Survey Tips:Survey Design

Computer Direct Interviews:

Computer direct interviews are invention of the modern science & technology.

These are interviews in which the Interviewees enter their own answers directly into a computer. 

They can be used at malls, trade shows, offices, and so on. 

The Survey System's optional Interviewing Module and Interview Stations can easily create computer-direct interviews. Some researchers set up a Web page survey for this purpose.

     Advantages

1. • The virtual elimination of data entry and editing costs.
2. • You will get more accurate answers to sensitive questions. Recent studies of potential blood donors have shown respondents were more likely to reveal HIV-related risk factors to a computer screen than to either human interviewers or paper questionnaires.The National Institute of Justice has also found that computer-aided surveys among drug users get better results than personal interviews.
3. • The elimination of interviewer bias:Different interviewers can ask questions in different ways, leading to different results. The computer asks the questions the same way every time.
4. • Ensuring skip patterns are accurately followed. The Survey System can ensure people are not asked questions they should skip based on their earlier answers. These automatic skips are more accurate than relying on an Interviewer reading a paper questionnaire.
5. • Response rates are usually higher. Computer-aided interviewing is still novel enough that some people will answer a computer interview when they would not have completed another kind of interview.

     Disadvantages

1. • The Interviewees must have access to a computer or one must be provided for them.
2. • As with mail surveys, computer direct interviews may have serious response rate problems in populations of lower educational and literacy levels. This method may grow in importance as computer use increases.

Email Surveys:

Email surveys are both very economical and very fast.

 More people have email than have full Internet access. This makes email a better choice than a Web page survey for some populations. 

On the other hand, email surveys are limited to simple questionnaires, whereas Web page surveys can include complex logic.

     Advantages

1. • Speed. An email questionnaire can gather several thousand responses within a day or two.
2. • There is practically no cost involved once the set up has been completed.
3. • One can easily attach pictures and sound files.
4. • The novelty element of an email survey often stimulates higher response levels than ordinary “snail” mail surveys.

     Disadvantages

1. • You must  purchase a list of email addresses.
2. • Some people will respond several times or pass questionnaires along to friends to answer. 
3. Many programs have no check to eliminate people responding multiple times to bias the results. 
4. The Survey System’s Email Module will only accept one reply from each address sent the questionnaire. 
5. It eliminates duplicate and pass along questionnaires and checks to ensure that respondents have not ignored instructions (e.g., giving 2 answers to a question requesting only one).
6. • Many people dislike unsolicited email even more than unsolicited regular mail. 
7. • You cannot use email surveys to generalize findings to the whole populations.
8.  People who have email are different from those who do not, even when matched on demographic characteristics, such as age and gender.
9. • Email surveys cannot automatically skip questions or randomize question or answer choice order or use other automatic techniques that can enhance surveys the way Web page surveys can.

Many email programs are limited to plain ASCII text questionnaires and cannot show pictures.

Email questionnaires from The Survey System can attach graphic or sound files.

Although use of email is growing very rapidly, it is not universal - and is even less so outside the USA (three-quarters of the world's email traffic takes place within the USA). 

Many “average” citizens still do not possess email facilities, especially older people and those in lower income and education groups. 

So email surveys do not reflect the population as a whole. At this stage they are probably best used in a corporate environment where email is common or when most members of the target population are known to have email.

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