Describe your audience, setting, and research goal. Makeform drafts an editable survey about water exposure, knowledge, reported behavior, training, and access.
Send survey responses to Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the survey builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it, or send it to the builder. Each structure is an editable example.
Audience
Adults who visit a municipal pool with children
Format
Short exit survey with behavior and confidence scales
Prompt size
254 chars
Example survey structure
Short exit survey with behavior and confidence scales
How often did you visit this pool this season?
Who was in your group today?
How consistently were children watched?
Which water safety classes would interest you?
Suggested analysis tags
Knowledge gaps
Reported behaviors
Training interest
Ask about a specific setting and period: “How often did you wear a life jacket while boating in the past 12 months?”
Step 1
Define
audience, setting, and decisions
Step 2
Ask
knowledge, behavior, and access
Step 3
Segment
compare settings and groups
Step 4
Act
plan education and services
Useful by design
A useful water safety survey separates what people know from what they report doing, then adds the context needed to plan signs, classes, staffing, or outreach.
Show pool questions to pool visitors and boating questions to boaters.
Keep knowledge, confidence, behavior, and access in distinct sections.
Prefer age bands, broad areas, and optional demographics when identifiers are unnecessary.
Four practical uses
A pool, nonprofit, and researcher each need different questions from this broad topic.
Check whether visitors understand rules, signs, staff locations, and emergency information.
Map lesson interest, access barriers, languages, and preferred times.
Compare reported knowledge and behavior using consistent scales and periods.
Repeat selected questions after a workshop using the same wording and scales.
Survey workflow
Draft a focused instrument, review its wording, and test it before sharing.
State who will respond, their water settings, and how results will be used.
Ask about observable behavior, defined periods, and uncertainty without judgment.
Route people by setting and skip situations they do not encounter.
Test on a phone with intended respondents and revise confusing terms.
Choose the right instrument
These tools can support the same safety program, but they collect different evidence. Match the form to the question you need answered.
Field guide
Cover exposure, knowledge, behavior, confidence, training access, and context without unused details.
Exposure and setting
Ask about settings and frequency first, then branch to relevant situations.
Knowledge
Use brief, setting-specific items and include Unsure so guesses are visible.
Reported behavior
Name the activity, setting, and period, then offer balanced frequencies and Not applicable.
Skills and confidence
Label self-reported confidence clearly; a survey is not an in-water assessment.
Training and access
Ask about prior instruction, desired topics, price, transport, language, accessibility, and schedule.
Context and analysis
Use ranges and Prefer not to answer; keep follow-up contacts separate from anonymous answers.
Related tools
Pair the survey with an inspection, incident, feedback, or behavior form when you need a different kind of information.
Create staff checks for aquatic spaces, equipment, signs, and operating routines.
Open toolExplore how people perceive hazards, communication, and safety practices.
Open toolGather broader resident feedback about local programs, services, and priorities.
Open toolDocument the details, location, witnesses, and follow-up for a reported incident.
Open toolStudy reported choices, habits, influences, and decision patterns with structured questions.
Open toolRecord direct observations and corrective follow-up during a site inspection.
Open toolFAQ
Answers for pool teams, community groups, and researchers.
It asks about exposure to pools or open water, knowledge, confidence, reported behavior, training, and access barriers. It supports planning but does not observe swimming skills or facility conditions.
Cover relevant settings, knowledge, reported supervision or life jacket behavior, confidence, training, barriers, and essential background variables. Define periods and offer Not applicable, Unsure, and Prefer not to answer.
Ask about a concrete event or period without signaling the expected answer. Use balanced frequencies, and show educational explanations after submission.
Yes. Omit identifiers, use age bands and broad areas, and collect optional class follow-up details in a separate form.
Yes. Ask which settings people use, then show relevant sections. Keep a path for respondents with no recent water exposure.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect survey responses without a response cap. The paid tier only removes the Makeform badge.
Review every item against the study question, check terminology, pilot with the intended population, document changes, and add your project's study information.
Use results to identify unclear signs, class demand, attendance barriers, or education topics. Analyze knowledge, confidence, and reported behavior separately; self-reported ability is not a skills assessment.
Ask focused questions. Plan useful next steps.
