Mobile as Survey Mode
Tobias Konitzer
Stanford University
Stephanie Eckman
RTI International, Nrnberg, Germany
David Rothschild
Microsoft Research
Survey researchers regularly trade-off the costs and benefits of different modes: face-to-face, mail, telephone, and web surveys. This paper presents the case that conducting surveys via applications installed on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is a new mode altogether. The mobile mode shares many characteristics of the web mode, but also has unique advantages and disadvantages. We discuss the attributes that make mobile surveys different from web surveys. In the data collection phase this includes differences in: coverage, non-response, and measurement error, as well as costs and design. When we take full advantage of the mobile mode, we can collect survey responses as well as unique passive data from the device itself. We detail what forms of passive data are available via the mobile mode and how they can be used to increase the utility of survey data.