The authors have conducted a meta-analysis of 45 published and unpublished experimental comparisons between web and other survey modes. They found that, on average, web surveys yield an 11 % lower response rate compared to other modes. A lower response rate is systematically influenced by the sample recruitment base (a smaller difference for panel members as compared to onetime respondents), the solicitation mode chosen for web surveys (a greater difference for postal mail solicitation compared to email) and the number of contacts (the more contacts, the larger the difference in response rates between modes). The article is published in SCI journal and has 218 citations without auto-citations.
COBISS.SI-ID: 27042397
The book, published by one of the leading publishers of scientific literature, guides the reader through twenty years of research in web survey methodology. It provides practical guidance on the latest techniques for collection high-quality survey data and offers a comprehensive overview of research issues. It systematically and insightfully covers the core topics of web survey methodology, including questionnaire preparation, design and testing, recruitment, analysis, and survey software. The reader is exposed to key concepts and findings in the literature, covering measurement and non-response problems, adjustments, paradata and cost aspects. The book also discusses the most challenging topics of web survey methodology today, such as Internet panels and mobile web surveys.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33367389
Smart phone launchers have been suggested as a viable means of increasing the uptake of smartphones and assistive technologies (ATs) among older adults. Launchers can be designed to ease older adults' use of smartphones by addressing perceptual, cognitive, and motoric changes that might hinder their ability to operate smartphones. However, little research currently exists that analyses the characteristics and assesses the usability of launchers with an adapted user interface (UI) for older adults. Thus, we present a study in which we compared a set of commercialised smartphone launchers with an adapted UI and ATs for older adults by means of heuristic evaluation. The results showed that launchers generally integrate only basic features (i.e., calls, texting, contacts) and only one AT (i.e., an SOS service). Although considerable variation exists between them in terms of overall usability, we also report the limited adequacy of launcher UIs in meeting older adults' needs and abilities. In particular, usability problems linked to content and perception were discovered that limit the older adults’ capability for error recovery as well as visual, auditory, and haptic access to the information provided by the UI. Interestingly, launchers with a larger number of features and ATs were found to have, on average, less usability problems. This indicates that reducing the number of features is not necessarily a feasible way to increase usability. Instead, more research-based development is needed, which should better consider recommendations for the age-friendly design of UIs on smartphones.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35265885
Design guidelines and checklists are suggested as a useful tool in the development and evaluation of interface design of mobile phones for older adults. Thus, this study explores the usability dimensions of mobile phone design for older adults and the related changes in terms of time and the type of device (feature phones vs. smartphones) based on an expert coding of the eight mobile phone design guidelines and checklists for older adults published between 2006 and 2014. The results of the expert coding show that design guidelines and checklists most frequently deal with visual and haptic issues (e.g., high contrast, button type, and button size), whilst they hardly ever address various elements of textual interface (e.g., ease of text entry, a button's feedback, and font type). Over time, the design guidelines and checklists have become more complex in terms of the average number of included usability categories and dimensions. For smartphones, the guidelines, on average, put more emphasis on the screen, touchscreen, text, and exterior related issues, whereas the design guidelines for feature phones stress the usability of the keypad and menus. Besides revealing potential usability dimensions that could be further expanded in the guidelines, this study also highlights the need for conceptual and empirical advancement in researching ergonomic and usability dimensions of other small-screen mobile devices such tablets and wearables that are use in telecare and telehealth applications for monitoring daily activities and measuring vital signs.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35061597
Computers play an important role in everyday multitasking. Within this context, we focus on respondent multitasking (RM) in web surveys. RM occurs when users engage in other activities while responding to a web survey questionnaire. The conceptual framework is built on existing literature on multitasking, integrating knowledge from both cognitive psychology and survey methodology. Our main contribution is a new approach for measuring RM in web surveys, which involves an innovative use of the different types of paradata defined as non-reactive electronic tracks concerning respondents' process of answering the web questionnaire. In addition to using questionnaire page completion time as a measure of RM, we introduce "focus-out" events that indicate when respondents have left the window containing the web questionnaire (e.g., to chat, email, browse) and then returned. The approach was tested in an empirical study using a web survey on a student sample (n=267). The results indicate that 60% of respondents have multitasked at least once. In addition, they reveal that item nonresponse as an indicator of response quality is associated with RM, while non-differentiation is not. Although this study confirms that a paradata-based approach is a feasible means of measuring RM, future research on this topic is warranted.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33672285
