Automatic Resizing to optimise the Respondent experience 

Over the last few years there has been a substantial increase in the number of ways that people experience the web. Our expectations of what we will see on the web have risen dramatically - what is generally referred to as Web 2.0 is now the norm - but the way that we experience it has changed as well.

Most online survey software assumes a standard set of operating system/browser/screen size (typically Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6 and XGA (1024 by 768) screen resolution). Ok! We know this is the boring bit! But it's also important. Consider just a few possibilities - today consumers could be using Apple Mac or Vista, Firefox or AOL, larger and/or different ratio screens (e.g. 16:9 Widescreen). These are just a tiny selection of the alternatives. Recent data shows that only 1 in 4 computer users now conform to the XP/IE/XGA "norm" that most survey software assumes. This just isn't good enough!

So what about the 75% of Users who do not conform? Their experience varies from uninspiring (and often difficult to use) through to outright failure of the survey software to work. Actually the latter may be a blessing in disguise! Unfortunately in between these two extremes it is possible for survey software to "kind of work" - in other words it worked well enough for the Respondent to complete the survey, but it didn't work the way you intended! For example, maybe some options were unavailable (or hidden). Not, of course, that the Respondent would ever know. Not, of course, that you would ever know the data was contaminated either! Now you see why a complete failure might be a blessing in disguise!

So what options do you have to avoid this? Essentially you either design to the lowest common denominator (but be warned this means VERY basic and, frankly, ugly surveys) or you insist on testing each survey on all major Operating System/Browser/Connection Speed/Screen size/Security setting combinations. Trust us when we say that this option gets very tedious!

Fortunately there is another option.

We use Flash from Adobe as an alternative. Flash is what is known as a "Plug-In" - which means that it is a downloadable component. Because it is a download it is not always present on a Computer - although our software can be set to recognise this and provide an HTML survey instead. But because it is so commonly found on the web Flash is on 9 out of 10 Computers already - plus it is only one click away from being downloaded if the User agrees.

The are four big advantages of using Flash.

Firstly

You can see below (or you will if YOU have Flash 8 or 9 installed!). Flash can be set to automatically resize itself to fit the screen the Respondent is using. All three of the examples below are the exact same question (all designed in 800 x 800 mode) they have simply been dynamically resized to fit. We can just as easily scale UP the size to fit larger screens.

Secondly

Flash is almost perfect at either working or completely failing to work! In other words IF it is installed it works exactly as planned - otherwise we are notified that Flash is not installed (and can route the Respondnet to an alternative survey if required). What you avoid, therefore, is the "kind of works" situation described above. The nett effect is that you avoid data contimination and give your Respondnets a lot nicer experience.

Thirdly

Flash is a multimedia environment. Of course this means that you can show video clips and generally make more interactive questionnaires. But it also makes it much easier to make your surveys accesible for those with disabilities (which you are now obliged by law to consider). Our Flash based software allows you to be more accesible through vastly increasing the "click areas" (so the questions are much easier to navigate) and because you can easily embed sound clips to aid those with sight disabilities.

Finally

Flash allows a much richer survey environment. Just check out a few of our example questions available through the navigation area to the left of your screen to see what we mean. Bear in mind that this only demonstrates a tiny fraction of what our Survey Software can achieve. It really is Survey Software for the Web 2.0 era!