Sampling of individuals from a population with a view towards making inferences about the population Communication process between

n the surveyor and a participant, where the surveyor tries to understand a subject of his/her interest from the participants perspective Can be a questionnaire, 1-1 interview etc.


Customer retention and satisfaction measurements Customer/employee profile census Assess program/product response Explore unknown interests of the consumers


Would you like Walmart with less clutter ?
In 2009, Walmart asked this question to its customers
YES was the overwhelming response Spent hundreds of millions of dollars uncluttering their

stores, removing 15% of inventory, shortening shelves,

clearing aisles

Losses of $1.85 Billion

http://consumerist.com/2011/04/walmart-declutters-aisles-per-customer-request-then-loses-185-billion-in-sales.html http://dailyartifacts.com/walmarts-185-billon-dollar-mistake

 Came up with the answer first, then asked customers to agree

Walmart paid attention to what people said and not what people did, and they are more often than not, two different things

It was a leading question most people would say yes

(More is better, Less is worse)

Customers wanted less clutter; But they valued choice more

Surveys and focus groups bring out only what's easy to

verbalize and not what is important , Barry Schwartz
http://consumerist.com/2011/04/walmart-declutters-aisles-per-customer-request-then-loses-185-billion-in-sales.html http://dailyartifacts.com/walmarts-185-billon-dollar-mistake


Surveys results are supposed to be representative of the population Major decisions are made based on such results Participants time is valuable Surveys reveal latent / secret needs and demands Few modes of direct communication Survey is one among them Make best use


Establish your objectives
Information Requirements Neither too broad nor too narrow

Clear objectives will shape your question(s)

Choosing your audience

Should be representative of the population

Minimum acceptable sample size

Irrelevant Audience Noisy data

 Brief, Objective, Simple and Specific

Brevity Shortest question without losing intent Objectivity Neutrality of the question Leading, Loaded and Assumptive questions Simplicity Dont show off; No jargon Avoid personal Qs wherever possible Age, Income etc. Easy introductory questions; Avoid sensitive questions Online/Paper Surveys - Use different pages for different classes of questions Improves the flow of the survey
For more details on intelligent questions, contact the Placements Committee

 Open Ended Free response

What do you think is your greatest strength ?

Closed Ended Multiple Choice Binary, Range, Exact

Have you used our product before ? How many times have you used our product before ?

Ranking / Ordinal
Rank the following features in order of importance to you

Rating / Matrix
Answer the following questions (1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, 5- Strongly Agree)

 Used

mostly

in

recruitment

process

to

determine

attitudes/values. Account for Self-Good Time constraint is a good way to

do this
Prevailing moods/emotions may affect participant answers For example, in a survey conducted in the US
88% believe they will go to heaven
<70% believe that Mother Teresa will go to heaven !!!

 Ask concrete questions

Did you enjoy the book ? vs. Have you recommended the book to someone else ?

Avoid double-barreled questions One question, One focus

The government must take steps to curtail global warming and terrorism. Do you agree ?

Ask specific questions for more accurate responses

Do you exercise regularly ?

How many times do you exercise in a week ?

How many times have you exercised in the last month ?

Use the right UI components (for online surveys)

 Would you like daily updates to your application ?

Leading Question No one would really say no Close to 70% of respondents said Yes, while more than 50% of the same respondents said that internet consumption was top priority

Would you like the new streetlight placed on the left-side or

the right-side of the road ?
Hypothetical Question Too much visualization is needed to make a

proper decision. The user is not an expert on this matter

Have you stopped beating your wife ?

Loaded question How does one say that he does not beat his wife !!!

What

does

the

survey mean by Okay/Neutral ? Generally, in such

cases, we might see

participants going for the least

controversial
response


Correlation vs. Causality

What the customer says vs. What he/she actually does

Sampling Bias / Size of sample Selective Perception


http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survtype.php
http://www.questionpro.com/survey-design.html SurveyMonkey Smart Survey design

HCI course material, prepared by Prof Scott Klemmer of Stanford

University Organizational Behavior, 13th edition

http://w4.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/issue/archive

Questions ?