NEWS18 February 2014

Survey completion rates decline with screen size, says research

News North America

US — Research firm Decipher has released research supporting the idea that completion rates of online surveys declines with screen size.

Recent reports have placed the percentage of surveys taken on a mobile device as anywhere between 10% and 40%. Whatever the figure, it’s a growing market.

With this in mind, research firm Decipher has released an update to its 2013 white paper on mobile user participation in online surveys. The newest round of research is based on data from a number of independent surveys, which, according to Decipher, represents anywhere from 1.5 to 5 million respondents per month.

Key findings from the report are as follows:

  • Survey starts on smartphones and tablets continue to rise, while starts on desktop computers continue to decline
  • As screen size decreases, so do completion rates, but surveys designed with mobile users in mind can “nearly eliminate these differences”
  • One third of survey starts from client-list based samples came from mobile devices. This dropped to 10% of survey starts from panel samples

The full paper can be accessed here.

@RESEARCH LIVE

1 Comment

10 years ago

Hmm, that’s a slightly misleading headline really; it is true and fairly obvious that a respondent will be less inclined to wade through a lengthy survey on a mobile. But as they say, the key is to optimise the survey for mobile and then there isn't much difference in completion rates. But we are preaching to the converted... it is often the client that pushes for a gazillion questions and a 30 minute survey with enormous grid questions

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