June30
Sour on Survey Usability
When taking a survey today, I encountered the following usability issue:
Okay, I’ll take some of the blame for not comprehending the question completely... but there’s a bigger issue going on here. As users gain experience on the internet, they’re learning something we call web standards.
A standard in the tangible world would be like knowing you can drive when the light is green, or having to push the up or down button to call the elevator. In other words, things that you do but don’t have to think about doing.
On the web, standards are knowing to click an underlined link to go to another web page, or knowing how to correctly fill out an online form.
Moral of the story... if you want a user to select “the best feature of cable high-speed internet service,” how about you give them radio buttons and not check boxes.
+ original post date: June 30, 2006 04:30 PM
+ categories: Computers, Web Stuff
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I program web surveys for a living and an error like the one you found here is something only a rank amateur would make. If you can figure out who build that survey, let me know so I can mock them at the staff meeting next week. :)
+ author: ScooterJ
+ posted: June 30, 2006 04:36 PM
Oh, I know who made the error, but I'm just not saying to be nice. :)
+ author: Seth
+ posted: June 30, 2006 07:11 PM
Sorry guys. I'm new at this. Geez. Wait...
+ author: crasymaker
+ posted: July 1, 2006 10:09 AM
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