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108 CHAPTER 5 Surveys

RESEARCHING PHOTO TAGGING AND SHARING BEHAVIORS—CONT’D

In data collection related to the research questions, but not related to the
participants who responded to the previously described survey, more data was
collected, from a sample of 638,930 active Flickr users (meaning at least one
photo was uploaded in Jan. 2015), collecting aggregate data about their activity
(e.g., number of photos, social connections, and group participation).

5.3 GOALS AND TARGETED USERS FOR SURVEY RESEARCH

Surveys are appropriate research methods for a number of different research
goals. Since surveys are good for getting responses from large numbers of people,
they are often used for collecting thousands, or even millions, of responses. The
population of interest is also known as the “target population” (Couper, 2000) or,
in the case of HCI research, the targeted users. If it is a well-defined population
of interest, the actual number of individuals in the population can be identified.
It might be a group of 20 individuals or 300 million individuals. However, if it
is a well-defined population, there will be a definitive number of people within
the population and it will be clear who is and who is not part of the population
(Couper, 2000).
Who are the targeted respondents for the survey? Why are these people of in-
terest? It is rare that you can truly say “anyone can respond to the survey.” Survey
responses usually need to come from a specific population that is being studied—
for instance, people of a certain age, users of a certain software application, people
who work in a certain industry or company, or people who have a certain disability.
You must first identify who they are and the limitations on this group. Do you limit
responses to, say, people 30 years and older? People who are software engineers?
People who have used the EndNote software application? People who are registered
nurses? What demographic factors will decide whether a response from an individual
is valid? It is important to note that the term “targeted respondents” from the world
of survey design, can be used interchangeably with similar terms used throughout the
book such as “user population” and “inclusion criteria.” The inclusion criteria will
specify, in great detail, who qualifies to be included in your survey study (or in any
other type of research study).
Once you have decided what criteria to use for your survey study, the next ques-
tion is how can you find contact information for these individuals? Is there a well-
defined list or directory of who these individuals are? General sociological research
tends to use phone books or e-mail lists for the general public. When a listing or
set of listings is used to define the potential survey respondents, this is known as
“defining the population frame” (Couper, 2000). It is important to note that phone
surveys, while they used to be more frequent, are now used much less often in survey
research. There are several reasons for this: due to telemarketing calls, people do