Visual and Interactive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

互联网作为一种调查工具的迅速发展，对这种新的数据收集方法提出了重要的问题。网络调查是计算机直接向受访者提问的一系列方法中的最新一种。与许多早期的方法一样，Web调查以可视化的方式呈现问题，并提供一些与应答者交互的功能。这个项目包含了一系列的实验，这些实验检验了网络调查的可视化和交互性的含义。一组实验检验了被调查者如何解释网络问卷中的视觉线索。这些研究测试了一个普遍的命题，即问题的偶然视觉特征（例如，回答选项的间隔）可以引起对其含义的意外推断。这些研究考察了被调查者在解释问题的视觉特征时使用的启发式的具体假设。这些假设表明，受访者期望回应类别从左到右按逻辑顺序进行；他们期望空间孤立的选项在概念上也与其他选项不同；他们认为看起来相似的东西一定在概念上有某种联系。另外两个实验检验了用图片来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更狭隘地解释问题。另一个实验是测试图像中描述的物品是否可以作为被调查者判断的比较标准。最后一系列研究考察了受访者何时利用问卷的互动功能。这些实验测试了三个一般假设：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，受访者更有可能以互动的方式利用可获得的信息。总的来说，这些结果可能会为设计Web调查提供实用的指导方针。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？选项之间的间隔会影响答案吗？在反应量表中使用颜色会影响答案的分布吗？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特征。本研究由方法、测量和统计项目以及调查和统计方法研究资助机会下的联邦统计机构联盟提供支持。

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.