AOO UX Research Surveys

To help make informed design and development decisions, the OpenOffice community needs user data!

We need to understand who uses OpenOffice, what they use it for, and what is important to them. Beyond roles and goals, we need to understand user attitudes and behaviour, uncover latent and emerging needs, and understand drivers and barriers of change. Surveys are an excellent way to obtain information about our users, their goals, needs and expectations. The outcome of user survey effort is enhanced insight into the user, their context of use and criteria for success.

In support of a comprehensive, or total health score, we should be open to performing different types of user research surveys. User satisfaction survey data help us understand how satisfied the users are with our overall offering, as well as specific functional areas within the product. With a focus on core use cases and key usage scenarios, we can identify opportunities for improvement that will have the biggest positive impact. In addition, we should consider other surveys. For example, the Usability Scale (SUS) is a standardized set of survey questions that allows us to benchmark our application against other offerings. Another example, is the Promoter Score , which is a measure of how willing someone is to refer our product to a friend.

Survey Goals

to understand current satisfaction with Apache OpenOffice
establish a baseline for future comparison
refine our understanding of our users and their characteristics
to understand task frequency, feature importance and user satisfaction
identify opportunities for improvement that will have the biggest positive impact

Survey Questions Candidates

The following questions have been proposed for inclusion in a user satisfaction survey:

Proposed by Kevin Grignon, 2012 06 01

Notes: - I would like to tweak these questions to ensure their are generic enough for home users and business users

Overall Satisfaction and Product Usage

Which version of OpenOffice do you use? [end survey if response “I don't use OpenOffice”]
- Version 1.0, Version 1.1, Version 1.2, Version 1.3, Version 3.0+, I don't use OpenOffice, Other

Which OpenOffice applications do you use (at least a few times a month)?
- Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Drawing, Database, Formula

Overall, how satisfied are you with OpenOffice?
- Very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, Neutral/undecided, somewhat dissatisfied, very dissatisfied

Why are you satisfied, dissatisfied, or neutral/undecided?
- Text field

If you answered with anything other than “Very satisfied,” what would it take to make you “Very satisfied?”
- Text field

Which factors contribute the most to your continued use of OpenOffice?
- Text field

Which OpenOffice application do you use the most often?
- Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Drawing, Database, Formula

Documents

How often do you use OpenOffice Documents?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Documents, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Documents (for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?
- Text field

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Documents?
- Text field

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Documents...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Spreadsheets

How often do you use OpenOffice Spreadsheets?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Spreadsheet, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Spreadsheets (for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?
- Text field

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Spreadsheets?
- Text field

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Spreadsheets...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Presentations

How often do you use OpenOffice Presentations?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Presentations, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Presentations (for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?
- Text field

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Presentations?
- Text field

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Presentations...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Drawing

How often do you use OpenOffice Drawing?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Drawing, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Drawing (for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?
- Text field

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Drawing?
- Text field

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Drawing...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Database

How often do you use OpenOffice Database?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Database, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Database (for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?
- Text field

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Database ?
- Text field

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Database...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Formula

How often do you use OpenOffice Formula?
- Multiple times a day, Once a day, Multiple times a week, Once a week, Less than once a week

In addition to OpenOffice Formula, which competitive products do you actively use?
- List competitive products plus “other” option

Indicate if a task is important to accomplishing your work (check all that apply) and if it currently functions well in OpenOffice Formula(for those checked).
- List key tasks

Are there any missing tasks that are both important and function poorly?

What are the biggest issues/deficiencies (if any) with OpenOffice Formula?

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. “OpenOffice Formula...”
- Is easy to use, Offers competitive features, Is something I could recommend, Helps me get my work done, Includes most or all of the features I need, Is innovative, Is as good as or better than the competition

Additional Details

How did you receive the link to this survey?

What is your relationship with Apache OpenOffice?
User, Contributor, Business Partner, Other

In which country do you primarily work?
- [country list]

Which operating system do you use?
- Windows, Mac, Linux, Other

If applicable In which industry is your company?
- [industry list]

If applicable, what is your company size?
- Less than 50 employees, 50-99 employees, 100-999 employees, 1,000+ employees

Which best describes your job role?
- [roles list]

Proposed by Albino Neto, 2012 06 01

How old are you ?

