[Events] Crafting an exit survey for campus events (Asheesh Laroia)

[Lukas Blakk]

On 4/16/12 3:36 PM, Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> Excerpts from Gregg Lind's message of Mon Apr 16 11:57:57 -0400 2012:
>> Lukas ++
>>
>> This survey is one of many interactions that people have with the tech
>> community.  Seeing one that explicitly affirms my right to
>> self-determination is a welcome change, and part of the overall
>> message these events are designed to send.
> I'll make it a textbox in this version! Thanks for the encouragement
> on this topic.
>
> I do have concerns that people filling it out are less likely to actually
> answer a text-field question, which would be a drag for down-the-road
> stats, and I'll be left making guesses at their gender based on appearances
> that I visually recall from the event, or from the person's name, if I want
> to give everyone a value in this field for the purposes of tracking changes
> in attendance ratios, etc.
>
> Along those lines, I think I'd prefer something like this:
>
> "What is your gender, if you're willing to share?"
>
> ( ) Male
> ( ) Female
> ( ) __________ (empty text field)

So 'Male' and 'Female' are sex categories, not genders.

Also, can you make the text field entry required so you still get your 
data? A single text box, which is required, seems like a pretty simple 
user experience and hopefully leads to a high response rate.  For me, I 
like that the text box is in fact for everyone - even having two 
pre-populated fields in the 3 options lets us believe that only people 
who fall outside the box need the special favour of a text field when, 
in fact, it can be appreciated across the board if it gets more use in 
that manner from people who are willing to take the leap towards 
changing the type of input we use for that particular data point.

Cheers,
Lukas