Survey

Survey

What is the Survey function?

The survey function is a data-gathering tool embedded in Diri. You can use the survey tool to design your questionnaires or risk analysis approach. The Survey tool contains standardised and customisable data collection fields that you can choose from.
Note that the survey function is currently a standalone feature in Diri, read about this in the limitations further down.

When to use the survey

The survey can be used to design your own data collection form. Use the survey function to supplement your own data collection.

How use the Survey

Getting started

You can access the survey by choosing it in the main menu, below the "Treatments" button. Clicking it will bring you to a window looking like this:

Survey starting screen without any content.

Click "Create new survey" to get started. This will open the Survey editor and get you started with the survey design. The editor screen looks like this:

Survey editor starting screen.

Use the survey editor to build data collection templates. Start by naming the template and provide a brief description. Clicking "Save changes" will create the template:

A created survey.

Designing the survey

The survey is now created, you can continue your work by clicking and expanding it. The button "Start new survey" will start a new data collection and "Edit survey template" will allow you to continue editing the template. When editing the survey you can create standard surveys spread across multiple pages. Click the "Add page" to add a new page to the survey. Click the orange bar with the "+" icon to start adding elements.

Available options for the survey (Edited for illustration)

Get to know the survey editor and build your survey with your elements of choice. An example of the a survey with textbox fields and dropdown fields can look like this:

Example of a data collection template using the survey functionality

Hover the mouse arrow over the field after choosing it to see the "Edit" and "Delete" buttons to the right (below the "Delete page" button):

How to access individual fields and edit them.

The editor for multiple choice questions

In the questions editor above, type the question in the textbox and add alternatives by clicking "Add choice" and naming them. Choosing an alternative from the "Load type as options" will load existing options from the system and remove the choices box. Click "Close" when you are done editing, and remember to click "Save changes" before closing the template. 

How to collect data with surveys

Once you have created the survey template click "Start new survey" to collect data directly. Alternatively, if you are looking to collect data from users in the Diri database, you can use the "Tasks" functionality in main menu to delegate the survey as a task. Click "Create new task" to open the task functionality:

Create task and delegate

Creating a task will give you the options illustrated above. Name and describe the task, set a task priority, and a due time. Assign the task to a person (a Diri user) and attach the survey. Remember to click the "Add attachment" button to confirm the attachment. Click "Create" the task to make the task appear in the selected user's dashboard and send an email notification to them. The user now becomes in charge of the assignment. Assigning the task to yourself works in the same way:

Notification email from Diri to the left and Tasks in the Diri application to the right,

Update the task status by tracking progress and closing the task when it is finished. Collected survey data will appear on the Survey itself with start date and status:

A survey with four answers; two finished and two in progress

The data in the above example can be accessed by clicking the line. The surveys that are closed are locked for editing. Data from the survey can be exported to word files.

Limitations and development plan

The survey currently (03-2022) has limitations:
  1. The data collected in the survey has to be exported for analysis.
  2. There is no bulk data export. Data has to be exported per survey answer and compiled outside of of Diri for further analysis.
  3. Tasks have to assigned per user.
Planned development:
  1. Basic data visualisation and statistical analysis functionality will be added to Diri by Q1 2023. This update will allow for data analysis from surveys in Diri.
  2. Connect the survey data collection to dashboard data visualisation.
  3. Bulk task assginement.
  4. Bulk data export.

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