ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some golden rules and detailed guidance on getting the most from surveys. The main reason to run a survey is to produce statistics. The chapter looks at some advantages of surveys, along with some pitfalls to avoid. It discusses questionnaire design in detail, and some alternative survey approaches, before looking at analysing and reporting the data to produce evidence-based insight to inform decision-making and design. The great advantage of survey methods is economy of scale. The sampling strategy, in research terms, is the method of choosing participants for a project out of all the potential participants. In spatial design, the nature of the proposal and its context can determine the sampling strategy. The piloting phase is perhaps the most critical part of the survey process.
