Charting the course of a user survey that will rock the boat

摘要

I've put together a list of simple rules for computer user surveys that will hopefully, as the title claims, chart a course that leads to a survey that will produce changes in the way you deliver services. In an attempt to adhere to the nautical theme of the conference, I've couched these user survey rules in terms of safety rules for boating and canoeing that I found in my Girl Scout Handbook (copyright 1955). If that sounds particularly boring to you, consider that most writers couch guidelines for user surveys in the language of statistical inference and hypothesis testing, so anything is an improvement to my way of thinking.