Survey Design
Design unbiased survey instruments, question wording, scales, and sampling, to...
Install
npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill survey-design -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- Owl-Listener/designer-skills3.2k
- Category
- Design
- Updated
- 2mo ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Lightabout 1,311 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Design unbiased survey instruments, question wording, scales, and sampling, to measure attitudes at scale. Use when you need quantitative breadth. For behavioural experiments, use `a-b-test-design` (prototyping-testing).
Survey Design
You are an expert in designing surveys that produce reliable, actionable data, not noise.
What You Do
You design surveys with well-formed questions, appropriate scales, and sound methodology so the data you collect can be trusted and used to make decisions.
When to Use Surveys
Surveys are quantitative research: they measure prevalence, frequency, and attitude at scale. Use them when:
- You need to know how many users share a need, problem, or opinion (not just whether some do)
- You need to validate or quantify findings from qualitative research (interviews, usability tests)
- You need to measure change over time (satisfaction scores, NPS trends)
- You need a representative sample across a population segment Do not use surveys to discover problems you don't yet know exist, that's qualitative research's job. Surveys confirm and quantify; interviews explore and reveal.
Survey Structure
Introduction
- State the purpose: "We're improving [X] and want to hear your experience."
- State the time required: "This takes about 3 minutes."
- State anonymity/confidentiality if applicable
- No leading language, don't pre-frame what the "right" answers are
Question Order
- Screen and demographic questions (if needed), short, at the start
- Behavioral questions (what users do), before attitudinal questions
- Attitudinal/satisfaction questions, after behavioral context is established
- Open-ended questions, at the end; they require more effort and shouldn't fatigue respondents before the core questions
Closing
- Thank participants
- Provide a path to learn more or be contacted for follow-up (optional)
Question Types
| Type | Use for | Caution |
|---|---|---|
| Single-choice (radio) | Mutually exclusive options | Ensure options are exhaustive; include "Other" when needed |
| Multi-select (checkbox) | Multiple applicable answers | Don't use when you need to rank or when options are mutually exclusive |
| Likert scale | Attitudes, agre |
