#Survey design

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

Hey everyone!

This is the next in our series of pilot surveys for the AO3 Demographics Survey 2023 - an independent research project about the demographics and behaviours of AO3 users, which is planning to launch later this year. (Please note that we are in no way officially endorsed by or affiliated with AO3!)

The purpose of our pilot surveys is to seek feedback about which questions should be included, the best phrasing of questions, and similar design concerns. This survey focuses on questions from the "Fandom Behaviour" section of the survey, which is about how people participate in fandom beyond their use of AO3 itself.

If you are willing to give feedback, we estimate the survey will take about 15 minutes. No data collected as part of this survey will be included in the final project; it is for survey design purposes only.

This pilot survey will run for about a week, or until we have received 500 responses, whichever happens first. Signal boosts are appreciated. Thank you!

[gendercensus]

How many pronouns should be in the pronoun checkbox list?

So, I'm working on generating the pronouns checkbox list for next year using the multiplier system.

The following options that are not actually pronoun sets have to be on the list:

I want people to frequently change the pronouns they use for me

My pronouns vary depending on specific conditions

Any

Avoid pronouns / use name as pronoun

A pronoun set not listed here

Questioning or unknown

For comparison, the identity checkbox list is 20 long, in two columns (10 per column), which seems to work. That looks like this:

This year's pronoun list was 15 long. It can't be over two columns because the options are a bit too long. On the same screen, 15 checkboxes look like this:

(Bear in mind the "preview" black bar at the top won't be there for everyone else!)

What do you think is a good length for a pronoun list in one column? Think: Plenty to choose from, but not so many that you have to scroll too much and can't easily find what you're looking for.

Feedback also tangentially welcome on the length of the list of pronouns or the list of identity terms in this year's survey!

[numbers-have-feelings-too]

Sometimes, people mess with the census as a protest because the government is denying them human rights, sure. But an unavoidable problem in survey design is that people will also sometimes tell you complete untruths just because they think it’s funny.

Census Jedis are your classic example. In 2001, censuses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand asked about religion for the first time. 2001 was also the early days of widespread internet, and so a meme began to circulate in chain emails.

People were urged to put ‘Jedi’ as their religion on the census, partly for fun and also (they were told, though this isn’t actually true) because it would force their government to recognise it as an official religion.

People did. In England and Wales, 390,000 people did, outnumbering several minority religions.

And why? Some people framed it as a protest against asking about religion on the census, or against the census in general. And sure, there’s an anti-establishment sort of feeling behind it.

But for my money, people mostly did it because it amused them. Because surveys are boring, and people get very serious about the census in particular. Phrases like ‘civic duty’ get thrown around. And there’s a form with all sorts of serious boxes to tick, but also a free space to write whatever you want, and, well, it would be funny, wouldn’t it? It just would.

There are consequences to these sorts of shenanigans. Questions were asked about the quality of census data. Atheist and Humanist organisations begged non-religious people to stop doing it, so as not to artificially inflate the count of religious people. Sociologists have written papers.

But all of that just makes it funnier, doesn’t it?

Look, I’m not encouraging doing this. Nobody who works with this sort of data in real life can afford to – we’re all terrified that the rest of you will decide something else is funny next, and muck up a carefully-calibrated data series we’ve been using for years.

I’m just reminding everyone to beware. There’s no power on Earth that will keep people from being silly, including within your datasets. Sometimes you just have to work with it.

[writers-worst-nightmare]

Survey

If you guys can take this survey and / or pass it around to your friends that would be such a big help! I am trying to prove to my book agent that there is an audience for the type of book I am writing.

Do not feel obligated by any means to take this, but if you want to then please do :)

[marketxcel]

5 Methods of Data Collection for Quantitative Research

Discover five powerful techniques for gathering quantitative data in research, essential for uncovering trends, patterns, and correlations. Explore proven methodologies that empower researchers to collect and analyze data effectively.