In the research of online communities and web survey methodology little is known about how elements in email invitations to list-based web surveys can be used to obtain higher response rates. In the present work, we investigated whether making authority, plea for help, and sense of community salient in email invitations determines the response of survey participants. Drawing from both survey methodology and recent research on online communities, this study also tested a hypothesis on the relationship between activity in an online community and survey response. Using a full-factorial experiment based on a simple random sample of 2500 members from the largest online health community in Slovenia, the results support only the hypothesis that plea for help is an effective response-inducing element in email invitations. Furthermore, the results support the hypotheses that online community activity, related to the frequency of visits and number of posts to an online community, are positively associated with response in list-based web survey. Since this study also shows that combining more than one element in email invitations does not necessary improve response rates, web survey research and practice may benefit from future research on this topic.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33758045
Accurate insight into the emergence of information societies is essential not only for understanding the social effects of information and communication technologies, but also for empowering stakeholders to promptly and appropriately respond to the challenges they encounter. One much-discussed challenge that is particularly in need of analytical clarity is the digital divide, which is difficult to empirically elaborate, given its complicated nature. It is prone to superficial interpretations that suit particular agendas. To address this problem, this article proposes a methodology that integrates and upgrades the analysis of absolute change, relative change, and time distance into a general multidimensional approach. With this methodology, target audiences have an intuitively persuasive and methodologically sound instrument that could reinforce trust in digital divide studies. The approach is applied in evaluating the Internet penetration gap between Slovenia and Denmark,which often serves as a benchmark for policymaking in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32683613
This article investigates the patterns of social use of interpersonal communication technologies that can be discerned in todayćs complex media environment, in which people have many channels available for interpersonal communication. The article starts with a comprehensive review of the comparative uses and gratification research of interpersonal communication media. It argues that these studies are efficient in answering questions such as why one device is preferred over another, but the approach they take is less suitable for an analysis of the patterns of actual use of interpersonal communication devices. While they build on various typologies of motives for media use, based upon psychological theories of motivations and needs, this article proposes that a valid typology of actual social uses of interpersonal media should be based on a social action theory in order to find general patterns of social use of interpersonal communication devices. Hence, this article follows recent developments of the uses and gratification approach which suggest treating social use as a social action and finds a fruitful starting point in Habermasćs typology of social action. From this, a typology of social uses of communication devices is derived, allowing a general and comprehensive, yet condensed empirical insight into the social uses of contemporary interpersonal communication technologies within a nationwide sample. Using various statistical techniques, an assessment is made of how five communication channels (i.e. mobile phone, short text messages, telephone, face-to-face and the Internet) are employed for four social uses, i.e. informational-cooperative, strategic, relational and expressive.
COBISS.SI-ID: 30475613
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the recent (2008-) economic crisis on information communication technology (ICT) spending. The empirical findings are discussed within a broader theoretical framework of technological trends/diffusion and economic cycles. First, the paper introduces the innovation diffusion theory and theories of economic cycles. Next, it presents the analyses of the data from official statistics, international agencies and research companies. Finally, it summarizes the empirical findings within theoretical contexts. In general, crises always reduce spending and therefore also ICT spending. However, focusing on the recent crisis, it affected the ICT market selectively and also much less than other sectors. In addition, the empirical findings indicate that after decades of fast ICT expansion (1971-2000) we are now in the period of slower sectoral growth, which is in line with theories of super cycles, although, the authors also propose alternative explanations. The impact of the economic crisis on the ICT market strongly depends on countries' economic situation and development stage. Nonetheless some ICT segments that allow cost savings, greater productivity and efficiency, have been strengthened during the latest (2008-) economic crisis, which also pinpoints the directions for further transformation of ICT. Despite usually reduced budgets during the crisis, managers should put increased attention to new/alternative ICT solutions (e.g. virtualization, outsourcing, cloud computing) and lowered prices of ICT products/services to increase competitiveness. The crisis can be thus an opportunity to re-examine the contribution of ICT to productivity, workflow efficiency and introduce new methods for better exploitation of ICT capital.
COBISS.SI-ID: 15384373
Research into digital inequalities has shifted from a binary view of Internet use versus non-use to studying gradations in Internet use. However, this research has mostly compared categories of users only. In addition, the role of attitudes in digital inequalities has been largely overlooked. This article addresses these limitations by performing a systematic analysis of factors that distinguish low Internet users from non-users, regular users, and broad users. In addition to socio-demographic characteristics, we examine attitudinal variables. Results drawn from multinomial regressions indicate that attitudes play at least as large a role as socio-economic factors in determining the likelihood of belonging to specific (non-)user categories. This identifies positive attitudes toward technologies and the Internet as a crucial step toward Internet adoption. Hence, digital inequality research needs to consider factors other than traditional socio-economic ones to draw a complete picture.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33884509