I couldn’t agree more. We’ve all seen too many poorly designed surveys. It would be interesting if anyone has done any research on what respondents think contributes to a good survey. Is it length, content, layout, etc. This by it’s nature, it may be difficult to measure which leads me to my question.

If users were to ‘rate’ a survey, what kind of measure do we use? Is it a scale question, 4, 5, 7 or 9 point? Is the rating based on enjoyability or some other factor?
Unfortunately, I think many may fear adding a few questions on research would burden or deter respondents from continuing.

As you stated, the technology to make surveys better is already here. The internet has made it quicker to field and collect survey responses, but few are actually making surveys better. There are a few stars but these may be the exception.

Once criticism that I’ve always had is that surveys are still this linear series of questions. Mail, mall and internet surveys are not all that different. This notion needs to be challenged.

Cheers,

Paul