KnowHow: Forms --- Access

Forms

To better understand the survey sample (e.g. reaction times etc.) it can be very helpful to know from where they accessed the Internet. This one question alone is however not necessarily sufficient and it is therefore recommended to combine it with another question, e.g. to whether the participant is alone when working on the computer and/or is accompanied or surrounded by a many other people. In most cases a user is alone and hence undisturbed. However, one should not worry too much about this aspect, as so far to our knowledge there are no analyses available that are able to show differences in the answer scheme between users alone or in groups.

 

Web access as a drop-down menu With drop-down menus one can save a lot of space and kinda pretend to have a short survey. However, one should still be careful applying drop-down menus and consider that a user needs more time to choose the appropriate answer in a drop-down menu than in choosing the right radio button or a check box. In some cases drop-down menus are, on the other hand, the only choice, especially when the list of possible answers to choose from is rather long. From cognitive psychology we know that the human being is able to comprehend up to six elements at the same time, hence drop-down menus should only be used with more than 7 possible answers.   This is what it could look like: Where do you access the Internet from? Please choose At home Office, university, school Internet-coffee-shop Library Other     HTML-Source <p>Where do you access the Internet from?<br> <select size="1" name="access"> <option value="0">&nbsp;Please choose</option> <option value="1">&nbsp;At home</option> <option value="2">&nbsp;Office,university, school</option> <option value="3">&nbsp;Inernet-coffee-shop</option> <option value="4">&nbsp;Library</option> <option value="5">&nbsp;Other</option> </select>

Web access as radio buttons Displaying the way of accessing the Internet with radio buttons is probably one of the best alternatives. By applying "blind" tables it is possible to arrange all available answers in a way that allows direct capture of all at one glance. That is why we present here two different versions: a simple list and the display with a table. The table has 420 pixels in its widths so that it also looks the same on the smaller 14' monitors.  Simple list with radio buttons Where do you access the Internet from?  At home  Office, university, school  Internet-coffee-shop  Library  Other     HTML-Source <p>Where do you access the Internet from?<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="1"> At home<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="2"> Office, university, school<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="3"> Internet-coffee-shop<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="4"> Library<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="5"> Other<br>  List with radio buttons using a "blind" table Where do you access the Internet from?  At home  Office, University, School  Internet-coffee-shop  Library  Other     HTML-Source <p>Where do you access the Internet from?<br> <table width="420" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr> <td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="radio" name="access" value="1">&nbsp;At home<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="2">&nbsp;Office, university, school<br> </td><td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="radio" name="access" value="3">&nbsp;Internet-coffee-shop<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="4">&nbsp;Library<br> <input type="radio" name="access" value="5">&nbsp;Other<br> </td></tr></table>

Web access with checkboxes The same applies here as it already has with radio buttons. The only difference is that checkboxes allow multiple answers.  Simple list Where do you access the Internet from?  At home  Office, university, school  Internet-cofee-shop  Library  Other     HTML-Source <p>Where do you access the Internet from?<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="1"> At home<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="2"> Office, university, school<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="3"> Internet-coffee-shop<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="4"> Library<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="5"> Other<br> List with checkboxes using a "blind" table From where are you accessing the Internet?  At home  Office, University, School  Internet-coffee-shop  Library  Other     HTML-Source <p>Where do you access the Internet from?<br> <table width="420" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr> <td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="1">&nbsp;At home<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="2">&nbsp;Office, university, school<br> </td><td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="3">&nbsp;Internet-coffee-shop<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="4">&nbsp;Library<br> <input type="checkbox" name="access" value="5">&nbsp;Other<br> </td></tr></table>