[designaday]

Cumbersome

I went through an interesting thought experiment today. When you are designing a survey, it's important to think about whether you are providing a positive or negative statement, how that corresponds to the rating scale, and whether or not it is consistent with other statements in the survey. The System Usability Scale (SUS) survey, for example, alternates between positive and negative statements. It does so on purpose to avoid response biases. The eighth statement in the SUS survey is, "I found the system very cumbersome to use."

This is a negative statement, and the user must answer by indicating how strongly they agree with the statement on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the strongest agreement. What if you wanted to make all of the statements positive?

We know exactly what it means for a system to be cumbersome: it performs slowly, it takes too many steps to complete what should be a simple task, you have to do the same thing repeatedly, and it's hard to remember where to find things. What is the opposite of cumbersome?

A thesaurus isn't particularly helpful. Some antonyms listed for cumbersome are "aiding, convenient, easy, fun, helpful, undburdensome." Some of the words can fit into the statement and make sense, but they don't quite capture everything that the word "cumbersome" does. "Convenient" is probably the closest.

The best phrase I could come up with is, "I found the system efficient to use."

[theperfectquestion]

Welcome to our friendly Discord server!

To verify, just complete this short survey:

1. What are your skills?

🌱 gardening

🍏 horticulture

🍇 viticulture

🌐 other

2. Where are you from?

🇳🇬 Nigeria

🇪🇹 Ethiopia

🇪🇬 Egypt

🇨🇩 DR Congo

🇹🇿 Tanzania

🇿🇦 South Africa

🇰🇪 Kenya

🇺🇬 Uganda

🇸🇸 Sudan

🇩🇿 Algeria

🇲🇦 Morocco

🇪🇺 Europe

🇺🇲 New York

🇮🇳 China / Asia

🌐 other

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

Hello again!

We're back with another pilot survey for the AO3 Demographics Survey 2023 - an independent research project about the demographics and behaviours of AO3 users, which is planning to launch at the end of this year or early next year. (Please note that we are in no way officially endorsed by or affiliated with AO3!)

The purpose of our pilot surveys is to seek feedback about which questions should be included, the best phrasing of questions, and similar design concerns. After analysing the results of the initial pilot surveys, we now have a final draft of the complete survey. These questions are intended to identify any remaining issues in the final draft, and any guidance which needs to be placed in the FAQs or similar in order to help the final survey run smoothly.

If you are willing to give feedback, we estimate the survey will take about 15 minutes. No data collected as part of this survey will be included in the final project; it is for survey design purposes only.

We regret that due to the use of images in this survey to display how questions will look, it may not be accessible to those using screenreaders. The final survey will not have this issue.

This pilot survey will run for about a week, or until we have received 800 responses, whichever happens first. Signal boosts are appreciated. Thank you!

[fascinatedfinch]

Day 11: Planetary Surveys (from MB's point of view)

[formerlyashkatom]

it is once again time for me to win an argument, unless you all disagree with me, in which case this time I will put down my phone, exhale a short breath through my nose, and wade into the sea in an attempt to subsume my identity into something greater than myself. please reblog for a greater sample size and to inflict psychic damage upon me with your commentary.

caveats: no vanilla extract/both/neither/I'm bald, we die on these hills. it does not matter for the purposes of option 1 in this case what the universal imperatives are, just that (your stance is) they exist, but if you want to define what they are in reblog commentary I may then hold a deathmatch of everyone's definitions in a future poll because that would be funny to me.

[camera-seventeen]

2024 carat survey results! (check the twitter thread for more results ^^)

[duskroll]

Whether you have or not! Please take this survey to help a student out with a design project.

[queercripintersex]

Also: most intersex people don't consider their gender to be intersex specifically. We have intersex-specific genders like intergender, ipsogender, ultergender, etc, and many intersex people identify with genders that are not intersex-specific.

Don't make intersex people pick between reporting their gender and reporting their intersex status.

hey guys reminder that there are more gender identities than just cis and trans . if you're making a poll that depends on how you identify gender wise include at the absolute bare minimum intersex and nonbinary people . not everyone is cis or trans .

[kerbearos]

huevember day 14: seth

[reddoll123]

Bass Guitar Tunin'~