Project description
Searching for new surveying methods
Surveys such as social and official statistics research and marketing are essential research tools. They are widely used to gauge the public’s needs or preferences. Mobile web surveys combined with new technologies can offer an even better quality and range of data. In fact, this could revolutionise surveys. The EU-funded WEB DATA OPP project will investigate novel measurement opportunities from mobile devices for new disruptive surveying methods, complete insights and new possibilities. The project will identify new ways to engage voice input, visual data and geolocation data, as well as other instruments in web mobile research. This will result in a novel theoretical framework and the development of new technical tools for measurements in different fields.
Objective
The expansion of the Internet and the development of a range of new active and passive measurement tools, particularly on mobile devices, present exciting opportunities for survey researchers, such as visual or geolocation data capture. Using these new measurement opportunities could reduce respondent burden, improve data quality, and extend measurement into new domains, allowing to answer questions that could not be answered so far and to improve the decisions of key actors (e.g. government). This could open the door to a whole range of completely groundbreaking research, providing new knowledge, and affecting key aspects of our societies.
While many people speak about these ideas, very little research has implemented such possibilities, and even less has assessed the data quality associated with such approaches. Thus, there is a huge need for further research in this area.
The main goal of this project is to investigate how some of these new measurement opportunities that the growing presence of mobile devices made possible can help scientists and practitioners to get more accurate and/or more complete insights, by addressing three crucial research questions:
1. Can we improve (mobile) web survey data quality by using new measurement opportunities?
2. Can we replace part of the (mobile) web survey data by using new measurement opportunities?
3. Can we achieve a more complete picture of the reality by combining new measurement opportunities with (mobile) web survey data?
This project will focus on four new measurement opportunities: voice input, visual data, metered data, and in-the-moment surveys. It will present theoretical and practical outputs, developing the technical tools for making these measurements possible and easy to implement in (mobile) web surveys, as well as a general framework that can be used by practitioners and researchers. The methods developed will be illustrated by answering key applied questions in different areas (e.g. health or politics).
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
08005 Barcelona
Spain