It’s time for more product research. This time, it’s survey apps for the iPad. We’re in the process of acquiring a set of iPads that we’ll be able to sync together to deploy surveys. Our main requirements are customizability of the survey questions and answers and ability to collect data off-line, so museums can collect data with their visitors on the exhibit floor, no matter whether or not they have wi-fi, which a number don’t.

Having learned the value of the spreadsheet with my last product research endeavor, I immediately started creating categories as I looked at the first app’s features. It turned out to be a bit like coding qualitative data; the first product reveals a certain number of codes, the next might add to the list somewhat, and so on until you reach saturation and can just apply the “code book” to all the products. There are a surprising number of pricing schemes – by the survey, by the number of users and responses, and various combinations of those. Ultimately, we’ll prioritize the categories and in this case, consider costs as well, but so far, one product reveals itself as the standard. As our software developer said of a similar process with face recognition systems this morning, so far, there’s no reason to eliminate this one from consideration, though we may find something we like even better.

In the process, we’re also evaluating the use of a case with a handhold as well as a stylus. The stylus may help those less techno-savvy visitors, but it is so small it could walk off if not properly secured. One solution may be a tether to the iPad case. The catch is that once we add the case and tether the stylus, the iPad no longer fits in its original box, which may make it more difficult to ship around to various sites. Stay tuned for updates.