It is recognised that respondent engagement is an important factor in maximising the quality of data completion in surveys. This is especially so where the Internet is used as the mode of data collection. Interviewer presence on face-to-face surveys helps to focus the respondent’s attention, which is particularly important in print measurement research where the requirement may be to present a lengthy list of titles. Therefore a means of replicating this high level of attentiveness in an unsupervised online environment is needed. Some questions arising on how one should present publications to respondents include: 

• How can we encourage active participation? The technical capabilities of the Internet, e.g. drag and drop, could be exploited to help maintain respondent interest, however, this may alienate less Internet-savvy respondents.
• How can we ensure that it is speedy to complete? Minimising the number of clicks to answer questions could facilitate a timely completion. On the other hand, this could mean less time thinking about past reading occasions and deflate readership estimates.
• How simple can we make the design? Easy to complete surveys will appeal to all types of people. However, this may mean a bland design and switch off respondents.

In this paper, we share the results of an experiment devised and conducted by Ipsos MediaCT designed to try and provide insight to these questions. The objective of this test was to enhance our understanding of what works better and what does not work so well, relative to the alternative versions tested, for presenting a print media list in online self-completion surveys. The results provide a contribution to online questionnaire design considerations in print audience surveys.