Completing Surveys on Mobile Devices: Is a Traditional Electronic Questionnaire Enough? (303525)

Keywords: electronic questionnaire, mobile devices, qualitative study, questionnaire design

These days, more and more people are using tablets and smartphones to access the Internet as opposed to traditional computers and laptops. This evolution to mobile devices has direct implications and challenges on how new or existing survey questionnaires are designed. But before going back to the drawing board, evaluating how our current electronic questionnaires perform on mobile devices might give us insight on the direction to take to achieve optimal questionnaire design. Statistics Canada conducted a qualitative study to assess and evaluate respondent behavior when completing the electronic questionnaire for the Canadian Census on mobile devices. This paper discusses the steps taken to prepare the electronic questionnaire for use on mobile devices and the findings and results of the qualitative study.