What Does It Take to Ensure Mobile Survey Accuracy?

Summary

Three quarters of Americans own smartphones, and half own tablets. What might that mean for survey research? The answer: many survey respondents are being surveyed on their smartphones whether the survey was optimized for a smartphone screen or not. And yet, we know the stickiness of a smartphone survey is much less than a desktop survey. The authors suggest several steps necessary to ensure mobile survey accuracy. These include:

• Testing early in the survey development, and keep testing throughout
• Optimize the screen for a smartphone
• Stay away from slider buttons and small buttons, and allow for easy deletion
• Localize Spanish translations
• Consider mobile and desktop usage by time of day as an indicator of when the survey will be completed
• Be concise
• Limit horizontal scrolling
• Avoid open-responses
• Present response options vertically
• Use drop-downs sparingly and order response options logically
• Limit questions to two to three per page (balance with length)
• Avoid images, videos, logos, and progress bars.