How to Use SurveyMars: A Guide to Sample Size, Question Types, and Scales

Creating effective surveys requires careful planning and the right tools. SurveyMars provides powerful features to help you design surveys that yield meaningful, actionable data. This guide will walk you through four critical components of survey design: using closeended questions effectively, understanding openended questions, and applying ordinal scales appropriately.

CloseEnded Questions: Structured Data Collection

Closeended questions are survey questions that provide respondents with fixed response options. These are particularly valuable when you need to quantify responses and perform statistical analysis. SurveyMars offers several closeended question formats:

1. Multiple choice (single answer): Respondents select one option from a list
2. Multiple choice (multiple answers): Respondents can select several options
3. Rating scales: Typically 5 or 7point scales (more on ordinal scales later)
4. Yes/No questions: Simple binary questions
5. Matrix questions: Multiple questions with the same scale options

Best practices for closeended questions in SurveyMars:

Ensure all possible answers are covered (include "Other" with text box if needed)
Keep response options mutually exclusive
Limit the number of options (typically 57 for multiple choice)
Order options logically (numerically, chronologically, or alphabetically)
Use consistent scales throughout your survey

Example of a wellconstructed closeended question in SurveyMars:

"How satisfied are you with our customer service?"
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied

Closeended questions are efficient for both respondents and researchers. They're quick to answer and easy to analyze in SurveyMars' reporting dashboard.

OpenEnded Questions: Capturing Qualitative Insights

While closeended questions provide structured data, openended questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. An openended question doesn't provide predetermined answer choices, enabling more nuanced, detailed responses.

SurveyMars makes it easy to add openended questions to your survey:

1. Click "Add Question" in your survey builder
2. Select "Text Response" question type
3. Choose between short answer (single line) or long answer (paragraph) format
4. Add your question text (e.g., "What suggestions do you have for improving our product?")

When to use openended questions:

Exploring new topics where you don't know all possible responses
Gathering detailed feedback or suggestions
Understanding the "why" behind quantitative data
Capturing emotional responses or personal experiences

Tips for effective openended questions in SurveyMars:

Be specific to get focused responses (e.g., "Describe your experience with our checkout process" rather than "Tell us what you think")
Use them sparingly—they require more effort from respondents
Place them later in the survey after building rapport
Consider making them optional to improve completion rates

SurveyMars' text analytics tools can help you identify common themes and patterns in openended responses, saving you time on manual analysis.

Ordinal Scales: Measuring Ranked Responses

Ordinal scales are a type of measurement scale used in surveys where response options have a meaningful order but the intervals between options aren't necessarily equal. SurveyMars provides several ordinal scale options:

1. Likert scales: Agreement scales (e.g., Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)
2. Frequency scales: (e.g., Always to Never)
3. Quality scales: (e.g., Excellent to Poor)
4. Importance scales: (e.g., Very Important to Not Important at All)

To add an ordinal scale question in SurveyMars:

1. Select "Add Question" and choose "Rating Scale"
2. Specify your scale type (e.g., 5point agreement scale)
3. Enter your question stem
4. Customize the scale labels as needed

Key characteristics of ordinal scales:

Responses can be ranked but not measured precisely
The distance between "Very Satisfied" and "Somewhat Satisfied" may not equal the distance between "Somewhat Satisfied" and "Neutral"
Appropriate for nonparametric statistical analysis

Example ordinal scale question in SurveyMars:

"How often do you use our mobile app?"
Daily
Several times a week
Once a week
A few times a month
Rarely
Never

SurveyMars automatically codes these responses in proper order for analysis, allowing you to generate meaningful reports about trends in your data.

Integrating All Components in SurveyMars

Now that we've examined each component separately, let's see how they work together in a SurveyMars survey:

1. Start with your research goals: Determine what you need to learn
2. Calculate your sample size: Use SurveyMars' calculator to ensure statistical validity
3. Design your question mix: Primarily closeended questions for quantitative analysis Strategic openended questions for qualitative insights Ordinal scales for attitude and behavior measurement
4. Sequence questions logically: Begin with easy, closeended questions Place sensitive or complex questions in the middle End with demographic questions and openended items
5. Preview and test your survey before distribution

SurveyMars streamlines this entire process with intuitive tools and templates. The platform's realtime analytics let you monitor responses as they come in, and its reporting features help you visualize patterns across all question types—from the numerical data of closeended questions to the text patterns in openended responses.

By mastering these fundamental survey components—sample size calculation, closeended questions, openended questions, and ordinal scales—you'll be able to create effective surveys that deliver actionable insights through SurveyMars' powerful platform.