Dealing with the loopholes of quantitative research

Concerns from stakeholders –

High dissatisfaction among students😒

1. If the problem is approved, it gets posted, and if disapproved, the admins of the group don’t post that problem. But, they think students need to know why their problem was refused.
2. Another primary concern was the announcements of the senate, and other information gets hidden in the current Facebook page due to ample post/discussion shadowing them.

After talking to General secretaries, we understood the structure of the current system and quite an understanding of what we could improve. But we had to listen to the concerns of the student body also.

Hey! We are working on so n so… Plz take some time out to fill this short form.

Almost every week, I come across this kind of survey from my social surroundings. And my response to nearly every survey form is the same.

Reading pointless questions, Repeating the same answers, and going through irrelevant sections.

The main problem here is — Survey creators often fail to build logic in their form. As the questions get irrelevant, or the flow seems to continue forever, people start to close the tab — leaving without giving any answers at all. Let’s see how we tried to tackle this problem.

This survey was to understand if the students were aware of the current SAC IITR forum and the process general secretaries follow to solve their problem.

For making a survey form, you need to psychologically understand your user at every point of their journey as they fill your form.

1. Firstly, start with some warm-up questions to calm nerves and explore their interests. The idea is to help the user open up. You’re trying to create a connection so that the person doesn’t feel frustrated and leave the platform directly. Questions could be like –

Ques 1 : What kind of groups are you interested in/associated with (Ex. Dramatics, Design Studio etc)?

Ques 2 : Acc. to you, what kind of problems exist in these groups?

A. Improper recruitment process

B. Work culture

C. Political issues

D. Lack of infrastructure

E. Lack of funds

F. Other, please specify

Ques 3 : How much interested are you in electing representatives(Ex. General secy for Hostel affairs, Technical affairs)?

Rate 1(Not Interested at all) to 5(Extremely Interested)

2. Although quantitative research is not as effective as qualitative research, however, it tells about “how much” or “how many,” much more accurately because of more extensive sample space.

But only if you ask the correct question to correct user😌

The best way to do this is to segregate users based on the behavior of the user, i.e., Active, Passively active, & Passive, and dig deeper to know each of their problems. Now, we have to ask the questions which can judge the behavior, like –

Ques 4: Do you encounter any problem in the campus-life?*

a. Yes. b. No

User with an answer — No

The people who don’t encounter any problem are passive and hence least interested in filling the form. To extract information from such kind of user, you have to be precise in selecting the number and type of the questions.

User with an answer — Yes

The people who encounter problems could be active or passively active. These are your most targeted users who will give you maximum insights. Dig deeper and try to ask open-ended questions. The process is similar to qualitative research — “How to conduct user interviews.” Here you have to cover the following type of questions –

1. How and why they use the current system.
2. How efficient they consider the current platform.
3. What problems they encounter during the process.