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Usability of Online Surveys

I just got an email request to do a survey from a FAVORITE museum.  They sent me an email, addressed me as "Dear Friend". What could go wrong?

They said it would take 15 minutes.  (Which is a LOT.  A lot for anyone.  Anything more than 5 minutes is a lot.)  It took longer than 15 minutes.  I lost track when the Progress Bar hadn't moved beyond the half way point after I answered a lot of questions.

I left the tab open all day.  Checked in, did a few more answers every now and then.  Not even sure if it mattered after 5 hours.  When I got to the "Just a few quick demographic questions"  (again, not past the halfway mark on the Progress Bar).

What got to me was the BAD design of the survey.  In terms of actions and GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods and Selections) which is essentially a way to measure how long it takes to go from a mouse to a keyboard.  If you add it up, it matters.  Especially if you have a survey with ONE QUESTION PER PAGE!  As a human, I find it insulting that I have 2 clicks per page (over more than 10 pages), one I think about and one which could be automated.

For variety, there are questions which have several columns, some items can have more than one check.  Talk about wanting to answer "I don't care now".

The survey literally made me regret telling anyone I visited the museum.  It also gave me guilt during the day and active aggression towards the end.  AND I abandoned after starting again several times, so it drained me of goodwill and left me with a feeling of having wasted my time and I am unsure if they can use what I gave them so far.

I have spent hours on the site Freerice.com, and find it simple and terribly addictive.  As with most video games or the type of gamification which increases points (which you may or may not get in real life), there is a sense of reward.  Why is that so impossible to do in surveys?

I would love to fill out addictive surveys.  Are you listening, MOMA?


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