Todd Hollander Market Research

Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use drop-down lists.

Drop-down list

Drop-down lists typically appear in the survey as a box with instructions to "select one." This type of response format requires the user to click on the box, then locate and click on their answer. Drop-down lists are most appropriate when a) the number of response options is too large to format with radio buttons, and/or b) it is faster or easier for the respondent to select a response from a drop-down list rather than a list of radio buttons. Recommendations:

• Because all of the possible responses are not visible on the initial screen, drop-down options should be used for fields with which respondents are already familiar (such as year of birth or state of residence).
• When many possible responses are included in the drop-down list, it is important to organize response options in a logical way (e.g., alphabetically or numerically).
• Use drop-down lists when appropriate as research has shown that they do not increase the likelihood of respondents giving “don’t know” responses or leaving items blank. ^*

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* Couper, Tourangeau, Conrad and Crawford. “What They See is What We Get.” Social Science Computer Review. http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/22/1/111.pdf (2004).