Surveys are everywhere—popping up after customer support chats, lurking in your inbox after a purchase, and waiting for you at the bottom of websites. But designing a truly great survey? That’s an art and a science. A well-crafted survey doesn’t just gather data; it uncovers insights that drive better decisions. 

Thoughtful survey design follows certain best practices, such as ensuring your questionnaire includes the right mix of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions such as a likert scale, helping you collect meaningful responses without overwhelming participants. 

So in this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps of great survey design—plus a few common pitfalls to avoid—so you can collect feedback that actually helps.

Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Know Your Why 

Before you even think about writing your first survey question, ask yourself: What do I want to learn?

A good survey starts with a clear goal. Without it, you’re just throwing survey questions into the void, hoping something useful comes back. What goals you have in mind will drive the types of questions you'll include, which in turn will determine the quality of data collected. So define your objective first. 

Examples of Good vs. Bad Survey Goals

• Good Goal: "We want to understand why users abandon our onboarding flow after the second step." (This is specific and clearly defined.) 
• Bad Goal: "We just want to collect some user feedback." (this is too vague) 

Best Practices for Deciding on Your Survey Goals

• Don’t create a survey just for the sake of it.
  
  
• Avoid broad, unclear goals that don’t lead to actionable insights.
  
  
• Don’t ask survey questions that don’t align with your main objective.
  
  

Step 2: Pick the Right Audience 

Every good researcher knows that good survey design is also about who you give the questionnaire to. If you ask the wrong respondents, you’ll get the wrong data. Understanding demographic details about your target audience can improve your survey’s response rate and ensures that survey templates produce accurate insights. 

Examples of Targeting the Right Respondents

• For onboarding feedback: Survey participants who completed your onboarding flow within the last 30 days.
  
  
• For feature feedback: Target respondents who’ve actually used the feature—not just anyone.
  
  
• For churn insights: Reach out to respondents who canceled their subscription within the last 60 days.
  
  
• Extra tip: Using in-app surveys lets you ask the right respondents at the right time.
  
  

Mistakes to avoid when finding the right demographic of respondents 

• Don’t send your survey to a generic audience who may not have relevant insights. Consider demographic questions to refine your audience.
  
  
• Avoid asking users about features they’ve never used.
  
  
• Don’t ignore segmentation. It helps ensure the quality of responses.
  
  

Step 3: Choose Your Survey Question Types Wisely

Not all survey questions are created equal, and the type of survey and the type of questions you choose will directly impact your data quality. 

Two Main Types of Survey Questions: Open-Ended and Closed-Ended

When designing a survey, questions generally fall into two broad categories: open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. Each serves a different purpose and offers unique benefits depending on the kind of feedback you need.

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions allow respondents to provide detailed, free-form answers in their own words. These are useful when you need in-depth insights, explore new ideas, or understand the reasoning behind a response. However, they should be used sparingly since they require more effort from respondents and can be harder to analyze at scale.

Benefits:

• Collects rich qualitative feedback
• Encourages respondents to share unique insights
• Useful for exploring opinions, experiences, and suggestions

Closed-Ended Questions 

In contrast to open-ended questions, closed-ended question types provide predefined answer choices, making responses easier to analyze. These are best when you need structured, quantitative data or clear-cut comparisons between different options. However, there is the potential downside of being suceptible to bias via leading question, so you have to be careful about how you word them. Here is a list of different types of closed-ended survey question types: 

• Ranking Questions – Help respondents prioritize preferences, making it easier to understand what matters most to them.
• Yes/No Questions – Ideal for quick, straightforward feedback, ensuring clear-cut answers.
• Matrix Questions – Allow respondents to rate multiple items on the same scale, making it easier to compare different aspects of a product or service.
• Multiple Choice Questions – Provide structured answers, making it easy to categorize responses (e.g., "Which feature do you use the most?").
• Likert Scale Questions – Measure satisfaction, agreement, or attitudes on a scale (e.g., 1-5 or 1-7), helping quantify customer sentiment.

By combining both open-ended and closed-ended question types strategically, you can design a well-rounded survey that captures both qualitative and quantitative insights, leading to more actionable and reliable data.

Step 4: Keep Your Survey Design Short and Sweet

Respondents are more likely to complete a survey when it is concise and respects their time. The length of your survey should be just enough to collect valuable insights without overwhelming your audience. Every additional question increases the likelihood of abandonment, so focus on essential queries that directly support your objective.

Best Practices for Survey Length

• Ideal survey length – 5-7 survey questions for in-app surveys, up to 15 for deep-dive feedback.
  
  
• Time to complete – Keep it under 3-5 minutes.
  
  
• Avoid unnecessary survey questions – If a survey question isn’t directly contributing to your goal, remove it.
  
  
• A well-structured survey template helps streamline the process while improving your response rate.
  
  

What not to do on your survey design

• Don’t create an overly long survey.
  
  
• Avoid redundant or unnecessary questions that don’t add value.
  
  
• Don’t make respondents jump through unnecessary hoops to complete the survey.
  
  
• Watch out for bias in your survey questions. Watch out for any language that may prime respondents to think in a certain way. 

Step 5: Arrange Questions in a Logical Order

The sequence of your questions significantly affects how respondents interpret and answer them. A well-structured survey flows naturally from general to specific topics, keeping participants engaged and preventing survey fatigue. Thoughtful organization also helps minimize bias, ensuring that responses accurately reflect participants' true opinions. By grouping related questions together and maintaining a logical progression, you can ensure a smooth and efficient response experience.

