Placement and Design of Navigation Buttons in Web Surveys

In many Web surveys, respondents navigate through the instrument using Next and Previous/Back buttons. There is considerable variation in practice and discussion among researchers about where to place these buttons and how best to design them to encourage the desired behavior. We conducted an experiment on the placement and design of these buttons. We find significant effects of these factors on completion time and use of the Previous button, but not on breakoff rates. We discuss the detailed results and implications for practice.