Visual and Interactive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

互联网作为调查工具的迅速发展提出了关于这种新的数据收集方法的重要问题。 网络调查是计算机直接向受访者提出问题的一系列方法中的最新方法。 像许多早期的方法一样，Web调查直观地提出问题，并提供与受访者交互的功能。 这个项目包括一系列的实验，研究网络调查的视觉和交互特性的影响。 一组实验研究了受访者如何解释网络问卷中的视觉线索。 这些研究测试了一般命题，即问题的附带视觉特征（例如，响应选项的间隔）可以引起关于其含义的非预期推断。 这些研究考察了受访者在解释问题的视觉特征时使用的语言学的具体假设。 这些假设指出，受访者期望的反应类别进行从左到右的逻辑进展，他们期望空间隔离的选项也从概念上不同于其他选项，他们认为，项目看起来像一定是在概念上相关。 另外两个实验研究了包含图像以补充问题文本的效果。 图像必然是具体的，一个实验测试了这是否会导致受访者对问题的解释比他们本来会做的更狭隘。 另一个实验测试图像中描绘的物品是否可以作为受访者判断的比较标准。 最后一系列的研究调查受访者利用互动功能的问卷。 这些实验测试了三个基本假设：当1）信息容易获得，2）信息明显有帮助，3）他们寻求帮助的积极性很高时，受访者更有可能交互地利用他们所获得的信息。 例如，最初的实验应该有助于解决一些重要的实际问题--反应类别是垂直排列还是水平排列有关系吗？ 答案选项的间距是否影响答案？ 反应量表中颜色的使用是否会影响答案的分布？ 最后的实验可能会产生更好的方法，让受访者利用可能改善他们答案的功能。 这项研究得到了方法、测量和统计计划以及联邦统计机构联盟的支持，该联盟隶属于调查和统计方法资助机会研究。

The rapid growth of the Internet as a vehicle for surveys raises important questions about this new method for data collection. Web surveys are the latest in a series of methods in which computers administer questions directly to respondents. Like many of the earlier methods, Web surveys present questions visually and offer some capability for interacting with respondents. This project encompasses a series of experiments that examine the implications of the visual and interactive character of Web surveys. One set of experiments examines how respondents interpret visual cues in Web questionnaires. These studies test the general proposition that incidental visual features of the questions (e.g., the spacing of response options) can give rise to unintended inferences about their meaning. The studies examine specific hypotheses about the heuristics respondents use in interpreting visual features of questions. These hypotheses state that respondents expect response categories to proceed in a logical progression from left to right; that they expect spatially isolated options also to differ conceptually from the other options; and that they assume that items that look alike must somehow be conceptually related. Two additional experiments examine the effects of including images to supplement the text of a question. Images are necessarily concrete, and one experiment tests whether this leads respondents to interpret the question more narrowly than they otherwise would have. Another experiment tests whether items depicted in an image may serve as standards of comparison for respondents' judgments. The final series of studies examines when respondents take advantage of interactive features of a questionnaire. These experiments test three general hypotheses: Respondents are more likely to utilize information available to them interactively when 1) the information is easy to obtain, 2) it is clearly helpful, and 3) they are highly motivated to seek help.Collectively, the results are likely to lead to practical guidelines for the design of Web surveys. For example, the initial experiments should help settle some important practical questions-Does it matter whether the response categories are arrayed vertically or horizontally? Does the spacing of the response options affect the answers? Does the use of color in response scales influence the distribution of answers? The final experiments could yield better methods for getting respondents to take advantage of features that might improve their answers. This research is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies under the Research on Survey and Statistical Methodology Funding Opportunity.