According to David Mielach, a Business News Daily staff writer, the average American spent about 23 hours per week online and texting in 2013; the numbers have grown each year. Research has also shown that over two-thirds of adults in the United States own a smartphone. As these numbers continue to grow, the way people interact and participate is also changing.
Presenters, and researchers alike, can now harness the power that browser equipped phones and device offer for polling, participation, and surveys. Option Technologies offers the OptionPower Virtual Base Station with Virtual Interactive Participant add-on to provide participants the freedom to respond with in a B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Device) situation. This is highly beneficial to companies and presenters since it eliminates the costs of renting or purchasing keypads from the overall cost of the audience response system configuration.
Less time is required to explain how to use the system; since participants are already familiar with the way that their respective devices operate. In fact, use of these devices almost becomes second nature to most owners and, with this proficiency, human error is minimized.
Unlike traditional audience response systems with keypads, there is no hassle of deciding what type of keypad to use. Typically, a presenter needs a select a system that has input functionality, range and performance that matches the specific application. When audience members each use their own device, they have already a device they can use effectively. This means there is one less hurdle to worry about when preparing for a meeting or research session.
A "keypad-less" system removes the hassle of shipping as well. There is no packing, shipping or transporting gear. This provides significant savings with larger meetings. Foregoing the keypads can reduce set up time for the event and reduce the stress of worrying about a lost or misdirected shipment.
The OptionPower Virtual Base Station software also allows for text-based input. This provides more information than traditional multiple-choice questions and is invaluable as a tool for gaging participants' attitude in marketing research situations. The additional information provided by text input can help market researchers identify unknown problems and unantipated issues. This type of data collection allows for a wider variety of questions and for consideration of more issues without significant additional time or extra effort from researchers.
The Virtual Interactive Participant system provides instant feedback on comprehension by supporting interactive questions with conditional branching. Based on feedback from the audience, it is possible to either move on to the next concept or to spend more time on the current topic so that everyone has a high level of comprehension. In research applications, conditional branching allows a focus group to flow more naturally with issues that are identified as the most pressing or to quickly move past ideas that do not appeal to the target market. This helps to keep participants engaged so that the drop-out rate remains as low as possible.
Using an smart phones and tablets as an audience response system for surveys and market research is now both powerful and practical.