Mobile Devices for Survey Data Collection

用于收集调查数据的移动设备

• 批准号: 1261340
• 负责人: Roger Tourangeau
• 金额: $ 51.95万
• 依托单位: Westat Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1261340&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mobile; Devices; Survey; Data; Collection

This project will examine mobile devices, specifically smartphones and tablet computers, as vehicles for survey data collection. The appeal of these devices for survey researchers is clear. Because they are lightweight and relatively inexpensive, they make it easier to collect data using such existing survey modes as computer-assisted personal interviewing. The research will examine three issues raised by use of such devices. First, the input methods that these devices permit (such as touchscreen interfaces) are relatively unfamiliar to many users and may create response problems. Although these interfaces are sometimes used on laptops, tablets and smartphones require them, making usability concerns more central. Second, the screens on tablets and smartphones are considerably smaller than those on laptop or desktop computers. Experiments on web surveys demonstrate the importance of "visual prominence." Any information that respondents need to use should be immediately visible to them without their having to perform any action (such as a mouse click) to make the information visible. Even the need for an eye movement may effectively render information invisible. Because of the small screens on mobile devices, it may be much harder to make all of the potentially useful information visible to respondents than it is with a laptop or desktop computer. The final issue is the perceived privacy of data collected on these devices. Respondents are willing to reveal sensitive information about themselves when a computer administers the questions, and web surveys seem to retain the advantages of earlier methods of computerized self-administration. But it is unclear whether respondents will display the same level of candor when the survey is administered over the Internet on a tablet computer or a smartphone. Two realistic field experiments and a usability study will examine these issues. Both experiments will be conducted in a single, face-to-face survey. The first experiment will compare laptop computers with tablets and smartphones and will examine the effects of both screen size and input method on breakoffs, missing data, completion times, and indicators of the quality of the responses. The second experiment will compare the same three data collection platforms as vehicles for collecting sensitive information. The experiment will ask respondents to assess the sensitivity of the questions, because item sensitivity may vary as a function of the device used to collect the data.Surveys are a central tool for social scientists and policymakers in the United States, and survey research is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States alone. Any set of technological advances, such as the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablet computers, is likely to have a major impact on how surveys are done. Although mobile devices will be widely used for surveys regardless of whether this research is done, the work will produce practical guidelines for using such devices to collect survey data and will alert survey researchers to some of the potential pitfalls of these devices.

该项目将研究移动的设备，特别是智能手机和平板电脑，作为调查数据收集的工具。 这些设备对调查研究人员的吸引力是显而易见的。 由于这些方法重量轻，价格相对便宜，因此更容易使用计算机辅助个人访谈等现有调查模式收集数据。 该研究将探讨使用此类设备所引起的三个问题。 首先，这些设备允许的输入方法（例如触摸屏界面）对于许多用户来说相对不熟悉，并且可能产生响应问题。 虽然这些界面有时用于笔记本电脑，但平板电脑和智能手机需要它们，使可用性问题更加重要。 其次，平板电脑和智能手机的屏幕比笔记本电脑或台式电脑的屏幕小得多。 网络调查的实验证明了“视觉突出”的重要性。“受访者需要使用的任何信息都应该立即对他们可见，而无需执行任何操作（如鼠标点击）来使信息可见。 甚至需要眼球运动也可以有效地使信息不可见。 由于移动的设备上的屏幕很小，因此与笔记本电脑或台式电脑相比，要让受访者看到所有潜在有用的信息可能要困难得多。 最后一个问题是在这些设备上收集的数据的感知隐私。 受访者愿意透露自己的敏感信息时，计算机管理的问题，和网络调查似乎保留了早期的计算机化自我管理方法的优势。 但目前还不清楚，当调查通过平板电脑或智能手机进行时，受访者是否会表现出同样的坦率程度。 两个现实的现场实验和可用性研究将研究这些问题。 这两个实验都将在一次面对面的调查中进行。 第一个实验将笔记本电脑与平板电脑和智能手机进行比较，并将研究屏幕大小和输入方法对中断，缺失数据，完成时间和响应质量指标的影响。 第二个实验将比较相同的三个数据收集平台作为收集敏感信息的工具。 在美国，调查是社会科学家和政策制定者的核心工具，调查研究是一个价值数十亿美元的产业。在美国，调查研究是一个价值数十亿美元的产业。 任何技术进步，如智能手机和平板电脑的广泛采用，都可能对调查的方式产生重大影响。 尽管无论这项研究是否完成，移动的设备都将广泛用于调查，但这项工作将为使用此类设备收集调查数据提供实用指南，并提醒调查研究人员注意这些设备的一些潜在陷阱。