My attendance at a number of recent seminars and trade shows has given rise to this posting... The reason for finally putting fingers to key board has been the recent debate surrounding online surveys and the general progression the market research industry has made since web based surveys were first introduced.

In recent musings, from well known and respected industry figures, there has been a whole raft of theory and speculative dialogue that has ranged from the validity of the methodology through to the announcement of the imminent “death” of the survey, albeit the actual date of the death has not, as yet, been forthcoming!
Poor completion rates and the cost of maintaining a modicum of interest amongst panellists is rising, while the industry struggles to come up with compelling reasons for people to engage in (and with) online surveys. What cannot be denied is that the general look and feel of online surveys has not changed drastically (if at all in most cases) since the launch of the radio button and check box!

Technology has, undoubtedly, moved on at a phenomenal pace since web surveys were first offered as a viable alternative to existing methods, yet the current surveys still, in the main, look tired and antiquated... At the ASC Conference, held at Imperial College on April 22nd, this retro style was commented on during the panel session that kicked off just after lunch. The panellists were all in agreement that web surveys needed to move on and to give the panellist an experience that was more in line with the rest of their web experience.

Of course all is not doom and gloom, there is a large amount of evidence that web surveys can be engaging, enjoyable and still return accurate/honest data just by improving the look of the questionnaire. Various papers have been formulated and delivered at many conferences (ESOMAR, CASRO etc) that fully support the model of more engaging surveys by utilising available technologies. Among the many pieces available is the excellent piece from Chris Ryan at Vision Critical** where he espouses the idea that respondent engagement and usability are directly linked. The inescapable fact is that a web survey that looks up to date is far more likely to engage the user than a tired old radio button version.

If the online survey is to retain our interest and to be a major part of the researcher’s armoury then things have to change. The old survey look and feel must be improved upon and users must feel sufficiently engaged to take the survey through to completion. Simple to implement solutions will give rise to increases in engagement and completion levels, the recent paper presented at ESOMAR* concluded that participation levels between standard web surveys and web surveys using rich media questions (Fusion Studies) gained an uplift from 49% of respondents who would take part in web surveys to 67% who would take part using the Fusion format. Interestingly, the trend was continued when participants were asked to rate ease of completion, whether the survey was fun to complete and the overall enjoyability of taking part in the survey with all of those answering about the “Fusion” survey registering higher scores than for the standard survey.

We have had many discussions around this issue and I have also trawled through relevant, and some not so relevant, websites to look for the future of web surveys. Clearly something needs to change if the web survey is to remain with us and to be a powerful tool in the Market Research world. Much has been made of making web surveys much more like our other internet experiences, including making surveys more akin to a computer game to attract the younger element. One thing is for sure and that is that something has to change and it has to be soon.

In light of the findings quoted in this blog we decided to ban the use of standard radio buttons and check boxes, and developed our own system that allows us to overlay any survey with fully designed questions. It had to be easy to use by survey scripters to allow us to maintain productivity and cost competitiveness. So far our clients have really liked what we've done and are using our demos to help them win business.

The take away from this I guess is that if you are going to run web surveys then you have to ensure that they are engaging, enjoyable, well targeted and structured in such a way as to gain maximum benefit from your intended respondents. This, of course, is no easy task but there are offerings in the market, from a number of vendors, that are making great use of flash or JavaScript tools that make the online web experience a much more enjoyable one.

If you would like to see the changes that we have made please go to the web survey “demo” on this site and see the Cobalt Sky difference for yourself.

*Maximizing respondent engagement: the use of rich media
Jennifer Reid, Monique Morden and Angus Reid, ESOMAR, Annual Congress, Berlin, September 2007

**http://www.visioncritical.com/2010/03/designing-online-surveys-how-respondent-engagement-usability-go-hand-in-hand/