Surveys & Browser Compatibility

So, you’re out test driving survey software, or the demos of an online survey programming company. Everything you see looks wonderful! These guys have all the latest bells and whistles. All the fancy stylings, animations, drag-n-drop features you can dream of, and all these features look and function in stunning fashion... for you. But how do they look to the guy answering the survey on a mobile device? Can the lady programming away on her Ubuntu machine see these featuers? If not, what does she see? What about that trendy couple surfing the Web on their matching MacBook Air notebooks at the coffee shop?

If you don’t know, you need to ask. We don’t live in a Windows/IE-only world anymore. Firefox has a huge userbase. Chrome is gaining ground quickly. Apple is picking up market share like gangbusters. More and more people are doing their Web surfing on their mobile phones. You need to have confidence that your survey provider is thinking of these things. People who use the Web on uncommon machines represent a very important segment of the online population. Quite often, they think very differently than your average Joe IE/Dell user does. You want to be sure to give them every opportunity to express their opinions right along with Joe Dell.

At W³ we test every survey on multiple browsers operating on multiple platforms. At the time of this writing, here is our current lineup of test platforms:

Windows

• IE
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Opera

Mac OS X

• Safari
• Firefox
• Camino
• Chrome
• Opera

Ubuntu

• Firefox

iPhone OS

• Safari

Everything in our “standard” surveys passes our tests on these browsers with flying colors. From time-to-time a client will make a special request, which we will gladly accommodate. When we add these special features to a survey, they are thoroughly tested in all the browsers listed above, and the client receives a report that details which browsers can use the fancy features, and which ones can’t. Most importantly, we let them know what will happen in the browsers of those who do not pass, and how badly it hinders the functionality of the survey for those folks.

I strongly encourage you to continue seeking out the latest, greatest bells and whistles. At the same time, I caution you to hold your programmer accountable for knowing how they will work with every browser you suspect might be used to participate in your survey.