Second Addendum to notify OMB of additional designs to test for Web Design Standards - revised

Generic Information Collection Request Addendum: Study 5

Request: As indicated in the original OMB submission titled, “Web Survey Design Standards Online Research” and approved on February 21, 2020, we would share the questionnaires used post-hoc for the remaining data collection studies unless we added new questions not originally approved in the original OMB package. Study 5 contains questions from the original OMB package and new questions.

Purpose: The purpose of this project remains the same. The results of these studies will inform future mobile and PC web designs used at the U.S. Census Bureau for household and economic surveys and censuses. The compilation of the results from these studies will be used to create a guidelines document that Census Bureau programmers will use to create future online surveys.

The survey planned for Study 5 is attached. The purpose of the fifth study is to investigate whether response distributions differ by the type of question when comparing forced choice to select all designs, and to collect data on the usability of different formatting options for text entry fields including date, time and numeric entry, such as phone number. Survey source of the items is included in Attachment 3.

Population of Interest: No change.

The planned research will focus on assessing and improving the user experience for people over the age of 18 who will respond online surveys and censuses.

Timeline: No change.

The first study will be conducted February 24, 2020 through March 8, 2020 or until the requested number of completed questionnaires is reached. The four subsequent studies will also use a 2-week window of data collection or until the quota is reached with all studies concluded by June 2021.

Language: No change.

Testing will be conducted in English only.

Method: No change.

We will use an online Qualtrics survey to gather data. There will be no paper or telephone option.

Sample: No change. We plan on collecting data from 500 respondents as was approved on September 3, 2020. Qualtrics will select the participants according to our requirements. We require a general population sample over 18 years old.

Burden hours: No change.

The total estimated respondent burden for Study 5 is approximately 83 hours.

Length of interview: No change.

We estimate 10 minutes for each online survey.

Recruitment: No change. Study 5 will use the Qualtrics panel.

Qualtrics will select the sample from their panel and will handle their recruitment.

Use of Incentive: No change.

The Qualtrics sample will be given an incentive by the Qualtrics vendor. Per Qualtrics, the exact amount and form that each respondent receives can vary depending on the participants’ profile, how they were recruited, and the form of incentives they have elected to receive (i.e. e-gift cards, points, cash, etc.). Generally speaking, though, respondents receive ~$1.00-$1.50 or a relatively equivalent value for completing a 15 to 20-minute consumer survey.

Below is a list of the enclosures. Those include the original OMB request – approved February 21, 2020, the first addendum which requested 500 respondents for Study 5 – approved by OMB on September 3, 2020, and Study 5 questions. Additional surveys will be sent post-hoc as indicated in the original OMB letter.

1. OMB Original request (Enclosure 1)

2. Addendum 1 (Enclosure 2)

3. Study 5 questions (Enclosure 3)

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

Elizabeth Nichols

Center for Behavioral Science Methods

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-1724

Elizabeth.May.Nichols@census.gov

Enclosures

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