OMB Letter

Generic Information Collection Request

Request: The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for the collection of routine customer feedback (OMB number 0690-0030). We propose to conduct and seek approval for an online cognitive/usability evaluation of language on census.gov regarding respondent privacy and confidentiality protections conducted by Census Bureau staff.

As part of this current submission we are seeking approval for a remote, asynchronous data collection by Census Bureau staff.

Purpose: It is important to ensure that messaging about the census and our surveys available online is both easy to understand and easy to access. Traditionally, researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau would conduct in-person cognitive and usability testing separately to assess the understanding and accessibility of this messaging, respectively. Performing cognitive and usability testing independently is more time-consuming and expensive, and eliminates the opportunity to determine whether respondents’ ability to find and understand survey messaging interact. This planned evaluation is an online, joint cognitive and usability test of messaging about privacy and confidentiality protections. The goal is to both evaluate this methodology as well as collect substantive findings on effective messaging about respondent privacy and confidentiality.

Population of Interest: The planned usability evaluation will focus on assessing and improving the user experience on census.gov for the general population, in terms of both usability of the site and clarity of the language used.

Timeline: Testing will be conducted over 5 days in January 2017, when approval is received, with a maximum of 600 testers.

Language: Testing will be conducted in English only.

Sample: Because this is a proof-of-concept test with a new methodology, half of the sample will be provided by the vendor and half will be sourced from the Census Bureau so that we can make methodological comparisons.

We propose to collect data from 600 respondents, who will be sourced by both GroupSolver’s panel partners and by the U.S. Census Bureau. The respondent breakdown will be as follows:

• 100 general population respondents. 50 of these respondents will be supplied by GroupSolver and the other 50 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

• 100 general population respondents screened in because they consider privacy an important concern. 50 of these respondents will be supplied by GroupSolver and the other 50 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

• 200 general population respondents screened in because they who have used data for school or work. 100 of these respondents will be supplied by GroupSolver and the other 100 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

• 200 client data users (Provided by the U.S. Census Bureau – data users who have agreed to participate in research studies)

For all general population sample from the Census Bureau, staff from the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications (CARRA) will sample email addresses from 20,000 MAFIDS in the Contact Frame. We expect to achieve a 2% response rate, determined by experience with other recent studies, with a goal of 400 general population completes for this study.

Recruitment: Participants will be recruited by email through GovDelivery. Participants will receive up to three emails:

• An initial email on a Monday,

• A reminder email on Tuesday (if they have not yet clicked on the link to the survey), and

• A final reminder email on Thursday (if they have not yet clicked on the link to the survey) with the survey closing on Friday.

Copies of these emails are included in Enclosure 1.

Participants can respond to the voluntary research study at a time convenient for them.

Method: Participants will be invited to participate in the study via a link sent by email as described above. They will use their own smartphones, tablets, or desktop/laptop devices to complete the study. The study will be open for 5 days.

This study will collect no personally identifiable data.

Protocol: The study will be conducted on the GroupSolver online platform, and it will consist of these distinct steps for all respondents:

• Complete pre-screen questionnaire – Ensure that only qualified respondents participate

• View user agreement and answer questions – All qualified respondents will answer the same open-ended and quantitative questions

• Complete exit questionnaire – Multiple choice questions focused on demographic information for segmentation purposes

The questions and tasks asked and messages shown to respondents are shown in Enclosure 1 and Enclosure 3.

Consent: Participants will be informed of the OMB number and the voluntary nature of the study in the recruitment emails (see Enclosure 2).

Use of Incentive: No incentives will be used in this research.

Below is a list of materials to be used in the current study:

1. Questions/tasks and example screenshot from study (Enclosure 1)

2. Emails sent to respondents inviting them to participate (Enclosure 2)

3. Data User Agreement (Enclosure 3)

Length of interview: We estimate 10 minutes per respondent, overall.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Jennifer Childs

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(304) 728-4932

Jennifer.hunter.childs@census.gov

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