Getting Started with Web Interviewing
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Welcome to SSI Web!

SSI Web is a software system for writing questionnaires and conducting market research studies over the Internet or via CAPI-based (stand-alone PC) interviewing. You can press F1 at most any dialog/screen within SSI Web to receive help about the options within that dialog. A complete copy of the help documentation with a table of contents is available within the PDF file entitled SSI Web Documentation.pdf that was installed with your SSI Web system. We strongly suggest you start by viewing Getting Started with SSI Web: A 45-Minute Hands-On Tour.

SSI Web is made up of various components that you can license from Sawtooth Software:

·CiW is the core interviewing component, a general-purpose survey research tool suited for a variety of simple to complex projects  
 
·ACA/Web is for Adaptive Conjoint Analysis, a trade-off technique often used for product design and segmentation studies  
 
·CBC/Web is for Choice-Based Conjoint analysis, a popular trade-off method that (among other things) is especially useful for pricing research.  
 
·CVA/Web is for traditional, full-profile conjoint analysis. This is the original conjoint method, and it particularly useful for small sample sizes and problems with few attributes.  
 
·MaxDiff/Web is for Maximum Difference (Best/Worst) scaling of items. This is a relatively new technique for measuring the importance or preference of a list of items. It shares much in common with conjoint analysis, but it is applicable to a wider variety of situations and is easier than conjoint analysis to use.  

Sample CiW, ACA/Web, CBC/Web, CVA/Web and MaxDiff/Web studies and supporting files are included with your installation in the /Samples directory. You can easily access these example studies by clicking Help | Sample Studies. These questionnaires let you see examples and investigate how they are constructed.

If you know a little HTML (which is not necessary to use this software), you can employ some "tricks" that can help you customize the look of your survey beyond the standard options. This is especially the case if using the "Free Format" question type. By opening the sample studies and looking at the settings and text we've used, you can become familiar with some of the possibilities. There is also a brief section available in the online help regarding HTML elements.

Using this web-based survey tool requires the following skills and knowledge base:

1.The analyst managing the survey should know the basics of survey writing. If using conjoint analysis, the analyst should understand how to define attributes and levels properly, correctly phrase the questionnaire text, interpret the conjoint utilities, and run simulations. It is not necessary to be a statistician to use our software effectively, but knowledge of basic statistics for market research is highly recommended.  
 
2.The questionnaire is first composed locally on a PC running under Windows 2000 or later, using Internet Explorer to preview/test the survey. The individual inputting/formatting the survey should have working knowledge of standard Windows applications such as word processing and web browsers. Though it is not necessary, some knowledge of HTML is valuable. To post your survey on the Web, you'll eventually upload your survey to a Web server (or email the files to Sawtooth Software, if using our hosting services).  
 
3.To upload the survey to the Web, you must have access to an Internet/intranet server running Perl 5.003 or later. This can be your company's own Web server, or your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) Web server. You must know how to use FTP software to create directories, upload files to those directories, and set permissions on the files and directories. Detailed instructions on the directories, files and permissions to set are provided in the online help, in the section entitled Uploading Your Survey to the Web Server.  
 
Note: Sawtooth Software also provides web hosting services for licensed SSI Web customers. Please call us for more information.



Steps to Creating a Web Survey


1. It is likely that you will first compose the script to your questionnaire using a word processing package. This is fine as a starting point, as you can cut-and-paste text from your word processing package into the questions you develop within SSI Web's survey building interface.  
 
2. Create a new study in SSI Web. The study name is a four character (or less) name by which all files related to your project are referenced.  
 
3. Next, you write your questionnaire, adding questions one-by-one within the Write Questionnaire interface. You can preview these questions using the Preview function, that shows how an Internet browser presents your questions.  
 
4. Optionally, create respondent passwords, to provide a way to let qualified respondents in and keep unqualified people out of the survey.  
 
5. Preview the questions, questionnaire pages, or the entire questionnaire on your PC during questionnaire development. You can also test or run your questionnaire locally on your PC using the Local Web Server installed with SSI Web.  
 
6. When you are satisfied with your questionnaire, upload it, along with the supporting Perl files, to the Web server (or use our hosting services). You then test your survey on the Web server, to make sure it functions properly and saves the data correctly.  
 
7. When you are satisfied that your survey looks and functions properly, invite respondents to take the survey. Their data are automatically stored on the server. You can view or perform tabulations of the data in real time at any point during data collection.  
 
8. Download the data to your PC and use the data export capabilities within SSI Web to convert the survey data to a generic text-only format, .csv format, Excel format, or SPSS format.  
 
9. If running a conjoint analysis project (e.g. ACA, CVA, or CBC), use the menu system to prepare the appropriate conjoint files for analysis within the SMRT system.  



Technical Support

Your license entitles you to free technical support via phone or email. We encourage you to contact us (360/681-2300) if you cannot find the answer to your problem or question in this documentation. We are available Mon-Fri, 7:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific time. (Note: we provide full technical support for composing and testing your Internet survey on your local PC, and provide instructions on how to install your questionnaire on your server. We cannot take responsibility for or be expected to provide technical support to debug any customized HTML, CSS, Perl, or JavaScript you may add to your survey. You are also responsible to make sure that Perl is running and that you can run Perl (CGI) scripts on your web server. We can provide some assistance related to SSI Web's use with your server once the fundamental Perl functionality is in place.)



Privacy and Research


There is a great deal of concern regarding privacy rights and the Internet. Researchers must be respectful of respondents and the valuable information they provide. One should never use information collected during the course of research for purposes other than research. We suggest providing a privacy policy near the front of your survey, to let respondents know how the data they provide will or won't be used.

We condemn any direct marketing, selling, list building, or PR campaigns that masquerade as research.