Facebook Integrated Survey Application

Imran A. Khan B.S.

1

1,2

, Mahender Mandala M.S. 2, Jonathan Pearlman PhD

Department of System & Information Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

2 Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System

MOTIVATION
Nearly 1 in 3 of the 6.8 million Americans who use assistive technology (AT) for ambulation abandon or underutilize their AT.(1) (2) Although the assistive device prescription process for potential
end-users has evolved over time and takes care of many concerns about satisfying user needs, there are still instances of device abandonment, non-use or lower satisfaction. Some of the main
factors for this are the devices performance, reliability and its ability to fulfill the users' needs. Current designs procedures do not adequately take the needs of end users into account at early
stages of the design process. One way to involve more end users in the process and to do it at a lower cost compared to traditional methods is to use crowdsourcing through Facebook.

The aim of this project is to develop a novel method to identify and recruit end users, and extract feedback
through an application closely integrated with social media (Facebook).

METHOD
The app was designed with two different interfaces. Each interface was optimized for its respective audience: participants or the actual end-users who provide feedback and
designers/researchers/institutions (referred to as administrators) that require feedback.

Users

Functionality

Participants
Responsible for taking the
survey.

Ability to create unlimited interactive surveys with multimedia

content such as pictures and videos

Ability to create unlimited multiple choice questions

with edit and delete options

Ability to publish and archive surveys, and to

revert the action

Ability to store and print report of the survey

Ability to track user information

Ability to promote the app via posting message on

users Facebook timeline and via Facebook friends
invitation

Login with
Facebook

App checks to see if the user has

been previously authenticated. If not,
it redirects the user to the
authentication process

The participant views the multimedia

and answers the questions
Read and When a participant starts a survey, a
participate in predefined message is posted in his
timeline
survey(s)
Participants give their feedback
about the survey, design and
anything they deem important
Provide
feedback & The participants have the option to
invite friends invite their friends to take the survey

Built in Facebook so it uses Facebook authentication and

authorization

The participant logs out of the

application
Logout

Administrator
In-charge of making and
managing surveys.

Login with
Facebook

The admin has to be a Facebook user

App detects the admin level access
and redirects to the admin panel

Create unlimited surveys with

multimedia content such as pictures,
audio, and videos
Add Surveys Create multiple choice or open ended
questions

Manage
Surveys

Edit, publish, and/or archive surveys

View/print the report of a specific
survey.

The administrator logs out of the

application
Logout

Figure 1: Functionalities of the app.

Figure 2: Flow diagram for participants.

Figure 3: Flow diagram for administrators.

results
The main requirements for this application were easy survey creation, an intuitive answering system, building a statistical survey report from received answers, and Facebook integration. The
application fulfilled all required criteria, while providing additional functionalities.

Administrator View

Participant View
Description:
1. Title of the survey.
2. Description of the survey.
3. Multimedia (video or picture) for the survey.
4. Survey questions.
5. Survey answers.
6. Submits the participants answer.
7. Facebook Invitation Button.
8. List of other surveys participants can take.
Once the participant answers the question, next
question would replace the earlier question. At the
end, there is option for the participants to review
their answers and edit them before submitting
them. The application then allows the participants
to give their opinion about the survey.

Description:
1. Creates new surveys
2. Contains all the surveys that are not
published yet.
3. Contains all surveys that are published.
4. Contains all surveys which are archived.
5. Add new questions to the survey.
6. Add new picture to the survey.
7. Add new video to the survey.
8. View the list of all videos already attached
to the survey.
9. Change the survey to active state.
10. Edit the survey title and description.
11. View details of the survey.
12. Log-out from the application and Facebook.

Figure 5: Administrator View

Future Work: Provide Metrics to Graphs * Select Thresholds for Performance * Design CDRS interface to DriveCap

Figure 4: Participant View

Future Work

Thorough testing of the application is needed including a white-box testing of the entire system.
Since the application will carry user data, applicable IRB regulations will be adhered to and tested.
Marketing the application using services like Facebook ads etc.
Creating a mechanism to reimburse participants without the need for collecting their SSN (PayPal etc)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The material used for this study was funded by American Student Placements and
Internships in Rehabilitation Engineering (ASPIRE) Grant #0849878.
The authors would like to acknowledge Human Engineering Research Laboratories
(HERL) and the University of Pittsburghs Department of Rehabilitation Science
and Technology (RST) where the work for this study was performed.

REFERENCES
1. Kaye, H., T. Kang, and M.P. LaPlante, Mobility Device use In the United States,
2000, Disability Statistics Cetner, University of California San Francisco: San
Francisco.
2. LaPlante, M.P. Demographics of Wheeled Mobility Device Users. in Conference
on Space Requirements for Wheeled Mobility. 2003. Buffalo, New York.