Survey Template Color Selection

Most survey design software platforms allow you to decide how you would like your survey customized. While for many this may seem like an afterthought, several studies have shown that the aesthetic design of a survey can affect the outcome, so choosing the right design qualities is going to be an important part of getting good research. Part of your decision will be based on colors. Ideally, you will need to select colors that are going to give you the best responses – or, at the very least, design a survey that will not cause you to receive poor responses.

Most market researchers agree that your best choice as a business is to use the colors you have in your logo or marketing materials. For example, if your logo is dark green and sky blue, your survey should use dark green and sky blue colors. Still, this can be hit and miss.

If your logo is light colored, you may not be able to place many of those colors in the survey without causing reading difficulties. If your logo has very harsh tones, there is a chance (albeit small) that your survey will have a negative appearance. For those that don’t have friendly, dark colors to place in their survey, the best colors to choose from are black and blue.

Once again, however, make sure that you choose a blue that is very easy to read. Light blue, light green, light red, and light yellow also make good background shading colors for alternating questions. Try to choose a very light color.

Remember, even if the color appears so light that you think it will be unnoticeable, it is very likely that it will be far more visible when compared to the white background and alternating white panels.

Make sure to consider if the colors you choose have any “meaning.” For example, pink may be seen as a feminine color to some men, while using green and red may have religious connotations. Most people seem to dislike oranges on their survey as well, for reasons that are not quite clear. While the differences are unlikely to be too strong, it’s possible that the colors you choose can affect your survey.

Survey personalization is great, and encouraged for most companies, but there is a limit to how much branding you can do without affecting the quality of your results because certain colors are not as useful as others for designing your survey. Here's more on how you can customize the look and feel of your surveys using several pre-designed, stunning Basic or Graphical presentation styles to match your brand and make your surveys stand out!