Funshop Example Survey Question
How the heck are ya today?
Below you'll see a selection of Sticky Funman cartoons, and under that a bigger, puzzled Sticky, waiting in his cartoon box for your answer to this question.
To select your answer, click on one of the Sticky Funman cartoons that best reflects your mood. The puzzled Sticky will be replaced by your choice. Or you can leave him in place if you're puzzled too.
Once you've finished, click the Answer button at the bottom to see the answer.
Note 1: The question we ask in this example survey item is simple, but essential. It's important to know where people are when you ask them for information.
The structure of this survey item is based on research about fun and flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's term for optimum performance. Fun, like flow, lives in the narrow space between boredom and frustration. If respondents don't know what to do, or have too many choices, it's frustrating. If the response is too simple, respondents are bored (recall all those surveys with Likert scale answers – you know, Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree). Were you bored or frustrated by this question, or was it fun?
Note 2: A picture is worth a thousand words – because a picture is a little story, and stories are how we remember things, and how we order our lives. Stories tell a lot more about a situation than a hundred questions using Likert scales. This survey has a very simple version of what we aspire to in our surveys – giving people a chance to tell their story, and tell it in a fun way. When you ask specific questions, you force answers – and don't give respondents a chance to give answers you didn't ask for. Surveys that gather people's stories let them tell you important things you'd never thought of.
Here's the Sticky you've chosen . . .
Now please click the Answer button below to see the answer.
Note 3: Feedback is essential to fun. Feedback is one of the main reasons computer and video games are fun – when you do something, you get immediate feedback. Showing respondents the Sticky Funman they've chosen is very important, though at first glance it may seem trivial. So is the Answer button, which we talk about on the next page. Go ahead, click it.
