The Ideal Number of Questions per Survey Page – What’s your Call?

Did you know that the traditional way to generate a survey or poll is no longer in business? Times have changed and so should we. Gone are the days when we had to scroll down the page to view all the questions. Now people are more interested in multiple page surveys. It allows you to add one survey question on one page or a set of questions addressing the same agenda. However, in case of multiple page navigation, there is an ongoing debate about the ideal number of questions on each survey page.

Well let me shed some light on the hotly debated topic. Various online survey creators would scratch their heads and perhaps formulate a strategy based on assumptions. Instead of being subjective, let’s just focus on the conundrum faced by our users perhaps on a daily basis. So what’s the ideal number of questions per survey page acceptable to the masses today? For more reasons about the effectiveness of multiple page surveys, read on.

Introduce the progress bar

Your survey is 20 percent complete!

Doesn’t that sound accomplishing? The progress bar is believed to be researchers’ best friend. It triggers a unique feeling of investment in the respondent who will subconsciously be motivated to complete the survey. Isn’t that amazing? Now consider the reverse scenario in which the respondent has to answer all questions on the same page. The progress bar is updated only once when the survey is completed. Now that’s annoying and obsolete. More survey creators are now inclined towards the less complicated approach to creating surveys.

Survey Logic works with multiple pages

Survey Logic is usually implemented when there are multiple pages in a survey. It provides features like branching, skipping, extraction and hiding to improve user experience. Note that incorporating logic will not change the feel of the questionnaire but make it simpler for the respondent.

Creates user focus

Giving a multiple page experience to the user allows them to focus on one question at a time. Research proves that most users view one page as a stand-alone subject when they subconsciously group together all the questions on the same page. For instance, if a respondent is answering the fifth question on the same page, their opinion from former questions will be reflected in this answer as well. As a survey creator, you would want to refrain from any such survey bias.

Ease to add relevant resources

When a survey proceeds to multiple pages, there is some extra space on each page. This gives you the freedom to add relevant pictures, videos or links to useful information in order to help the user understand the context of the question on a given page. On the flip side, when there are too many questions on the same page, the visual tools can often be misleading. The user can misinterpret and easily confuse a visual aid as something that relates to the entire page rather than to a single question.

What’s your opinion?

When you create a survey, you will find options to customize the template as per your needs. However, most people will just follow the convention. They are driven by the thought process that more clicks mean more dropouts. But the million dollar question is how do the masses weight this idea?