User research: Data statistics for effective questionnaires

Article Description: User Survey is a more commonly used method of research. The method itself has a certain scientific nature, this is beyond doubt. Only when we examine or excavate the results of the questionnaire, especially the user's attitude towards an object or thing, we hope to combine with other objective data, such as: product operation data, etc. In this way, our conclusions may be closer to the user's real situation.

 

Do you have any doubts about the results of the user questionnaire? Through a simple questionnaire survey, we can not accurately predict the user's behavior in real environment according to the user's attitude to the product.

Let's take a look at a case:

When Sony introduced the Boom Box concept, they recruited potential consumers to form a focus group to discuss what color the new product should be: black or yellow. After the discussion of this group of potential buyers, everyone thinks that consumers should be more likely to be yellow. After the meeting, the organizers thanked the group members and told them that everyone could take a Boom Box for free before leaving. There are two stacks of boom Box: yellow and black.

The result is that everyone is taking black! There is a inconsistency in the user. Previous assessments of attitudes did not predict the true behavior of individuals.

What users say and do may be completely different, because they often do not realize the truth of their actions, so we need to have a clear understanding of what they say and do in two aspects.

In the early stages of psychological development, there was an unproven assumption that a person's attitude and behavior are consistent. This hypothesis can also be interpreted as a person's attitude towards an object (person or thing) that will affect its treatment of the object. Therefore, psychologists and sociologists usually use questionnaires to measure the attitude of the subjects, and predict that the measured attitude will be reflected in their behavior when the subjects are really confronted with an object that needs to be shown.

In the 1830s, American psychologist Richard Lapiere realized that the hypothesis might be problematic. He had done such a study. It is not possible to predict the true behavior of people by means of research to verify their verbal attitudes.

Research background:
At that time, there were serious racial prejudices and discrimination in the United States. This discriminatory behaviour is widespread and widely accepted. For example: Some hotels and restaurants often refuse to provide services to people of some ethnic or ethnic minorities. Lapiere his research into two parts. The first part focuses on the real behavior, and the second part uses the questionnaire to evaluate the hypothetical attitude associated with it.

Research process:
During the observation phase, Lapiere and his Chinese friends drove two times along the Pacific coastline to travel across the United States. In 1930-1933 years, they have lived in 67 hotels, motels and "Traveller's homes". Dine in 184 restaurants and cafes. He has an accurate and detailed record of the attitude and behavior of the Chinese couple in the hotel receptionist, service student and other staff.

In the hotels and visits they had visited, they had received only 1 cases of indifference brought about by the aliens. In addition to this unpleasant experience, they were treated in the middle or the middle or above in other places. Despite the change in treatment, it is also due to the curiosity of Chinese couples. In 1930, with the exception of the Pacific Rim, Chicago and New York, most Americans had little experience with Asians, and perhaps they had never met Asian people.

　　Lapiere's rating of their services

In the days that followed, lapiere mailed questionnaires to places they had visited and had not visited. Almost all of the places they have been to, more than 90% of the stores say they will not receive the Chinese. In addition, the answers to the places they had never visited were as distributed as they had been visited. This means that no matter whether they have ever received the Chinese people, the attitude towards the reception of Chinese is consistent.

The specific data are as follows:

　　Data statistics of effective questionnaires "Would you like to host Chinese guests at your hotel or restaurant?" ”

If we only follow the questionnaire results, we will come up with such behavioral predictions. "If the Chinese visit these hotels and restaurants, they will be rejected by the vast majority of shopkeepers," he said. "But actually?" is diametrically opposed.

Lapiere concludes that if you want to predict how a person will behave in the face of a particular situation or a particular person, an oral answer to a hypothetical scenario (i.e. an attitude questionnaire) is far from enough.

So when will the measurement attitude succeed in predicting behavior? Psychologists have studied and dug up some factors that lead to a consistent attitude and behavior. (see Taylor,peplau & sear,1997)

　　1. The intensity of your attitude the more you feel about someone or a situation, the more likely you are to act in the way you feel when you actually meet them. On the other hand, weak or contradictory feelings have little or no effect on the behavior.

　　2, the stability of the attitude of this factor to solve the problem of how the attitude changes over time. A stable attitude can predict behavior better than those that change over time. The best way is to measure attitudes and behavior at the same time.

　　3, behavior and attitude of the relevant attitude measurement problems should be related to the actual behavior. For example, we cannot predict how often a person will take part in a sport by his attitude towards sports, and the accuracy will be poor.

　　4, the significance of the attitude if you are very clear about someone or something, then it is significant and important and easy to extract from memory. The clearer the attitude, the more it can predict individual behavior.

　5, the situation of the pressure in a particular situation outside the pressure is very large, so that people's inner thoughts do not have any impact on the behavior. For example, the attitude towards wine driving may be consistent with strict legal sanctions.

Written in the end, the user questionnaire survey is a more commonly used method of research. The method itself has a certain scientific nature, this is beyond doubt. Only when we examine or excavate the results of the questionnaire, especially the user's attitude towards an object or thing, we hope to combine with other objective data, such as: product operation data, etc. In this way, our conclusions may be closer to the user's real situation.