Regina Henschel says: Why this question?

Rob Weir says: Maybe ask sex [of user]?

What S.O you use ?
- Linux
- Mac
- Windows
- other [what]

Regina Henschel says: The user might use different OS depending where he works, for example Windows on the job and Linux at home. Do you want to know the OS of the machine the user is currently using or the machine he is mostly using?

Rob Weir says: Is this a single choice or multiple choice question? Many people use more than one. So if the intent is a single choice, you might word the question as: "what is your primary operating system"?

Use of Linux ? Wich graphic interface:
- GNOME
- KDE
- Lxde
- Others [what]

Regina Henschel says: We want to know, whether Win98 is still used. So after answer "Windows" a question for the type of Windows should follow.

Where do you use Apache OpenOffice?
- Home
- Office
- Company
- Telecenter
- Others [what]

Regina Henschel says:What is the difference between 'Office' and 'Company'? What is a 'Telecenter'? I miss 'pulic PC in school, university, or library'. Again, do you mean the machine the user currently uses or the machine he is mostly using?

Rob Weir says: To me the choices "Office" and "Company" seem to be the same. So there is a risk in the survey that users will randomly split between those two choices. Better to have a smaller number of choices that are clearly different, like: Home, Work, School, Other.

Where to get support ?
- Manuals
- Mailling list
- Search
- Friends
- Others [what]

Regina Henschel says: 'Forum' is missing.

Where do you want to get support ?
- Manuals
- Mailing list
- Search
- Friends
- Others [what]

Regina Henschel says: 'Forum' is missing.

How often do you use Apahce OpenOffice ?
- Sometimes
- With frequency
- Daily

Regina Henschel says: What is 'Sometimes' and 'With frequency'? What about a question "When did you use AOO the last time?'

Rob Weir says: The "daily" choice is quantifiable. "with frequency" is not. I don't know if it is more or less than "daily".

How much time you spend on the computer ?
- 30 min to 1 hora
- 1h to 3h
- 3h to 5h
- More of 8h

Regina Henschel says: There might be a large difference between workdays and weekend.

Rob Weir says: per day

As you consider using the computer ?
- Beginner
- intermediate
- Advanced (expert)

How important computer for you:
- unimportant
- insignificant
- Very Important

Regina Henschel says: Both will mostly give the middle answer. Try to find four answers. What do you want to learn from these questions?

How do you consider a nice software?
- With enough buttons
- Buttons significant
- Buttons simple and agile
- Results
- Buttons and good visual meanings.

Regina Henschel says: Why the focus on buttons? You might ask which other software the user thinks is 'nice' and why.

Rob Weir says: This might be a good place to ask a series of questions along the lines of: How important are each of the following to you. Score 1-5, where 1 is "not important at all" and 5 is "very important" 1. Easy to use without reading manual 2. Interoperability with Microsoft file formats 3. Open source, built and supported by a volunteer community 4. Is available in my language 5. Speed 6. Availability of free document templates 7. Availability of extensions And so on.

The nice thing about this approach is you can then correlate the responses for each of these questions with the demographic info (how often do you use your computer, where do you use AOO, etc.)

That is pretty much the standard form of an opinion survey: 1) A section of demographic questions that are factual statements about the user 2) A section of opinion questions The analysis can then correlate the opinions to the demographics, and say things like, "Users who used AOO more than once a day were most concerned about performance, but those who use it only once a month are more concerned about usability".

Regina Henschel says: Questions for the tasks, which where solved with Apache OpenOffice. Question how the commands are used: menu via mouse/touch pad, buttons via mouse, keyboard short cuts, menu via keyboard. Some questions make no sense, if the user installs Apache OpenOffice the first time. So a switch might be necessary.

Harvested from previous OpenOffice surveys, Posted by Kevin Grignon, 2012 06 01

AOO UX Research Surveys