[TriLUG] Web again: do something, then close browser

[Andrew Perrin]

I appreciate the concern, but don't think it's warranted in this case.
The issue is this: although it's a minority of people, there are people
who belong to numerous organizations. We need to capture those people and
all the organizations they want to report to us.  So the main page of the
survey has a six-row table, which should fit the (vast) majority of
respondents; the national mean is about 3.7.  But for those with more than
six, I provide a link for them to click, at the bottom of the table, that
opens a secondary browser to let them add more, then let them close it
again.  They can then continue with the rest of the survey.

Of course I won't close the browser they originally came to the survey
with.

By the way, these are respondents who choose to participate in the survey
-- not those who randomly get to it or who come to the site expecting
something else.

Other design tips would be welcome, though. I'm not wedded to the
new-browser-then-close idea, just couldn't think of anything simpler.

Best,
A

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu


On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, Magnus wrote:

>
> On Thursday, June 19, 2003, at 03:42 PM, Andrew Perrin wrote:
>
> > Somewhere in between - it's a specific group of people logging in from
> > their own machines.
>
> OK.  Have you considered the moral implications of taking over their
> web browser (beyond presentation).  Things like resizing the browser
> window, closing the browser, (more typically) spawning new windows,
> etc. all tend to be pretty annoying to various extents.  Have you ever
> been tricked into clicking on an innocent looking link to find out it
> was an "adult" site?  And then get annoyed at how it takes over your
> browser and starts doing things outside of your control?  It can be a
> pretty harrowing experience (especially at the office) and the worst
> part of it is that things are happening that you don't have control
> over.
>
> To offer some constructive criticism, have you considered maybe after
> the poll is complete forward them to a different page?  Something where
> the user maintains controller over their browser?  This sort of thing
> is normal behavior after completing a form, and won't alienate the
> people who are participating in your survey.
>
> --
>
> C. Magnus Hedemark
> "From the Fury of the Norsemen please Deliver us, Oh Lord"
>