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Online survey

When is this method appropriate?

Primarily a classical online survey gives information about the user structures and target-groups as well as their requirements and expectations. Within a before and after measurement (for instance after a complete re-design) rating questions can be ascertained.

Possible questions:

What sociodemographic features (for example age, gender, income, profession), interests and opinions do the users of your website have?
What intentions do the users of your website have?
How regularly do the users call your website?
What kind of technical equipment (screen resolution, browser plugins) do the computers of your users have? What kind of grid connection (ISDN, DSL, analogue modem) do they have?
What requirements and expectations do the users of your website have referred to contents, functions and services?
How did the users notice your website?

And many more…

With the help of these and further features of your users e. g. personas can be developed. The requirement analysis with KANO can be another feature of the online survey. It specifically serves to ascertain customers’ needs and requirements to measure them according to resources.

In what project phase applicable?

Analysis
The first step to define and specify a new concept for an already existing website is to ascertain the requirements and expectations of the users. This can take place within a planned re-launch (look: requirement analysis with KANO). Based on the gained data personas (archetypical users who represent single user-groups of your website) can be concepted to describe in detail the users of your website.
If the requirements and expectations of particular target-groups should be researched on a completely new website, a panel survey is appropriate.
Live activity/usage
During the live activity of a website the actual user structure can be determined. In addition, the actual user structure can be squared with own expectations and hypotheses. Findings referred to a (new) direction of the website can be derivated.
During the activation the Kano analysis can continuously check whether the users’ and customers’ requirements are fulfilled. This comparison should take place continuously because users’ requirements and needs change as time passed.

What is the procedure of this method?

At each n-th visitor of your website a flash layer with a note for the survey is flashed. Your users have the choice whether they want to attend the survey immediately, later or not at all. This note can be alternatively offered by text links, buttons or banners.

The visitor/user survey is realised by our online survey tool. With the help of this tool a multi-modal questionnaire design (for instance integration of graphics, videos) is possible. There are no limits for the usage of different types of questionnaires (e. g. rating scales).

A multi-level filtering is possible, of course, as well as a (systematic or coincidental) variation of the arrangement of the given answers. The design of the online questionnaire takes place taking account of your design and layout demands.

Online-reporting: During the complete survey-period you can follow how your visitors answered the closed questions without any time delay!

Strengths of this method

Online surveys give detailed information about the personal features and the requirements and expectations of your website visitors.
Allows a simple repetition of the survey (e. g. continual measurement of success or multi-lingual, international surveys).
Based on the ascertained quantitative data so-called personas can be developed.
Representation – all visitors of the website have the chance to attend the survey!
Monopole of methods – user structure analysis and requirement analysis are only possible with online surveys!
During the design of the questionnaire is “(almost) everything possible” (Integration of multimedia contents, specific types of scales, …)!
Ascertainment 24 hours/7 days!

What about the sample size?

To gain reliable results for sub-groups, too, preferably big samples should be interviewed. To measure significant differences betweens sub-groups a sample size about 600 test subjects should be aimed-at.

How much time takes the implementation?

The observation period depends on your users’ behaviour. For a representative sample the survey should be online for at least one week. The possibility increases that people who do not very often visit your website attend on the survey. For the evaluation, preparation and interpretation of the results one week should be calculated, too. Altogether the project duration takes about 3 to 4 weeks (incl. prearrangement and programming of the questionnaire).

What input do you have to provide?

Experience has shown that it makes sense to weight and to concrete the questions together with you during a workshop. Hereby we can draw on comprehensive project experiences of online surveys.

What do you receive from us?

Offered services at a glance:

Conception and creation of an online questionnaire, or rather, consulting for the creation of the questionnaire
Creation of a flash-layer or of buttons/banners to gain survey-attendees
Programming an online questionnaire (incl. integration of graphics, audio and video files)
Implementation of survey and data analysis
Online-reporting: possibility to have a look at to date ascertained data during the ongoing survey
Interpretive chart report with the following content:
- Management summary
- Detailed illustration of the results based on survey-data (tabular/graphical preparation)
- Identification and description of personas (optional)
- Data interpretation: Identification of the reasons and causes for the ascertained data
- Concrete guidance and advices for optimisation