Question Matrices and Forced Answers

Adding question matrices to your survey is an important part of cutting down time and tedium, so that users can quickly move through the survey with less reading and a greater understanding of how to answer the questions. But as is the case with most choices you make on how to run your survey, they are not without their problems. One problem – an issue that many survey respondents are familiar with – is that of skipping an answer. When you see a matrix with all its dots on the screen, it’s possible that you lose track of which question you’re on, skip a question or answer on the wrong line, only to think that you answered it simply due to a trick on the eyes.

In order for this problem to have less of an effect, researchers tend to force answers on question matrices. That ensures that if the individual accidentally skips a question, the survey will not allow them to move on and will show them where they missed an answer. Yet there is a problem, and the problem is that researchers don’t know why the question was missed.

In many cases the respondent simply skipped over the question and once they answer it the data is back to being reliable. But in other cases, the individual accidentally answered a different question with the answer they had planned for the original question. When they are notified that they skipped an answer, they simply go back, “answer the question again,” and move on.

What usually happens is that the respondent does not go back and check the rest of their answers to see if they accidentally answered one erroneously. So they are leaving one of their questions answered wrong, thus affecting the data and making it less valuable.

You can put a small notice when the user accidentally misses a question that says “please review your other answers to make sure that they are all answered correctly before moving on” but there is no guarantee that they will do that. The best thing to do is simply make sure that skipping questions is less common. To do this, you need to make your matrices smaller (so that there are less items to select and thus less likely to blend together), and make sure there are clear colors, lines, and borders in between each question so that the respondent can clearly see which one they’re on.