Category: Web Surveys

Our colleagues at UM for whom we have executed a number of methodological studies have just published a piece on the use of slider bars or, as they call them "visual analog scales," reporting on some work we did last year (Couper, Tourangeau, Conrad, and Singer, "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Visual Analog Scales: A Web…

At least that’s the word from Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen (http://www.useit.com/).  His April 17 Alertbox (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html) describes the results of an eye tracking study in which participants demonstrated a dominant reading pattern that looks like an F.  Nielsen describes a three step process: First, a horizontal scan at the top. Second, some vertical movement…

It seems almost second nature to us to randomize response options for multiple response questions in Web surveys.   Why do we do that?  Well, I hope the answer is that we know there are primacy effects, that is, Rs give greater attention to the items at the top of the response list than they do…

Whoops!  My original January 6 posting on satisficing on Web surveys incorrectly described the methods literature on this topic.  That’s what I get for not devoting my full cognitive energy to reading these research reports.  I am chastened.  And I have revised the post to reflect what the cited studies really conclude. My apologies if…

Here is an interesting question from this morning’s email: "Are we able to see how long a particular respondent took to complete a web survey? My client’s concern is people who go through surveys in a couple of minutes, just pressing random buttons to get to the end as fast as they can – and…

This morning’s email had a link to an interesting study by one of the foremost experts in Web usability, Jakob Nielsen.  The headline: "Talking-Head Video is Boring Online."  You can read it yourself here:  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/video.html . The bottom line: his eye tracking study showed that even in the short video Nielsen tested (24 seconds) the…

A recent article in Journal of Official Statistics offers a useful way for us to think about the respondent decision making process.  The authors, some of whom are involved in  websm.org, describe four stages in the participation process: (1) initial contact by e-mail or snail mail; (2) initial accessing of the questionnaire by login or…

Bookmark it: http://www.websm.org/ .  This is a huge project originally begun at the University of Slovenia and now by a small consortium of European survey groups with the mission to "provide all target groups (students, professionals, users from academic, public and business sector) with information related to Web survey methodology and to the impact of…