Study design builder

Turn your data into a design you can defend

Use this after you have drafted your measures in the Evaluation Tool Builder. Answer a few questions about what you can collect, and we will recommend a study design, explain what it can and cannot show, and give you a one-page summary to attach to a plan or report.

How to use this. Fill in the questions on the left. The recommendation on the right updates as you go. There are no wrong answers; the design simply follows from what you are able to collect. When it looks right, download the summary.

Co-design this step

Talk the design through with your group before answering. What claim do you need to make, what is feasible, who holds the data, and what are participants comfortable with, such as being contacted again at follow-up. See the study-design conversation →

Program or evaluation name

Your main evaluation question

Do you collect a baseline measure at intake?

A baseline is the same measure taken before the program, so you have something to compare against.

Will you measure the same participants again later?

Follow-up timing

3 months 6 months 12 months

Do you have any comparison?

Do you track routinely collected counts over time?

Are you collecting stories or interviews?

Your evaluation capacity