Checklist for questionnaire launch

Ready to start collecting data? Check the following:

Content:

• Simplify. Cut un-essential questions ruthlessly, and re-think if they could be re-worded or merged. Consider if instead of an open question, the same thing could be asked as a multiple choice. 
• Go to Survey settings > Style and turn on page numbers and progress bar. Being able to see their progress motivates respondents to complete the survey.
• Do you need respondents to answer all questions? Then set them to be mandatory or to have minimum/maximum numbers.
• Do you need respondents to explicitly indicate their consent? Add a Single checkbox element that they need to check to confirm their participation.
• Provide the contact details of a person that respondents can email or call if they have questions
• Double check that you are using question elements correctly. For example, in multiple choice questions, you can always add more answer options from the + symbol (do not add another element just to add another option!). Note also the difference between a Multiple choice grid and a Choose multiple answer options questions. 
• If you are using Page jumps – Do they direct respondents to correct pages according to their answer? And where are respondents directed after that page? Remember, you can also use the Page jump element to allow respondents to jump over pages.
• Are you using a map on pages where it's unnecessary? On pages where you are not asking map questions, it's better to use a color or image background. Avoid overloading pages with multiple system maps, shapefiles or heavy image files. 
• Narrow or wide survey form? In page settings, you can decide the width of the survey form.
• Hide long texts behind pop-ups (Pop-up element). This way people can still access the text (e.g. a privacy policy) but it doesn't clutter the page.
• Style your text – Shorter is always better, but you can also use markdown formatting and splitting the text between different sized text elements to break the "wall of text" impression.

Go to Survey settings:

• Give your questionnaire a public title, a description and an image. 
• Check that the main language matches the language of the original draft. 
• Add a link to which respondents who complete the survey are directed (Survey settings > Publication)
• Should the Maintain respondent session setting be turned off? This depends on how you are collecting data.

Publication and testing:

• Publish your survey in test mode and test it with a representative test group.
• Are the questions in a format that you can easily use for analysis? When you have some test data, you can go to Analyze to see what the data looks like. 
• When you are ready, publish final version of your questionnaire. 
• Customized survey URL + QR code: If you'd like to use a customized shortlink and QR code for your questionnaire, read the linked article for specifics and then contact support@maptionnaire.com.

If you have any questions, please contact support@maptionnaire.com