Review of Digivey Survey Suite 3.1
The Digivey Survey Suite from Arizona-based Diatouch, Inc. is probably one of the most full-featured, flexible and friendly touch screen survey systems I’ve had the opportunity to play with. In addition to supporting a wide range of Windows XP-based hardware platforms ranging from touch screen kiosks to pen-based tablets, the survey creation software is extremely flexible, thoughtfully designed and easy for just about anyone to learn and use. Surveys can be quickly customized in just about any way you choose and can include audio, video, and images. Digivey also supports several advanced features such as branching, skipping, and piping and comes with some very strong reporting capabilities that may for some users eliminate the need for further analysis. The cost of the software is fair and should be within the budget of most companies who seek to develop an on-going on-site survey program.
Today I spent several hours experimenting with the Digivey Survey Suite (version 3.1.4.1), a touch screen survey system developed and sold by Phoenix, Arizona based Diatouch Inc. The software suite includes three parts — the Digivey Composer, which is used to design and test surveys; the Digivey Laucher, which is the software that goes on your data collection stations; and the Digivey Analyzer, which is used to monitor response collection and review results. You need to buy at least one full copy of the suite to have access to all three modules, but if you plan to support multiple data collection units you can purchase additional copies of the Launcher (one for each data collection unit).
The process of designing/programming surveys is very straightforward and anyone with experience working with PowerPoint or Word shouldn’t have any trouble. No programming knowledge is required and all of the options (and there are a lot of options!) are well organized and easily accessible. Project management is well thought out — for example, surveys can be saved, exported, cloned, or reused in whole or in part in other surveys you create. Visual designs, such as logo configurations, backgrounds, and styles can be saved into templates which can also be reused. In other words, once you have a look and feel that you like it is very easy to use it again and again (saving you a lot of time!).
Digivey is extremely flexible when it comes to the visual presentation of your surveys. The software goes far beyond simply changing backgrounds and tweaking font colors and lets you go so far as to controlling the rounding on the corners of the on-screen buttons. Surveys can also include both audio and video presentations to enhance the survey experience.
The Digivey Composer will allow you to add several different questions types, including closed-ended single response, closed-ended multiple response, open-ended numeric and text responses, closed-ended opinion grids (which allow you to include multiple rating-type questions on one page) and even constant sum numeric questions (where respondents can distribute points among several options). Ranking-type questions are also supported.
Digivey includes a variety of advanced features: in addition to branching, piping, randomization of questions/answers and skipping, surveys can also be translated and administered in up to 25 different languages (users select their language when they start the survey). Surveys can be set to each automatically print incentive coupons, information sheets, and even registration forms. Additionally, the system can be configured to work with bar code readers, mag stripe readers, business card scanners and other input devices. The software also includes the ability to preview and test your surveys before you deploy them.
Digivey is also optimized for conducting quizzes (it will tell you how many responses you got right and will take specific actions depending on whether or not a certain threshold is met), assessments, self-service registrations and lead capture.
After your survey is designed, you field it with the Digivey Launcher. One copy of the Launcher software is needed for each data collection unit, although you can deploy multiple surveys on each unit. The Launcher features a number of useful options including the ability to run a pre-survey slide show or movie to encourage potential respondents to participate. The Launcher can also be programmed to save responses in specific locations of your choosing (either on the data collection unit or, if you’re attached to a network, on some other unit). The Launcher also features some rudimentary security capabilities to prevent users from exiting the survey system (although you may need to enhance this functionality using other tools…I was still able to "break out" of the software by using Ctrl-Alt-Delete). Within the Launcher you also have the ability to hide specific questions and set some last minute parameters for your survey, which can be especially useful if you are deploying the survey to multiple locations that call for slightly different questions.
At any point data can be reviewed, analyzed and ultimately reported on using the Digivey Analyzer. This tool can be used to generate tables, charts and crosstabs of the data collected for your survey. It will allow you to designate how each question in your survey is reported on, and then allows you to export the fairly attractive charts onto the clipboard for use in presentations or reports. Results can be filtered by specific questions or even by the survey station where the data was collected, the language the survey was completed in, or the date and time. Raw data can be exported using .csv formats that can optimized for SPSS or PinPoint or KeyPoint.
In terms of hardware, Digivey works with any kiosk or Tablet PC system that has at least 256 MB RAM; a 900+ MHz processor with either Windows XP or Windows XP Table Edition. It supports screen resolutions of 800 x 480 or higher.
The Digivey Survey Suite, which includes the Composer, Launcher and Analyer, is available to end users for $1,025 for a lifetime workstation license. Additional copies of the Launcher application (one is needed for each data collection unit) is available for $375 each. A "Pro" edition of the Suite is available to research consultants/professionals for $1,995 ($395 for each additional copy of the Launcher). Maintenance agreements are also available.
For more information, visit http://www.digivey.com.
