Blog >> Engaging Cross-Platform Online Surveys: The Future Is Javascript
If you work in anything related to producing content for the web you have likely more than a few times heard something like “That’s great, is that Flash” or “Looks good, but I think it needs a bit of Flash” or for you market researchers – ”Do you have Flash questions?”. Before smartphones and tablets came along, Flash was a great way for scripting agencies to distinguish themselves as purveyors of great survey experience and innovators in data collection. Large research agencies invested resources in developing Flash question types, some even released these as products (think Annik’s ‘Flash Tools’ for example leasing Flash question types in surveys as a plugin). Whilst those investments may have served their purpose, it is looking like they do not a future much longer.
All of a sudden smartphones proliferated, Apple announced it would not support Flash on its touchscreen devices and recently even Adobe – the manufacturer of Flash — announced it was halting any further development of it. Flash also requires more processing power than most smartphones currently offer and not being open source has limited the community of developers. As a result, enter Javascript as the de rigueur and open-source language for creating interactive and animation effects on the web. This rise of Javascript will bring some important changes in online survey building and data collection to the industry, including:
- Where Flash fell down is where Javascript has matured. When Javascript was introduced in 1996, there were lots of cross-browser compatibility issues. Now Javascript libraries have been built and with their wide adoption, they solve these issues and make coding easier. Most sites you and I visit with any drag and drops, accordions, draggable widgets, scrollable photo galleries, etc. will be using JQuery or a similar library. Unlike Flash, Javascript runs on all smartphones and tablets, so expect coding libraries to be coming soon which standardise across platforms too. A good example of Javascript cross platform compatibility is the ‘mobile slider’ question type we use below.
- Web giants like Facebook are using Javascript to improve the user experience. For example, hover over the messages tab in your Facebook account and you are shown a drop down with content from the latest messages you have received, so you can look at them without interrupting whatever else you are doing there. Scroll down your news feed and another block of content appears as you nearly reach the bottom, barely disturbing your reading experience. Ecommerce sites use Javascript to load only parts of a web page with lightning quick speeds, so as not to lose those impulse purchasers. Imagine if as a research buyer / survey builder you could cut survey length times by 20-25%? You could then obtain the data you need at a substantial cost savings, as a result of a shorter and more engaging survey experience.
- Javascript is primarily a client side language, meaning it tells your browser to react to things you do in a certain way. However, server-side Javascript is also on the rise, increasing the ease with which applications built by different organisations can talk to each other. Imagine having a slick looking registration survey (flashy in so far that it is visually impressive and positions your brand well, but does not use Flash) as part of an online market research community site and having that route on and validate according to information from your existing database of customers. In fact this is what we build for our clients at EasyInsites, in the form of custom panels to sign-up valuable audiences for positive engagement and continuous feedback.
As platform providers continue to support Javascript, not only will its open source nature mean more exciting innovations, also modern browsers will continue to build faster Javascript engines (Google Chrome is a good example of this). This is important for online researchers because as an industry, our ability to continue to grow is increasingly driven by technological innovation in the sense that we always need new tools and methods for collecting, analysing and displaying data.
By:
Misha Tsvelik,
Senior Research Operations Manager,
EasyInsites
— Tweet this page
