There was a recent online discussion among colleagues who are active in the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) about experiences with and recommendations for survey analysis and statistics software. Many noted that traditional commercial software is getting extremely expensive, but that newer options do not always have the same capabilities that many of…
The use of mobile devices has reached the critical point where designing mobile-friendly surveys is no longer optional. Whether we want it or not, many respondents are trying to complete our surveys on such devices, and if we fail to optimize our designs with that in mind, we will probably miss a big chunk of…
Every once in a while we opt for slider scales on surveys we have designed – usually when we want a numeric rating from 0 to 10. It seems easier for respondents than shifting over to the number pad, and it offers a more fun, interactive experience than simply clicking radio buttons. Sliders also allow…
The New York Times Magazine ran a feature article in June implying that big data and quantitative algorithms are the secret of how Obama won the election. The young, technologically-savvy “Obama-wonks” who toiled in “the cave” writing thousands of lines of computer code, took advantage of huge repositories of data from the likes of Facebook…
One subtle (and false) implication of the beautiful chart we presented showing trends in conjoint analysis is that perhaps you should be using discrete choice modeling (CBC, which stands for Choice-Based Conjoint) because CBC is, by far, the most widely used method among those using Sawtooth conjoint tools. But CBC is not the best choice…
Even if you don’t care about political polling, or the fact that Gallup consistently overestimates support for Republican candidates, it is worth paying attention to how Gallup is trying to fix its problems with surveys and polling. They are not happy with how poorly their polls have fared (who would be?), and they have teams…
Or maybe we should say: why vendors SHOULD do everything twice BEFORE their work hits your desk and you send it back because you found errors. When it comes to something as complex and exacting as market research or public opinion polling, there are almost certainly mistakes the first time around. If a company does…
A few years back, some researchers were predicting that social media would cause a seismic shift in how we conduct brand research, customer satisfaction tracking, innovation research, and so on. Others were not so sure, arguing that the fundamentals of data collection and analysis will always be the same. Both sides were represented on a…
If you have ever been called to participate in a phone survey, you probably know the routine where you hear a question and then jump in with an answer. A good interviewer will remind you that she needs to read the entire question and all the answer options just to be sure that you offered…
It is hard to find an appropriate use for Google Surveys, because, as we outlined in a review article last fall, its capabilities are limited. But last week we needed a quick incidence test of how many U.S. adults own a certain type of investment product. Google Surveys seemed perfect. It was not fast, by…