Best Practices for Survey Flow

• Start with an easy survey question – A good survey question at the beginning should be straightforward. Warm up respondents with something simple, like a multiple choice question or likert scale question. 
• Move from general to specific – Ask broad survey questions first, then drill down into more detailed inquiries.
• Group similar topics together – This keeps respondents focused and engaged, preventing confusion and inconsistent opinions.
• Ensure a natural progression – Avoid jumping back and forth between unrelated topics, as it can lead to skewed responses or unintended bias.
• End with an open-ended question – Let respondents share anything else they feel is important, allowing for additional insights and honest opinions. 

How Not to Order Your Questionnaire

• Don’t randomly jump between unrelated topics, as this can disrupt respondents' thought processes.
• Avoid placing difficult or complex questions at the start, as they might introduce bias early in the survey.
• Don’t end abruptly—give respondents a chance to share final thoughts, reinforcing the value of their opinions. 

Step 6: Test Your Survey

A well-designed survey must be tested before full deployment. Testing ensures that your questions are clear, your survey logic is correct, and there are no technical issues that could frustrate respondents. By running small-scale trials, you can refine the survey and improve response quality before it reaches your full audience. 

Core Questions to Ask When Testing Your Survey Design

• Send it to a small internal group first – Are the survey questions clear? Do they make sense?
  
  
• Check for technical issues – Does your survey work smoothly on mobile?
  
  
• Time how long it takes to complete – If it drags on, trim it down.
  
  
• A/B Test Survey Questions – Run tests on different versions of the survey to determine which wording gets better responses.
  
  

How Not to Test Your Survey Questions

• Don’t send out a survey without testing it first.
  
  
• Don't ignoring mobile usability issues.
  
  
• Don’t assume all respondents interpret questions the same way.
  
  

Step 7: Distribute Your Survey the Smart Way

A great survey or questionnaire is useless if no one responds. The key to a high response rate is delivering your survey at the right time, through the right channels. Consider where and when your target audience is most engaged, and choose a distribution method that aligns with their habits. 

Different Ways to Share Your Survey

• In-app prompts – Catch respondents while they’re engaged.
  
  
• Email surveys – Great for longer feedback, like quarterly NPS surveys.
  
  
• Post-onboarding surveys – Ask respondents for feedback right after they complete onboarding.
  
  
• Social Media & Communities – If you're seeking broader opinions, share the survey in online groups.
  
  
• SMS Surveys – Great for quick pulse surveys with a high response rate.
  
  

What Not to Do When Sharing Your Survey

• Don’t send surveys at inconvenient times (like midnight!).
  
  
• Don't overwhelming users with too many surveys.
  
  
• Don’t rely on a single distribution channel.
  
  

Step 8: Analyze Results and Take Action

Collecting survey responses is just the beginning—what you do with the data is what truly matters. Proper analysis helps uncover valuable insights that can drive meaningful improvements in your business, product, or service. By looking at trends, segmenting responses, and identifying key themes, you can turn raw feedback into actionable strategies that lead to growth and customer satisfaction.

Best Practices for Analyzing Survey Results

• Look for trends – Are multiple respondents mentioning the same pain points?
  
  
• Segment responses – Break down feedback by demographic, behavior, or experience level.
  
  
• Don’t ignore outliers – Sometimes, a single strong piece of feedback, whether you disagree with it or not, can spark a game-changing insight.
  
  
• Follow up with respondents – If needed, ask clarifying survey questions or conduct interviews for deeper insights.
  
  
• Share findings with your team – Insights should be used across product, marketing, and customer success teams.
  
  

What Not to Do

• Don’t ignore survey results—data is only useful when acted upon.
  
  
• Avoid cherry-picking feedback— Beware of leaning into preconceived biases when looking at your responses.
  
  
• Don’t let survey insights sit unused—take action to implement meaningful changes.
  
  

Extra Tip: Use the Right Survey Creation Tool

Choosing the right survey maker can simplify the entire process, from designing survey questions to analyzing responses. A good tool should support various question types, including open-ended questions and closed-ended questions, allowing for deeper insights. Look for features like likert scale options, demographic filters, and pre-built survey templates to streamline the process.

Platforms like Userflow, Typeform, or Google Forms provide intuitive interfaces, making it easy to craft questionnaires with diverse types of questions. Logic-based branching and customizable templates can help refine responses, ensuring you capture accurate data. Whether you're measuring satisfaction, gathering feedback, or assessing agreement levels from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” the right tool helps you maximize efficiency.

By selecting a robust survey maker that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems, you’ll be able to easily create and deploy sophisticated surveys. 

Final Thoughts: Elevate Your Survey Strategy

Let us say it again since it's so important: collecting feedback is meaningless if it doesn’t lead to improvement. Use the insights you’ve gathered from your survey questions to refine your product, enhance user experience, and address pain points. So don’t let your survey results sit in a spreadsheet collecting dust. Share findings with your team, prioritize key takeaways, and implement changes where needed. 

In the end, a well-designed survey isn’t just about data collection—it’s about continuous growth and better decision-making. So go ahead, design your survey, analyze responses wisely, and most importantly, take action. 

Want to get started with creating surveys that get high quality data? Userflow makes it easy to create in-app surveys with customizable survey templates, ensuring you collect the right feedback at the right time. Try it today.