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) ( and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) ( 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: oGo from general to particular. oGo from easy to difficult. oGo from factual to abstract. oStart with closed format questions. oStart with questions relevant to the main subject. oDo 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):

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): Burgess, T.F. (2001) A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012].A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research Frary, R. (2002) A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012]A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative (1999) Evaluation Cookbook: Questionnaires [online] [Accessed March 2012]Evaluation Cookbook: Questionnaires Leung WC. (2001) How to design a questionnaire. StudentBMJ; 9: [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012]How to design a questionnaire 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): [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012]Design and use of questionnaires: a review of best practice applicable to surveys of health service staff and patients 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]Introduction to Questionnaire Design University of Leicester (2006) Design on online questionnaires 1: Appearance [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012]Design on online questionnaires 1: Appearance WebSurveyor for Marketing (2006) Survey Design Considerations: Recommendations for Writing Effective Questionnaires [online] Available from: [Accessed March 2012]Survey Design Considerations: Recommendations for Writing Effective Questionnaires

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: ngs/papers/1995_182.pdf [Accessed March 2012]Little Things Matter: A Sampler of How Differences in Questionnaire Format Can Affect Survey Responses ngs/papers/1995_182.pdf

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