P.G. Daly's Intranet Talk :

Designing and Conducting the Survey (The Intranet Users Have Spoken...Part III)

see part I
see part II

I received an overwhelming response to my last two articles on the user survey and many readers wanted to know how the survey was designed, what types of questions were asked, and how the whole survey was administered. So, rather than answering a number of e-mails privately, I thought it would be best to share more details on this part of the survey experience with everyone.

Firstly, I. d be remiss if I did not mention the fact that I did not just dream up these questions on my own. The company. s Market Research Department helped me immensely with designing the actual survey questions, possible responses, and question type/formatting on paper. They are experts in doing this sort of thing and I. m certain my survey was a better one because of their expertise.

As I alluded to in the first article, since our Market Research Department was not experienced with doing electronic surveys, we first considered external research vendors. After determining that they were cost prohibitive, we looked to the web for software to do the survey for us. I evaluated several products and decided on Survey SaidÒ (http://www.surveysaid.com), a product for creating, administering, and analyzing on-line surveys. I chose to use its HTML/Internet Survey offering for the intranet survey, but it does offer many other ways of conducting surveys (Java applet, PC based, diskettes, LANs, etc.). I was extremely pleased with the product as it gave my survey a more hi-tech look and feel and made it ridiculously easy to compile and analyze the results. In fact, it was so well received both by respondents and the Market Research Department, that I am in the process of assisting internal departments conduct additional surveys via the intranet. Just what I needed . another hat to wear!

After we developed the questions and question "types" on paper, I created the survey within the software, saved it, and chose the "Create Internet Survey" option. It generated an HTML form for the survey and I was ready to roll. I had already set up my web server with the cgi script needed to run the survey. It is because the survey is generated by the software that the results (from the flat file generated as each user answers the survey on the web) can be imported back into the software for easy analysis.

Here. s some of the questions we asked, their format, and the objective of each question:

Question	Format	Objective
Name and Phone #	Text Box	Optional. Survey was essentially anonymous but users had to give name and phone number if they wanted to enter the DVD Drawing
Please tell us your group (business)	Radio Buttons	To determine respondent rate by group and extrapolate into which groups use the intranet the most/least
Where are you primarily located?	Radio Buttons	Determine where users are located (Corporate HQ, Plants, Remote Dial-Up, etc.)
How often do you use your PC?	Radio Buttons	Determine PC usage
How would you describe your PC abilities?	Radio Buttons	Try and determine users. PC abilities
How often do you use the intranet?	Radio Buttons	Frequency of intranet usage
Within your group, do you feel that the use of the intranet is Mandatory? Strongly encouraged? Somewhat encouraged? Not encouraged?	Radio Buttons	To cross-tabulate responses by group/business and assess whether management is encouraging users to use the intranet or not
Rate the following current content in the areas of Importance and Satisfaction. (this was followed by a list of current content for example, press releases/news, discussion boards, HR information, response time& .)	5 point scale for both Importance and Satisfaction	Perform gap analysis on current content offerings
Is there a reason that you do not use the intranet more often?	Radio Buttons (choose all that apply) with an "Other" for additional verbatim answers	Determine why users do not use the intranet more often. Try and categorize reasons by technical (ex: access, response time), content reasons, training issues, etc.
What would make it worthwhile for you to use the intranet more often?	Radio Buttons (choose all that apply) with an "Other" for additional verbatim answers	Get an idea of what users really want to see
What is your overall opinion of the intranet?	Scroll Bar for Relative Impression Rating	Determine overall satisfaction with the current intranet
Comments/Suggestions	Open ended verbatim	Get individualized feedback, suggestions

Overall, respondents seemed to answer all or at least most of the 26 questions. The verbatim questions (the 2 "other" options and the last comments/suggestion) were very interesting to read and provided me a lot of insight and information. However, keep in mind that verbatim questions cannot be quantitatively analyzed by the software and are not nearly as easy to analyze as closed-ended questions. Therefore, I recommend using them sparingly.

Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response to the survey articles. I hope this article answered most of the questions I received regarding how the survey was designed and what questions were asked. As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or stories of your own to share, drop me a line at paulag@enter.net.

see part I
see part II

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The Author

P.G. Daly is Webmaster for the intranet of a large durable goods manufacturing company. In addition, P.G. writes for several online publications and does freelance web design and consulting. P.G. welcomes your feedback at paulag@enter.net .