Since surveys for mobile only are now more used than on computer screens (for some domains), we are thinking of developing a theme that support mobile surveys in such a way that the survey administrator is forced to only use a subset of all available questions. For example: array questions are not suited for use on mobile phones, so we want to skip these (and show: "this question is not shown on mobile phones" when testing the survey on a computer screen).

Would that make sense?

Developers question: is it possible by using a plugin or another piece of additional software to disable certain question types/question features?

Developers question: can a plugin also contain a theme? Or question themes?

All comments welcome. Brainstorming online.

Tammo ter Hark

It would be logical!

Yes, Tammo, it's a good idea.

Rocco

Why disable usage of Table since it canb be viewed on mobile ? Modern browser and web development is great , reading this message, i think we come back in 2000 where need to create web site for mobile different than desktop.

And about mobile : the worst is not table, it's big picture or video that can make a very long time to load … Then : start by diable uploading files more than 100kb

Which question types should be in:

• all single choice & multiple choice questions (but limit number of answer options?)
• yes/no, gender question (but is gender question still OK in these times?
• short free text, long free text (but limit number of lines?)
• file upload: mobile phones have extra options here, like uploading images directly from camera, speech recording, maybe even sensor data
• (multi) numerical & text input (but limit on number of subquestions?)

Which question type should be avoided (prohibited?) for mobile only:

• all array questions (or only when more than 2 columns?)
• ranking question
• answer options with more than 100 (?) characters
• questions with more than 100 (?) characters
• huge free text

Or maybe a switch in LimeSurvey itself (via a plugin), which sets a profile for mobile surveys?

Administrator not forced, but "recommended" to use types of questions suitable for mobile...

For scientific reasons, I learned that surveys should look very much the same on all devices. Therefore an array (which breaks down into another appearance) is not suited.

tammo wrote: For scientific reasons, I learned that surveys should look very much the same on all devices. Therefore an array (which breaks down into another appearance) is not suited.

An array with 2 lines or 2 single choice question …




All can be the best solution if choosen wisely

Hi Denis,

that is exactly why array is not needed, you can also solve it with single choice questions. And those look the same on mobile and on table/laptop screen.

Surveys on mobile phones should also be quite short, or people will leave the survey. By developing a theme that helps the user making shorter surveys, I thinks the quality of surveys may rise.

I'm with Denis on this. It seems to be a little "retro" thinking to develop separate platforms for desktop/phones.

Some questions that spring to mind...

- How about the desktop folks who would benefit from layouts like arrays?
- Would you have two different surveys?
- Do we force people to do the survey on a phone?
- What about tablet users who have screen sizes between normal desktop and phones?

I think we should make all question types work as well as possible on all screen sizes and leave it to the survey author to decide whether they want to use various question types. They can decide whether they want to make a trade-off between usability and possible response bias due to size-related layout.

I don't understand the comment about a theme making surveys shorter. Surely that is up to the survey author and the number of questions that are presented.

I was thinking more along lines as shown in researchmessenger:
researchmessenger.com/index.html#three

This focusses on mobile first and if people watch on wider screen, they still see the mobile layout.

The theme I am thinking of is not an all purpose theme, but one specifically towards short mobile surveys.

I think that there may be a need for specialized, non-all-purpose themes.

I sometimes have surveys that do not have people filling in on tablet, desktop, just mobile phones.

When I made the TFR responsive theme (at that moment called "template"), I received mails from people whining about arrays not looking good on mobile phones. "I want to display 20 columns and your template messes up everything..."

Of course I can develop an all-purpose theme, that is what we have been doing all the time.

Just look at trousers. You may want to develop an all-purpose pair of trousers, but that is not always suitable.

tammo wrote: that is exactly why array is not needed, you can also solve it with single choice questions. And those look the same on mobile and on table/laptop screen.

It's exactly whith array can be great : it take less surface on phone than 2 different questions .

When I made the TFR responsive theme (at that moment called "template"), I received mails from people whining about arrays not looking good on mobile phones. "I want to display 20 columns and your template messes up everything..."

SkeletonQuest work bad too with a 20 columns,


I'm for a mobile first since a lot of year, but like @tpartner write

I think we should make all question types work as well as possible on all screen sizes and leave it to the survey author to decide whether they want to use various question types.