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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Does left still feel right? The optimal position of answer boxes in Web surveys - revisited
Year 2013
Access date 04.07.2013
Abstract

At the ESRA 2011 conference, we presented findings from an eye-tracking experiment (which examined whether placing the input fields (i.e., radio buttons or check boxes) to the left or to the right of the answer options in closed-ended questions enhances usability and facilitates the response process. The results indicated that respondents required less cognitive effort (operationalized by fixation times, fixation counts, and number of gaze switches between answer options and answer boxes) to select an answer when the input fields appeared to the left of the answer options. In this study, however, the white space between answer boxes and answer options was not equal between conditions. While the boxes were close to the answer options in the "left" condition, more space was visible between the boxes and the answer options in the "right" condition mimicking possible paper-based questionnaires. However, to alleviate this potential problem and to strengthen the internal validity of the experiment we re-ran the experiment with a larger sample (N=81) keeping the distance between boxes and answer options identical between conditions. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three layouts with answer boxes appearing to the left of left-aligned answer options, answer boxes appearing to the right of left-aligned answer options, or answer boxes appearing to the right of right-aligned answer options. In the analyses we will again look at the cognitive effort indicators mentioned above and we will discuss the new findings in light of our previous results.

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Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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Web survey bibliography - Kaczmirek, L. (43)