Crash course in evaluation research

As I find myself creating more surveys for various projects I thought this workshop would give me more insight into crafting better surveys. The presenters were from Simmons College but their information was useful for public libraries - not too academic.
They talked about setting up surveys, logical structure,populations and samples, types of questions and the importance of testing your survey before releasing to the public - does it make sense? Does it flow? Is it focused and consistent?
They also pointed out common pitfalls - leading questions, use of jargon, making assumptions, not providing context or background, ambivalent language and realize I had done some of these things in a lot of my surveys.
They talked about focus groups - one hour session good timeframe, 7  open ended questions, holding session offsite, 7 to 10 people optimal size, having at least 2 staff present - one person specifically as a facilitator other person as observer, recording observations. After session immediately write up notes and ideas that you want to follow up on.
They concluded with a discussion on quantitative and qualitative analysis. They referred to a website from Vassar which had templates for analyzing quantitative data.