Tools and software

Surveys

Choosing a suitable platform is a key step in the process of designing and delivering your survey. The platform you use will impact a range of factors, including how easy your survey is to create, how functional your survey will be, and how accessible it is for your respondents.

Conducting online surveys in a local government context can sometimes be limited by cost, licensing, or available software. It is important to understand what is available and which platforms are appropriate for your research.

Factors to consider when choosing a platform

Note platforms change regularly and this guide may not reflect the latest developments

Data protection

Is the platform compliant with UK GDPR requirements?
Does the platform comply with Camden’s requirements for data storage?
Where will your survey data be stored?

Accessibility

Does the platform allow users to complete the survey with screen readers?
Does the platform have additional accessibility functions (e.g., easy-read, mobile friendly, colour contrast)?

Question and format complexity

Does the platform allow for more complex question types or designs (e.g., skip logic, or ranking, matrix or slider questions)?

Ease of use for staff

Are staff able to set up, distribute, and manage surveys using the platform without specialist technical skills or a lot of experience in survey design?
Can staff collaborate on the platform together?
If required is there programmatic access to create, management, and extract responses? This can save considerable time.

Look and feel

Does the platform allow you to customise the style or appearance of the survey (e.g., using Camden/HWB’s branding, custom URLs)? This can help build trust.

Analysis and reporting

Can data be exported easily for analysis (e.g., into Excel, or CSV format)?
Does the platform provide any basic analysis or dashboards?

Using Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms is the main survey tool available to Camden staff. Whilst Forms can be useful for carrying out simple or small-scale surveys¹, there are some limitations when conducting more complex public health research and evaluation activities.

What is Forms good for?

Quick, simple surveys targeted at a limited audience (e.g., a pulse or snapshot staff survey, training feedback or evaluation)
Collecting straightforward quantitative data (e.g., single- or multiple-choice questions, Likert scales)
Exporting raw data into another programme (e.g., Excel) to analyse results yourself

Creating your survey

Go to forms.office.com and open a ‘New Form’ on to begin designing your survey.
Add a title and a description. Use the description to explain what your survey is about in plain language.
Select ‘Insert new question’ to add your questions. Forms will give you a variety of question types to choose from.
Use the ‘Multiple answers’ toggle to allow respondents to select more than one answer (as part of a multiple-choice question) or the ‘Required’ toggle to force respondents to select an answer.
Create sections in your survey using the ‘Section’ question type. Select ‘Insert new question’ followed by ‘Section’ and add an optional section title and short description if necessary.

Adjust your settings

Use the ‘Settings’ icon at the top of the page to amend your survey settings.
By default, Forms will allow only Camden staff to respond to your email and records their name. For anonymous surveys, or surveys being distributed outside of LBC select ‘Anyone can respond’.
Add a ‘Start date’ and ‘End date’ based on when you would like your survey to open and/or close.
Select any other settings appropriate for your survey, such as showing a progress bar or adding a customisable thank you message to show to respondents at the end of the survey.

Preview your survey

Testing your survey before you share it with respondents is essential. Microsoft Forms allows you to test your survey using the ‘Preview’ function.

Select ‘Preview’ at the top of the page with the eye icon.
Click through your survey, and answer questions/select responses as if you were a genuine participants.
Make a note of any errors, spelling mistakes, or issues with how your survey functions so you can make any necessary changes.
You can change test whether your survey looks good and works well on a mobile by toggling the computer to mobile function at the top of the preview page.

Always test your survey with other people before you share it more widely. Consider sharing your survey link with a colleague who is less familiar with your project and ask for feedback.

Distributing your survey

To share your survey and start collecting responses, select ‘Collect responses’ at the top of the page.
If you are sharing a link to your survey in an email or through social media, Forms will generate a link for you to share. Select ‘copy link’ and optionally select ‘Shorten URL’ to avoid sharing a long URL with potential respondents.
Forms offers a QR code option for distributing your survey. If you are printing resources (e.g., a poster) and want people to complete your survey this way, a QR code might be a suitable method.
You can also share an embed code if you want to share your survey on a webpage or microsite page.

Viewing your results

Your survey results will appear under ‘View responses’
Forms will show you a ‘Responses Overview’ with data including how many responses your survey has had, the average time it is taking respondents to complete (so you can adjust your description as needed) and how long your survey has been open for.
On this page, you will be able to see some very basic analysis and visualisations (e.g., bar charts). Be mindful that these built-in charts are very basic and should not be used as your final analysis or output.
Under ‘Insights and actions’ you can export your survey data into Excel to begin your analysis.

Footnotes

‘Simple’ and ‘small scale’ refers to surveys with relatively simple questions aimed at smaller audiences, where complex design features (e.g., matrix questions) are not required.↩︎