Having been in the mobile survey software industry for over 10 years, I've heard many opinions on mobile research but one that comes up more often than most is - "why not just do web surveys on the phone?" It's a very good question and in certain cases, it's (only now) quite possible, but there are a number of factors why it is generally not the right choice:
Layout and Design
Due to the huge variation in mobile device screen size and layout, web content can appear very differently from device to device. This can affect how the user interprets the survey and can even affect results if choice lists that fit on one screen vary from user to user.
Wireless Speed and Reliability
With the advent of 3G, we are now seeing exciting new wide area wireless data connection speeds. The throughput that is now capable rivals even some home desktop connections. However, regardless of the speed, mobile wireless still suffers from a few problems:
Wireless Cost
Cost of wide area wireless is coming down all the time but it is still quite expensive compare to desktop connections and is still usually charged/measured by the kilobyte.
Battery Life
It's a factor most people don't consider but to use wireless connections actually uses the battery. The more data that is sent and received, the more battery power consumed
There is an alternative to mobile web surveys, it's to have an application running directly on the device that is dedicated to presenting surveys. This "smart" client applications can be a much better approach:
Layout and Design
Due to the huge variation in mobile device screen size and layout, web content can appear very differently from device to device. This can affect how the user interprets the survey and can even affect results if choice lists that fit on one screen vary from user to user.
Wireless Speed and Reliability
With the advent of 3G, we are now seeing exciting new wide area wireless data connection speeds. The throughput that is now capable rivals even some home desktop connections. However, regardless of the speed, mobile wireless still suffers from a few problems:
- Mobile devices are mobile - they move. And because they move, the connection signal varies in strength, leading to lost or dropped connections, not to mention dead zones.
- Slow response time. Wide area wireless connections suffer from high "latency" - the time it takes the device to send or receive data to the internet. This does not include any delays in getting the data through the Internet, processed by the server and returned to the device. It does not matter if the amount of data is 1 byte or 1MB; radio latency is the same regardless.
Wireless Cost
Cost of wide area wireless is coming down all the time but it is still quite expensive compare to desktop connections and is still usually charged/measured by the kilobyte.
Battery Life
It's a factor most people don't consider but to use wireless connections actually uses the battery. The more data that is sent and received, the more battery power consumed
There is an alternative to mobile web surveys, it's to have an application running directly on the device that is dedicated to presenting surveys. This "smart" client applications can be a much better approach:
- Layout: applications can provide consistent look and feel across many devices.
- Speed: Extremely responsive - no navigation delay.
- Cost: Only uses internet connection when necessary.
- Cost/Battery: Does not depend on having an internet connection to function.
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