Visual & Interactive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

描述(由申请人提供)：万维网被迅速接受为调查数据收集的工具，这引发了关于新方法如何工作的重要问题。网络调查的主要特点包括使用丰富的问题视觉呈现和与受访者互动的能力。网络的快速发展使得对这些问题的仔细研究变得更加迫切。即使在早期的模式下，这两组功能都没有得到彻底的探索，而且Web提供了广泛增加的资源，用于视觉显示(Web调查问卷可以很容易地合并静态图片或视频剪辑)和交互(例如，浮动屏幕和滚动以获得定义帮助)。我们的申请概述了一系列旨在解决有关这些问题的关键问题的研究。这些研究的重点是网络调查，但我们相信，结果将推广到其他依赖于视觉呈现或结合互动设计特征的数据收集模式。 实验1-5考察了受试者如何解读网络问卷中的视觉线索。这些研究测试了问题呈现的附带特征(例如，回答选项的间距，分配给不同回答选项的颜色)可以引起对其含义的意外推断这一一般命题。这些研究测试了从理论框架中得出的预测，该框架假设受访者使用简单的解释性启发式方法为问题的视觉特征赋予意义。接下来的两个实验考察了将图像作为问题正文的补充的效果。图像必须是具体的，实验6检验了这样的假设，即当受访者伴随着图像时，这种具体性可能会导致他们对问题的理解更加狭隘。实验7测试了这样一种想法，即图像中描绘的项目可以作为受访者判断的比较标准。同样，这些研究的结果将导致使用图像作为口头问题的辅助工具所涉及的危险的实用指导方针。最后一系列研究考察了受访者何时可能利用调查问卷的互动功能。这些实验验证了三个一般假设；当1)信息很容易获得，2)明显有帮助，3)受访者寻求帮助的动机很高时，受访者更有可能互动地利用他们可以获得的信息。这六项实验将更好地理解让受访者使用可以产生更好调查数据的功能的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The rapid acceptance of the Worldwide Web as a vehicle for survey data collection raises important questions about how the new method works. Key features of Web surveys include the use of rich visual presentation of questions and the capability of interaction with the respondent. The rapid growth of the Web makes a close examination of these issues even more urgent. Neither set of features has been explored thoroughly even with earlier modes and the Web offers widely increased resources for both visual display (Web questionnaires can readily incorporate still pictures or video clips) and interaction (such as, floating screens and scrolling for help with definitions). Our application outlines a set of studies designed to address key questions about these issues. The studies focus on Web surveys, but we believe that the results would generalize to other modes of data collection that rely on visual presentation or incorporate interactive design features. Experiments 1-5 examine how respondents interpret the visual cues in Web questionnaires. These studies test the general proposition that incidental features of the presentation of the questions (for example, the spacing of the response options, the color assigned to different response options) can give rise to unintended inferences about their meaning. These studies test predictions derived from a theoretical framework that assumes respondents use simple interpretive heuristics to assign meaning to visual features of the questions. The next two experiments examine the effects of including images as a supplement to the text of the question. Images are necessarily concrete, and Experiment 6 tests the hypothesis that this concreteness may lead respondents to interpret the questions more narrowly when they are accompanied by images. Experiment 7 tests the idea that the item depicted in an image may serve as a standard of comparison for respondents' judgments. Again, the results of these studies will lead to practical guidelines about the dangers involved in using images as an adjunct to verbal questions. The final series of studies examines when respondents are likely to take advantage of interactive features of a questionnaire. These experiments test three general hypotheses; respondents are more likely to utilize the information available to them interactively when 1) the information is easy to obtain, 2) it is clearly helpful, and 3) respondents are highly motivated to seek help. These six experiments would yield a better understanding of methods for getting respondents to use features that could yield better survey data.