Run Survey

You are now ready to run a survey, either as a test or as an actual survey.

Starting a Scheduled Survey

There are two steps to this process. Firstly select the imported survey Control File by tapping it on the home screen. Then tap the "Start Scheduled Survey” button on the bottom of the home screen. A placeholder screen will be shown. Note that a scheduled survey may start on the next day if it is not possible to have a full scheduled day. For example, if the participant has started the survey in the evening and surveys are scheduled throughout the day, the survey will start on the next day.

If the subject-id is not specified on the Control File an alert notice will appear asking for a participant ID.

Starting a Run-once Survey

As with a Scheduled Survey, activate the imported survey Control File by tapping on this file on the home screen. Then tap the "Start Run-once Survey” button at the bottom of the home screen.

If the subject-id is not specified on the Control File an alert notice will appear asking for a participant ID.

A survey run sequence

This section only applies to a scheduled survey.

The App sleeps until a survey run is due, only the placeholder screen will show. When scheduled, an alert will sound and a notification will appear. The app icon will also have a badge showing that a notification was received. The participant can respond to the notification by tapping the notification or by tapping on the PIEL Survey icon. The survey will automatically open.

The participant may have a limited time (set by max-delay) to respond to the alert notice. If the alert notice disappears from the screen it can be opened from the notification center or else the participant can just open the app directly.

If the participant misses the max-delay period, they survey will not run and a message is shown explaining why. The app will then wait on the next notification (if any).

If the participant puts the app into the background and returns to the app too late to finish within the max-duration set by the Control File, the survey will close and the data saved. A message is shown explaining this.

The question sequence

The can only go to the next question after interacting with the question response options. They can go back at any time. Navigation is achieved by swiping or by tapping the "Back" and "Next" buttons on the bottom of the screen.

Progress through the survey is indicated as a percentage at the bottom center of the screen (between the “Back” and “Next” buttons). At the end of each survey run, an exit message will appear. The participant can tap "End Survey" to finish the survey or else the researcher can set a time to automatically close the exit message screen.

After closing this screen, the next screen depends on the survey type.

  • For a Scheduled Survey, if there are more scheduled surveys to run, a placeholder screen will show until the next survey run. If it is the last survey run for a Scheduled Survey, a message will be shown, offering to send the data to the researcher (see screenshot below)
  • For a Run-once Survey, a message will be shown, offering to send the data to the researcher (see screenshot below)

Stopping a Scheduled Survey

To stop a multiple-run survey midway through a project:

  • Open the iOS Settings app.
  • Scroll down and tap on "PIEL Survey"
  • Toggle the "Stop Current Survey" switch to on.
  • Go back to the PIEL Survey and the home screen will show.

You should only do this if the researcher has asked you to stop the survey, you cannot restart where it was stopped, it will be necessary to start a new scheduled survey.