Survey Says: Asking Readers About Your Magazine Design

Reader surveys are invaluable. Besides providing a relatively low-cost means of generating performance data for your advertisers, they can act as a gut-check for your editorial team: How well is this publication serving its primary constituency? Beyond that, reader surveys are imperative before embarking on major editorial changes, including redesigns.

But how can you assess the success of your current design through a survey? Most readers aren’t publishing experts; they can’t be expected to weigh in on your choices of typefaces or your color palette. And questions like “Do you like the design?” are too vague to be useful.

The solution is to ask about what the design accomplishes. Every design element in your magazine serves a strategic purpose. Your typography helps to define the voice and character of your publication. Your color palette helps to direct readers through your content. Your image style is a reflection of performance goals that might never be explicitly stated in the magazine.

For example, you might ask:

1. Is [your magazine] easy to read? Even a binary answer can tell you a lot about your typography choices. How old is your readership? Is the volume of contrast in your type design sufficient for easy reading by the vision-challenged (a group whose membership stretches far beyond the aged)?

2. Can you easily find what you’re looking for in [your magazine]? Clear pacing and navigation are the invisible indicators of good design. If your readers are getting lost, your department structure could probably stand to be strengthened. Your readers shouldn’t need to refer to your table of contents more than once or twice in each issue. 

3. Does reading [your magazine] provide good value for the price? Even for free or dues-supported publications, some version of this question is important. Essentially, you’re asking if your content is being provided in an engaging package. Sidebars, infographics, pullquotes, callouts and other access points aren’t only valuable for reader engagement; they signify the level of craftsmanship that goes into producing an issue. Unless you’re The New Yorker, endless columns of unbroken text tell your readers that you’re just not working very hard on their behalf. And you’re not The New Yorker.

4. Do you recognize yourself or your peers in [your magazine]? This one might be unique to member-based organizations. It’s a sneaky way of asking about imagery. Many member-directed magazines are loaded with stock imagery because of budgets or poor member engagement. But there’s good stock and there’s bad stock. Good stock is tailored by the designer to contain direct references to the audience’s specialties and demographics; bad stock comes off a shelf and goes straight into the magazine with nary a thought to its relevance. Ideally, the characters in any imagery — supplied or purchased — will be representative of the audience.

5. What actions have you taken after reading [your magazine]? (Likely followed by multiple choices options such as “Visited a website,” or “Attended an event,” etc.) The presence of strong calls-to-action isn’t a circumstance of design, but the design of these elements is crucial to their success. Your publication can be weighed down with URLs, QR codes and phone numbers, but if the design doesn’t showcase them appropriately, your audience won’t be enticed to act upon them. Remember: Your magazine is a reference tool. The more your readers regard it as such, the longer they’ll refer to it and retain it, which leads us to our final question…

6. How long do you keep an issue of [your magazine]? The answer to this is closely related to that for question 3, and, likewise, it isn’t entirely dependent on the design. But accessible editorial devices like lists and maps instantly bestow a sense of permanence to the content. Reference books are filled with similar devices and there’s often an impulse to preserve them for generations. Non-narrative content formats may originate with the writer or editor, but the design is what infuses them with life.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to ask about the design directly. Your readers shouldn’t be able to answer technical questions about magazine design and even if they were, you’d still be asking them to do your job for you. Ask about their overall magazine experience and then read between the lines of their answers. If you know what to look for, they’ll tell you everything.

Let Quarto help you craft the perfect reader survey, covering more than just your design. Talk to us at contact@quartocreative.com.