<\/a><\/p>\n In a list of options, people are more likely to choose the first option (primacy effect) or the last option (recency effect) rather than the middle options.<\/p>\n In a list of questions, people will be more tired when they answer the later questions, and tend to put less effort into answering them. If you have blocks of similar questions, respondents will sometimes just answer all the blocks in the same way that they answered the first block.<\/p>\n In a multi-choice question, you can randomize the order in which the possible answers appear (this is not a good idea if you are asking people to select an answer on a scale from Very poor to Very good, but can be helpful if you are asking people to select their favourite item). This is described in the topic Setting code rotation on a question<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can randomize the order of grid questions within Snap. This is described in the topic Question rotation<\/a>. You cannot randomize the order of codes within a grid question.<\/p>\n You can also randomize the order of pages of questions (so that the questions on the pages stay in the same order) by using the Randomize <\/strong>tool. (It is known as Randomise <\/strong>in the UK and Europe.)<\/p>\n If your survey uses routing or text substitution, you cannot simply randomize pages, as the questions with routing and text substitution need to know the answers to previous questions. When randomizing pages in these surveys, you must take care to keep the order of these questions, otherwise the routing and text substitution will not work correctly.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This worksheet assumes that you are creating a Snap WebHost survey. The steps will be the same if you are conducting an interview using one of the Offline outputs, such as kiosk, tablet, or PDA. If you have published a Web:HTML survey, the steps are different. You can find out more about Web:HTML surveys in the section Applying Randomize to a Web:HTML survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you are applying Randomize<\/strong> to a questionnaire with routing or text substitution, you will receive a message. Click [OK]<\/strong> to carry on.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This worksheet assumes that you have created a survey that asks peoples views’ on supermarkets. There are six supermarkets in the survey, and each has its own identical set of questions on a single page. After the questions on the supermarkets are a few demographic questions (You can get a trivial example of this type of survey if you click and download it to your computer from here<\/a>). This worksheet describes how to randomly order the supermarket pages, while keeping the introduction page at the beginning and the demographic questions at the end.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n (This worksheet is using a Snap WebHost example. If you are publishing to HTML, these instructions will not work. In Web:HTML surveys a list of pages in the survey will appear in the Group List<\/strong> pane after the survey has been selected.)<\/li>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This worksheet has shown you how to randomize the order that pages are presented to the viewer for a simple Snap WebHost survey. This information also applies to offline surveys. For information about rotating pages in Web:HTML surveys see the section: Applying Randomise to a Web:HTML survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n The behaviour for some options in the Randomize <\/strong>tool varies according to the output that you are building. For example, in a web:HTML or Snap WebHost survey, respondents may complete surveys at the same time and it is impossible to give alternate respondents the questions in forward and reverse order. However, if respondents are completing surveys on a kiosk or a PDA, you do know the order of the respondents, and you can alternate the order for each respondent.<\/p>\n You can find out more about rotating question codes in the topic Setting code rotation on a question<\/a>.<\/p>\n Randomizing the order of grid questions within Snap is described in the topic: Question rotation<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you would like to find out more about the effects of question order in surveys, there is much research available, for example, Bishop and Smith’s 1997 paper: Response order effects in public opinion surveys; The plausibility of rival hypotheses<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is help available for the Randomize tool if you click the [Help]<\/strong> button on the tool windows.<\/p>\n If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Background<\/h3>\n
Summary of steps<\/h3>\n
![\"TK:](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/rand_rout_mess.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\nStep 1: Creating your survey<\/h3>\n
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![\"QP:](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/output_webhost.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\nStep 2: Randomizing your question pages<\/h3>\n
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![\"Windows](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Windows-search.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n![\"TK:](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/rand_surv_hl.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n![\"TK:](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/rand_gp_sel.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"TK:](\"https:\/\/www.snapsurveys.com\/support-snap11\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/rand_gp_def.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\nConclusion<\/h3>\n