SurveyVisualizer

The most direct way to measure customer opinion and satisfaction is to ask the customers themselves. When done in a statistically sound way, then the results are accurate, detailed, and enjoy high acceptance by the stakeholders of such a survey.

So far, the results of such such surveys were presented as one-dimensional charts and cross-tables, both during oral presentations as well as in the form of a numerous bar and pie charts for the details that are deemed relevant. Next to the obvious problems that one expects from such an approach to represent a large and complex data set (i.e. lack of overview, inefficient access to details, numbers and tables causing cognitive overload), there is the problem that it is limited to predefined tables and charts, and therefore can not answer questions that were not anticipated. We developed an interactive visualization application - SurveyVisualizer - that addresses these problems with the following design characteristics:

• Show the data at various levels of detail and aggregation: Provide an overview of structures and trends, allow comparison of analysis elements (e.g. young people vs. seniors). Display details in context.
• Quick access to all the results: Provide possibility to select elements of all the different analysis groups (e.g. customer segment, market region, service provider). Ensure the integrity of the numeric values (statistical significance).
• Easy to use and understand by non-experts: Stakeholders are able to use the application for interpretation and analysis of the survey results, without any knowledge of statistics or complex data analysis software. The application should be simple and expressive enough to be used “live“ in strategic business meetings.
• Take advantage of the human perceptual abilities: The visual representations make it easy to spot outliers, patterns or anomalies. High interactivity and immediate feedback support our fluid and informal way of problem solving. The tool fits the way we naturally think and work.

In summary, SurveyVisualizer is an application to communicate and interpret the results of large-scale survey. It provides the overview of the structure of the survey and the trends of the results. Details are embedded in this context and can easily be accessed and compared. SurveyVisualizer is a very effective tool to replace the traditional tables-and-chartsbased way of presenting such survey results.