Building a form to collect information for your department? Drafting questions for your survey or study? We have some tips for you.
We're working on some additional guides on specific areas that may be helpful for building forms & surveys.
We're here to help! Reach out to the Qube and get feedback custom to your project specifically.
Here are a few tips for fields that are common on event registration forms.
Note: You may find tips for surveys are also applicable to event registration forms- give them a look!
Asking for someone's pronouns is a great way to make them feel included and ensure you do not misgender them. It is also super helpful to include pronouns on nametags if you will be providing those.
We recommend offering a set of checkboxes with an 'other' option that allows registrants to add an option that is not included. Offering a set of checkboxes can help to explain what pronouns are for people who are unfamiliar and encourages all registrants to complete the field. Options we suggest are: she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, ze/zir/zirs, xe/xyr/xyrs, and other. You can definitely add more options if you have room.
Someone's pronouns are their pronouns, not their 'preferred pronouns'.
Consider whether you need a registrant's legal name. Do you require it for liability/waiver purposes or to cross-reference with a database that may only include legal name? If so, we suggest offering two name fields: name (what you want to be called) and legal name (if different). If you don't need a registrant's legal name, avoid asking for it. Providing a legal name can be a dreaded experience for folks who use a different name.
The name someone uses isn't their preferred name; it's their name. If you want to make it clear that it does not need to be a legal name, consider adding a note next to the name field to the effect of 'what you want to be called'.
Knowing potential accessibility needs for registrants is very important in making sure your event can truly include all attendees. We strongly suggest asking for accessibility needs ahead of time. You may want to offer a set of checkboxes with an 'other' option that registrants can complete or give registrants space to fill it out without preset options. We also recommend designating a point of contact for accessibility concerns- a specific person or providing contact information for the team/department/group putting the event together and inviting registrants to contact you ahead of time.
Many surveys ask demographic questions, often at the beginning. It is important to make sure your survey instrument can accurately capture demographic information about respondents and that the options provided are reflective of the diversity of potential survey-takers.
Note: You may find tips for event registration forms are also applicable to survey design- give them a look!
Radio options (a single selection from several preset options) often exclude the intricacies of gender. This is especially true if you have several options that could be true for one person (ex: trangender, nonbinary, and genderqueer) (ex: transgender, male). By making people select just one, you are dividing responses and capturing a lower number than what is accurate for each label.
Checkboxes that allow a survey taker to select multiple options will more accurately capture demographic information. You may get higher than 100% if you are reporting demographic data out as a pie chart. There are a few ways to adjust for this in presenting your data. Most notable/common would be to report one chart with male, female, and other as the three options and drilling down into the 'other' in a second chart (as a percentage of the 'other' field and/or raw numbers or percentages of all responses not in a format that would ordinarily add up to 100%).
If it has been a while since you last went through your possible responses or someone with familiarity with the trans community was not involved in survey design, you may have some outdated options included among your responses. Outdated options may deter a survey taker from answering the specific question or the survey as a whole.
Check through your options and remove outdated terms. Common examples of outdated language that we suggest reconsidering are transsexual, cross-dresser, male-to-female, and female-to-male.
If it has been a while since you last went through your possible responses or people of color were not involved in survey design, you may have some incomplete options included among your responses. There are some identities that do not easily fit into the common options for race and ethnicity on surveys (such as Middle Eastern, Biracial/multiracial, and others).
Check through your options and make sure there are diverse options for your respondents to choose from. You should also consider including an 'other' option and allow respondents to add a different response. This helps you spot gaps in your options and improve your form using the 'other' options you collect.
Radio options (a single selection from several preset options) often exclude the intricacies of race and ethnicity. Even if you include a biracial/multiracial option, you are still forcing respondents to choose one option out of several that may be applicable. Someone may be indigenous and white- radio options force them to choose an identity, and a biracial/multiracial option loses the association of the response with other white and indigenous respondents. By making people select just one, you are dividing responses and capturing a lower number than what is accurate for each label.
Checkboxes that allow a survey taker to select multiple options will more accurately capture demographic information. You may get higher than 100% if you are reporting demographic data out as a pie chart. There are a few ways to adjust for this in presenting your data. You can consider reporting out the total number for each category/option you provide, and additionally can report out each as a percentage of the total, noting that the percentages may add up to be higher than 100. By reporting out the raw numbers and each category as a percentage of the whole, you make more information available to people using and interpreting the data.
The Qube is happy to offer feedback on your current forms and survey instruments. Resources for common areas can be found below, but feel free to reach out to us if you would like to take a deeper dive.
