TY - JOUR

T1 - SurveyMotion

T2 - what can we learn from sensor data about respondents’ completion and response behavior in mobile web surveys?

AU - Höhne, Jan Karem

AU - Schlosser, Stephan

PY - 2019/7/4

Y1 - 2019/7/4

N2 - Participation in web surveys via smartphones increased continuously in recent years. The reasons for this increase are a growing proportion of smartphone owners and an increase in mobile Internet access. However, research has shown that smartphone respondents are frequently distracted and/or multitasking, which might affect completion and response behavior in a negative way. We propose ‘SurveyMotion (SMotion)’, a JavaScript-based tool for mobile devices that can gather information about respondents’ motions during web survey completion by using sensor data. Specifically, we collect data about the total acceleration (TA) of smartphones. We conducted a lab experiment and varied the form of survey completion (e.g. standing or walking). Furthermore, we employed questions with different response formats (e.g. radio buttons and sliders) and measured response times. The results reveal that SMotion detects higher TAs of smartphones for respondents with comparatively higher motion levels. In addition, respondents’ motion level affects response times and the quality of responses given. The SMotion tool promotes the exploration of how respondents complete mobile web surveys and could be employed to understand how future mobile web surveys are completed.

AB - Participation in web surveys via smartphones increased continuously in recent years. The reasons for this increase are a growing proportion of smartphone owners and an increase in mobile Internet access. However, research has shown that smartphone respondents are frequently distracted and/or multitasking, which might affect completion and response behavior in a negative way. We propose ‘SurveyMotion (SMotion)’, a JavaScript-based tool for mobile devices that can gather information about respondents’ motions during web survey completion by using sensor data. Specifically, we collect data about the total acceleration (TA) of smartphones. We conducted a lab experiment and varied the form of survey completion (e.g. standing or walking). Furthermore, we employed questions with different response formats (e.g. radio buttons and sliders) and measured response times. The results reveal that SMotion detects higher TAs of smartphones for respondents with comparatively higher motion levels. In addition, respondents’ motion level affects response times and the quality of responses given. The SMotion tool promotes the exploration of how respondents complete mobile web surveys and could be employed to understand how future mobile web surveys are completed.

KW - Acceleration

KW - JavaScript

KW - mobile sensors

KW - passive data collection

KW - response quality

KW - smartphones

KW - web survey

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060613873&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13645579.2018.1550279

DO - 10.1080/13645579.2018.1550279

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85060613873

VL - 22

SP - 379

EP - 391

JO - International Journal of Social Research Methodology

JF - International Journal of Social Research Methodology

SN - 1364-5579

IS - 4

ER -