Internet-based Survey Design: Principles from a Thai Experimental Study

In recent years with the increasingly world-wide introduction of the Internet, the use of online questionnaires has increased dramatically. However in Thailand, there has been only very limited systematic research on web-based survey, including for Thai undergraduates who are the biggest group of Thai Internet users. The particular characteristics of the Thai language (e.g. no capital letters, no break between words, Thai script etc.) present some interesting challenges for online Thai surveys. This article is reporting part of systematic research that investigated web-based survey design principles based on a Thai language background trial at a Thai university with individual interviews, focus groups and other research techniques. The research result identified the key web-based survey design principles which can be categorized into four areas: the on-line questionnaire format, graphics implementations, writing style for web-based survey and question types for web-based survey.