaire is important. Some general
rules are:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Go from general to particular.
Go from easy to difficult.
Go from factual to abstract.
Start with closed format questions.
Start with questions relevant to the main subject.
Do not start with demographic questions.
White Space
• Don’t cramp questions together to make
your questionnaire appear shorter using “white space” makes your
questionnaire appear easier to
complete.
• Use more blank space between
questions than subcomponents of
questions.
Your Respondents
•
•
Put yourself in the respondents place and come up
with ways to make the questionnaire as appealing
to the eye and as easy to answer as possible.
Don’t forget that your respondents are seeing your
questionnaire for the first time. They may be in a
hurry so they need to “orientate themselves very
quickly to the flow of a questionnaire”1, therefore it
is a good idea to be consistent and avoid switching
between landscape (e.g. Likert scales) and portrait
(e.g. vertical list of choices) for the text layout.
1. Booth, A (2005) Mind your Ps and Qs (pitfalls of questionnaires).
Health Information & Libraries Journal 22 (3): 228-231.
Some More Layout Tips
• Number all questions sequentially.
• Try to be consistent in aspects such as
wording.
• Use a consistent style of questions (i.e.
not a mixture of ticking boxes, circling
answers etc.)
• If you are using tick boxes etc., don’t
make the boxes too small!
And Finally…
• Proof read, proof read and proof read
again! - Be absolutely sure that there
are no errors on your questionnaire
before you distribute it.
References used to compile
presentation
Booth, A. (2005) Mind your Ps and Qs (pitfalls of questionnaires). Health Information & Libraries Journal 22 (3):
228-231.
Burgess, T.F. (2001) A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research [online] Available
from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070315105037/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/iss/documentation/top/top2.pdf
[Accessed March 2012].
Frary, R. (2002) A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development [online] Available from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080521160104/http://ertr.tamu.edu/showlink.cfm?linkid=509&catid=26
[Accessed March 2012]
Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative (1999) Evaluation Cookbook: Questionnaires [online] [Accessed
March 2012]
Leung WC. (2001) How to design a questionnaire. StudentBMJ; 9: 187-9. [online] Available from:
http://www.cochrane.es/files/Recursos/How_to_design_a_questionnaire.pdf [Accessed March 2012]
McColl E. et al. Design and use of questionnaires: a review of best practice applicable to surveys of health
service staff and patients. Health Technology Assessment, 2001; 5 (31): 1-256 [online] Available from:
http://www.hta.ac.uk/fullmono/mon531.pdf [Accessed March 2012]
Taylor, C.L. & Summerhill, W.R. (2006) Formatting a Mail Questionnaire [online] [No longer available online]
University of Illinois (2005) Introduction to Questionnaire Design [online] [No longer available online]
University of Leicester (2006) Design on online questionnaires 1: Appearance [online] Available from:
http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/questionnaires/quesdesign1.htm#6 [Accessed March 2012]
WebSurveyor for Marketing (2006) Survey Design Considerations: Recommendations for Writing Effective
Questionnaires [online] Available from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070421050647/http://www.websurveyor.com/pdf/designtips.pdf [Accessed
March 2012]
Further Reading
• Smith, T.W. (1995) Little Things Matter: A
Sampler of How Differences in Questionnaire
Format Can Affect Survey
Responses.Proceedings of the Survey
Research Methods Section, American
Statistical Association [online], Available from:
http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/Proceedi
ngs/papers/1995_182.pdf [Accessed March
2012]
The End