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Modern mobile phones often offer Internet access and an Internet browser. So what could be more obvious than using these smartphones for surveys? There are three different cases:
Often, participants should just be able to complete the questionnaire - regardless of whether they are using a laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Some study designs, such as diary studies or mobile experience samples, are designed to be completed on the mobile device only.
Other study designs are unsuitable for smartphones, e.g. when a task requires a great deal of information to be displayed on the screen at the same time or when response times are to be recorded at the touch of a button. In this case, you want to make sure that the questionnaire is not filled in on the smartphone.
Note: Not every questionnaire is suitable for filling out on the small display of a smartphone. Long scale batteries (more than 10 items) are no more fun on the small display than long question texts/instructions or long stimulus texts. Not to mention the fact that you like to fill out a 5-minute questionnaire on the bus, but probably not a questionnaire that takes 30 minutes. Therefore, scientific questionnaires are often not suitable for the small mobile phone display, regardless of the presentation.
Approximately every fifth person who completes a questionnaire on SoSci Survey uses a mobile device. Tablets are unproblematic: They offer sufficiently large screens and all types of questions in SoSci Survey can be answered just as easily by touch (touch display) as with the mouse. With smartphones, however, the small display can become a problem.
Basically any common smartphone browser can display an Internet page so small that it fits completely on the display. However, you can neither read the texts nor hit the buttons for the answers. The keyword “Responsive Layout” refers to various techniques that ensure that an Internet page can be displayed meaningfully on displays of different sizes. Essentially, unimportant elements are hidden on small displays and the remaining elements are shown in a different arrangement (e.g. below each other instead of next to each other).
The standard layouts of SoSci Survey (with the exception of “SoSci Smartphone” and “SoSci Survey Paper”) are designed to automatically adapt to the available screen width. A maximum width is set in the questionnaire layout so that the questionnaire is not stretched too much on large screens. However, there are two major restrictions for small displays:
On the small screens of smartphones, questions that use a lot of text (e.g. long item texts) or offer many options cause problems. In addition, some question types, such as the ranking question, require items and answer options to be displayed side by side as cards at the same time.
We recommend the following optimizations so that the questionnaire can be completed sensibly on smartphones:
With the question type “Device and transmitted variables” you can find out whether a participant completes the questionnaire using a smartphone:
This question stores whether the participant's browser identifies his or her device as a computer, tablet or smartphone. For example, if the question has the identifier “GG01”, the following PHP code shows smartphone users the question “FM01” and all other users the question “FS01”.
if (value('GG01_FmF') == 5) { question('FM01'); } else { question('FS01'); }
The following PHP code only displays question “FS02” if the participant is not using a smartphone. Detailed explanations of filters can be found under Filters and Conditional Questions.
if (value('GG01_FmF') != 5) { question('FS02'); }
Hint: The question type “Device and transmitted variables” can also record the screen size of the user. This information may be more useful for some filters than the device format. However, the question must be placed on the page before the filter at the latest (not on the same page as the filter).
It is possible to submit a completely different questionnaire to smartphone users than to other users. This can be useful if, for example, other content is to be displayed on a larger scale and/or if the questionnaire is to use a completely different layout for smartphone users (e.g. “SoSci Smartphone”).
Smartphone users are now automatically redirected to the new questionnaire when calling the main questionnaire.
Important: Changes to a question are copied to all questionnaires that use the question. If you want to modify a question for display on the smartphone/in the second questionnaire, create a copy of this question () and exchange the old question for the new question under Compile Questionnaire in the second questionnaire.
If the questionnaire is only to be completed on smartphones, the same [:en:create:optimizations]] as above apply. It may also make sense to use the Questionnaire Layout “SoSci Smartphone”. This layout offers comparatively little space for questions – but shows them with a correspondingly large font.
Scales have a special display for narrow screens (select in the first tab). Furthermore, with the question type “Scale (with intermediate values)”, the scale points can be displayed as a dropdown – this can be clearer, especially with long answer options.
Depending on the study design, the following chapters may also be helpful:
Sometimes it is necessary to reject participants who want to access the questionnaire with a desktop computer or laptop. This is similar to the procedure described above (Filter for smartphone users).
In addition, a text is created (Text Elements), which for example has the identification “GG02” and politely informs the participant to edit the questionnaire via mobile device.
For the following code example, it is assumed that the block “Device and transmitted variables” has the identifier “GG01” and the text has the identifier “GG02”. The following PHP code is placed as the first element on the first page of the questionnaire. It already integrates “GG01” using 'question()'', so that the module “GG01” no longer needs to be placed separately in the questionnaire.
question('GG01'); // Integrate functional block GG01 to determine the device format if ((value('GG01_FmF') == 1) or (value('GG01_FmF') == 2)) { text('GG02'); // Show text buttonHide(); // Hide buttons so that the questionnaire can no longer be completed }
Note: This PHP code allows filling using Tablet. To prohibit this too, add a check or (value('GG01_FmF') == 2) in the IF filter.
Note: The PHP code is designed to avoid inadvertent filling on the wrong device. Through targeted manipulation, participants may also be able to fill out the questionnaire on a device that should not be allowed: some browsers (e.g. Chrome) can emulate a mobile device, other browsers can transmit a fake browser identification.
Some content is not suitable for smartphones or even tablet computers. These could be for example…
Komplexe kombinierte Fragen, die kompakt detaillierte Informationen abfragen Rangordnungs-Fragen, die viel Platz benötigen, oder Fragen, die auf Basis von Reaktionszeiten eine implizite Einstellung messen sollen, z.B. ein IAT (beides ist auch auf Smartphones prinzipiell möglich aber evtl. aus methodischen Erwägungen nicht erwünscht) Tests, die eine Tastatur und/oder Maus als Eingabegerät benötigen Videos, die in einer ruhigen Umgebung (nicht im Bus des ÖPNV) an einem Computer mit Lautsprechern angesehen werden sollen Abbildungen von Internetseiten, wie sie auf einem normalen Computer aussehen, deren Inhalte auf einem kleinen Smartphone-Display nicht erkennbar wären Mittels Filter kann man Teilnehmern, die ein Mobilgerät nutzen, freundlich mitteilen, dass dieses zum Ausfüllen nicht geeignet ist. Das Vorgehen ist äquivalent zum Abweisen von Teilnehmern in Smartphone-Studien (s. oben).
Frage/Baustein „Gerät und übermittelte Variablen“ anlegen (z.B. „GG01“) Freundlichen Text anlegen (z.B. „GG02“) Zu Beginn des Fragebogens mittels Filter Teilnehmern mit einem Mobilgerät den Text anzeigen question('GG01'); Funktionalen Baustein GG01 einbinden, um das Geräteformat zu ermitteln if 1) { text('GG02'); Text anzeigen
buttonHide(); // Knöpfe ausblenden, sodass der Fragebogen nicht weiter ausgefüllt werden kann
} Verwenden Sie die Variablen-Übersicht, um die möglichen Ausprägungen des Geräte-Formats für den Filter zu ermitteln. Code 4 beschreibt ein Mobilgerät, dessen Format nicht genau bestimmt werden kann, Code 5 beschreibt in Smartphone.
Bearbeit