[Discussion] Naming Conventions

[markusphil]

The Problem

I'm no expert on surveys (and also not a native english speaker) but I got the feeling, that that naming of the app and it's components is a little misleading regarding conventions for the words poll, survey and evaluation form.

Here is my impression for the conceptions of these terms:
I guess that the general expactation for a poll is that it only contains one question (and is embeded on a website/forum). While surveys are concieved to include multiple questions and are common tools for science (e.g. social sciences and psychology) and economy (e.g. market surveys). An evaluation form is more specialized and bound to a specific event and date.

The guiding idea behind the webapp was to provide a tool to evaluate workshops and track the feedback over multiple worshops or events. But we also wanted it to be more general and be usable for all kind of questionaires.

Having that in mind the name poll feels very missleading for the purpose of the application.

Solutions

Now I have to ideas working on that:

1. Generalze

Give the app a more general name like "feedback" and add options for three variants:

• poll: only one questions
• survey: multiple questions
• evaluation: multiple questions and fixed date

2. Specialize

Keeping our focus straight on event evaluation and adjust our namings regarding that.

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As I'm actually not sure about these asumptions about polls and surveys I'd really appreciate your feedback and your ideas about how we should continue with the application!

[Twissi]

Yes, I think your assumptions are right. For me a poll is a one question survey which usually has given answers (no free forms). I like the idea to rename it feedback, because it does collect feedback.