Best practice in surveys: a round-up

If you’d like to see everything I have ever written about surveys then go to the publications list, but here are my suggestions for where to look first.

If you’re getting started on surveys

  • A quick introduction: Five steps to better surveys – this presentation forms part of a one-day workshop for non-specialists.
  • For rigorous results and to avoid survey error: Surveys that work at LibDesign 2016 – this presentation offers a more complete, seven step, survey process, as well as an introduction to avoiding survey error.

If you’re a survey methodologist or UX practitioner

  • Teaching total survey error to non-specialists: The Survey Octopus: an approach to teaching total survey error –  I evolved the Survey Octopus as a way of helping people understand the issues involved in avoiding errors, so they can make more informed choices when deciding how to approach a survey.
  • What key concepts in survey methodology mean in practice: Six crucial survey concepts that UX professionals need to know – this workshop for UXPA’s 2014 conference examines some of the trickiest topics in running surveys. These include asking the right questions, measuring satisfaction, assessing survey error, dealing with non-response, analysing the data based on your goals, and testing.
  • How to incorporate usability testing into survey development: Introduction to usability testing for survey research – a short course on the basics of incorporating usability testing into the development process of a survey, first presented at the SAPOR conference,  North Carolina, US.