According to a recent report from Pew Research Center, 81 percent of adults in the U.S. own a smartphone, and 20 percent of adults rely on a mobile device as their only personal internet connection. When pages and apps are optimized for mobile users, browsing, communicating, and shopping from a handheld device is easy, convenient, and fast.
However, sites that are not mobile-friendly cause frustration and lead people to abandon their activities. These days, it’s crucial that every step of your online consumer experience is mobile-friendly. For many strategists, building this experience starts with creating a fully mobile online survey.
Let’s take a look at what you can do to create mobile-friendly surveys and why this will benefit your research with four practical tips.
1. Keep it simple
Mobile online surveys may help you solve complex problems, but the user experience must be simple. For starters, word questions clearly and concisely and limit your question word counts. Select question-answer types that participants can click without confusion. Yes/No, rating and multiple-choice questions are great options. Avoid skip-logic and open-ended queries when writing survey questions for mobile. They take extra time that people might not have while on the go, and they can lead to typos and unintended answers on a small touchscreen. If answering a question takes more than one click, try again.
Why? Simple, streamlined user experience will help reduce errors and survey abandonment, so your feedback is clean and complete.
2. Think big…font
When it comes to mobile online surveys, the font is everything. Keep text large enough to read when your device is a comfortable distance from the face and opt for crisp, plain fonts if given an option. In addition to large fonts, a platform with successful mobile survey software will have big buttons. This way, respondents can click on their intended answer or move to the next question with precision. When you expand every element of the survey for ease of use, you will probably be able to fit only one question on the screen at a time. This is beneficial because it helps to simplify the process for respondents — win-win.
Why? Remember how small print is when it’s proportionate to a small mobile screen. It’s hard to read and navigate. A large font will help all mobile users, especially individuals with limited mobility and strained vision.
3. Ride in the fast lane
Fast load times play a significant role in whether a participant completes an online mobile survey. Whether they are connected to 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi, a survey that takes over a second to load each question is not worth waiting for. People are probably taking this survey on their lunch break or while running errands, after all. Make sure your survey platform loads pages quickly, and try to avoid questions that include videos or other graphics that will clog up the internet connection. You can also try sending your survey to respondents at a time when fewer people will be using the server, but that doesn’t guarantee that participants will take the survey outside the internet “rush hour” (7-9 p.m. in their respective time zone).
Why? Faster loading times will reduce survey abandonment and help you collect data faster and more efficiently. Users will also have a more positive experience and be more likely to participate in a future mobile online survey.
4. Access your data anywhere
We’ve already talked about why optimizing mobile online surveys helps you get higher-quality data. Using a mobile-friendly survey data collection app will make your life even easier. QuestionPro’s mobile survey app empowers you to conduct surveys online and offline with a single device. The app features geolocation tracking with GDPR-compliant security to help you visualize where your survey responses are coming from in real-time, and it’s all integrated with Salesforce.
Why? Survey participants aren’t the only people who lead busy lives and use mobile tools for work and play. You’ll get the most out of the unique data from mobile feedback when you have an intuitive app to complement your mobile survey software.
Ready to craft your own mobile-friendly survey? All of QuestionPro’s surveys are optimized for mobile use. We’ve taken the guessing out of building an excellent mobile online survey, so you get real, actionable answers.
