Here we are on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which makes it a perfect time to answer the question: “What in the world do we mean by accessible surveys?” Our last newsletter (How to Make a Survey ADA Accessible) outlined the important steps needed to begin developing such surveys. But it’s worth stepping back from the…
Nine out of ten Americans (89%) regularly use the Internet. So the old argument that online surveys will miss big chunks of the U.S. population is no longer valid. But an important question remains: Are the remaining one in ten (11%) who are beyond reach with online surveys substantially different from the others? And if…
How far should you go when reporting your findings, into the territory of interpreting your findings? An excellent researcher never stops struggling with that question, and the better you are, the more intense the discomfort every time you stretch away from the data to advise on what it all means. The importance of stretching beyond…
If you are a consumer-facing company deploying online surveys of your customers, accessible surveys will likely be on your agenda in the next couple of years. Accessible surveys incorporate unique design features so that people with disabilities who use assistive technologies can participate as fully as others. With the need for survey accessibility growing and…
The next time you find yourself wishing for a kinder, gentler manager or business client to work for, think again. This may be the kind of client who will not make the best use of your research, which for most researchers is one of the most depressing outcomes of all. That is what a fascinating…
Whenever I write a research report, I feel strongly ambivalent about flagging data as “statistically significant.” If possible, I try to avoid it altogether. Why? Because p-values and concepts of statistical significance are often misunderstood, misused, and misleading. Indeed, the problem is so prevalent that one well-respected scientific journal in social psychology (Basic and Applied…
A perennial debate among survey researchers is whether respondents should be allowed to answer “don’t know” or “not sure.” In fact, this is something we at Versta Research wrestle with (and argue about) internally almost every day. My approach is generally to not allow them. We have seen strong evidence in our own work that…
For all the high level intellectual work you do in research (statistical work, design work, analysis, or writing) there is just as much brute force effort you need to put into fieldwork. That means finding the people to interview, convincing them to participate, asking them questions, and recording their answers. Even if you outsource, keeping…
Every professional in market research should know about and use the amazing, public, free data resources provided by the U.S. government—data that includes essential information about our demographics, communities, businesses, commerce, roads, health, education…the list goes on. Now, a small group of consultants, data scientists, and programmers are trying to make that easier with a…
One of the weirdest things about research is how the everyday nature of our work keeps changing as a result of the problems we solve. A colleague on the corporate side recently shared an observation that I found unsettling: With her customer experience research now fully automated, even down to the “analyses” via quick dashboard…