Other Software Tools

Several online survey analysis tools have been developed in academia and in industry. They offer different analysis and visualization capabilities, making them more or less usable as a tool of choice for exploratory analysis and demonstration of statistical concepts.

HTML5 Implementations

Around 2009-2010, Microsoft Research developed a first version of the Microsoft Pivot application, as a desktop browser application by LiveLabs, and then as a Silverlight browser plugin. As Silverlight support in browsers was never a reliable option, especially with the proliferation of mobile platforms, several developers started on HTML 5 implementations of the same image browsing and faceted search concept. Current developments that we know about include the LobsterPot implementation by the team that started the initial open-source HTML5 Pivot client, the OpenLink open-source implementation which continued the project from the state where the initial HTML 5 team left it, and Zegami, the most recent advanced visualization system developed by Roger Noble, a pioneer of web-based pivot applications. SuAVE started from the OpenLink system, focusing on significantly improving performance and emphasizing survey analysis functions.

Commercial Applications

There are also a number of commercial applications (e.g. www.createsurvey.com, www.marketsight.com, www.surveymethods.com, www.questionpro.com) which offer some survey analysis capabilities online. Often, they offer free limited starter versions (e.g. up to 10 questions and up to 100 respondents), while regular or unlimited versions are typically expensive (i.e. the "freemium" model) . The common focus is supporting market research and the key common capability is generating online and printable survey reports, including several types of statistical charts. For additional analysis, these systems often integrate with commercial desktop data analysis packages such as SPSS or SAS and with Powerpoint or similar software for presentations. In addition, there exist a number of general purpose powerful data analysis software systems with excellent interactive visualization and animation capabilities (e.g. Tableau, JMP/SAS). These programs are not specific to survey analysis and are generally expensive—especially for online use.

Academia

In academia, several applications for online survey data analysis have also been developed. For example, the widely used SDA tool (sda.berkeley.edu) is a versatile package implementing multiple types of analysis, from frequencies and cross-tabulations to logit/probit regressions, and providing the ability to generate statistical charts, create additional variables, and analyze error distributions. The SDA software is compatible with the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standard and facilitates documentation and distribution of survey data on the web, though, due to many analysis options, its user interface is fairly complex and does not currently include interactive or animated graphics.

Please contact us to let us know about other survey analysis packages we shall include!