There are several brands of survey design software that researchers have found to be reliable and useful. Each type of software has different capabilities ranging from collating data, designing surveys and collecting data. A few examples of survey design software includes: CASES , MSInteractive, SWare, Knowledge Networks, Harris Interactive and Vividence.
Researchers sometimes turn to the internet for assistance with distributing their surveys. Web-based questionnaires can incorporate color, multi-media features, a variety of response formats and response categories that allow researchers to automatically check for response errors. The disadvantages to web-based questionnaires are that they assume people can read and have access to a computer which may limit responses from some populations.
While specially designed software packages may be the tool of choice for the dedicated researcher, they may be financially and technically out of reach for those doing one-time or simpler research. In these cases, standard productivity software can be useful tools for designing surveys. Spreadsheets and databases can be used to store and analyze data while word processing programs can format the survey and the results. Presentation software can be used to present information to people taking the survey and to summarize data once the survey has been completed.
Templates can also be a useful tool for designing surveys, especially if similar surveys are done on a routine basis. Templates are available at university libraries along with several online sites.
Another type of automated tool allows the researcher to create Interactive Voice Response (IVR) surveys. This tool lets the researcher record a script and then the respondent answers the questions using the keypad of a telephone.
Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing software lets a researcher create telephone interviews. The software manages the surveys and the data collected.
An older tool, but one still used for many testing and academic environments, is the Optical Mark Recognization (OMR) or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools. These let the researcher scan a paper survey and record the response. These are often used with bubble sheets where respondents use pencils to fill in bubbles corresponding with their chosen answer.
Several hosted survey tools exist online that allow anyone to create a survey. These sites are used for serious research along with silly or fun surveys. One example of a hosted survey software site is Survey Monkey.