simple survey.

assignment:
Step 1: Create a simple survey of at least five (5) questions.
Step 2: Administer the survey to a sampling of people.
Step 3: Document the answers in a way that is INTERESTING and READABLE.
(for instance, as a graph, spreadsheet, infographic, or as a pictogram.

subtext: the assignment is not about testing a hypothesis, nor about conducting a rigid scientific experiment.  it is about representing information in an effective and creative way.

 

my procedure: on the morning of January 14th i posted my survey questions to my Facebook wall, along with simple guidelines and a disclaimer.  i received 31 responses via that method, and also presented the questions to 3 other friends for a total of 34 responses.  here is the questionairre as it was posted, along with my interpretation of the results:

FB friends: I am going to be posting a brief, 5-question survey in a bit which is for a class assignment. I'D LOVE YOU TO PARTICIPATE!! I need a good sample, so don't exclude yourself by age, closeness to me, political/religious/other lines!! Responses will be anonymous in the report...

DISCLAIMERS: 
1) again, your name will not be included in the results. if you want to participate but don't want it on my wall, then just message me (via FB please) your response.
1b) if you think someone else would want to participate, share this and have them message me
2) this is for a design class and more about how I report the data, than about conducting a scientifically significant survey. i've tried to pick items which are broad, some light and some serious, which hopefully anyone would be familiar with. 
3) whatever the simplistic nature of this survey I will ABSOLUTELY NOT manipulate the data to say something it does not (I might draw loose conclusions, but not establish theories based on this data alone). i respect you my friends, and I equally respect the process as well and am approaching it scientifically. thank you.

QUESTIONS:
1. YES/NO Do you drink coffee on a regular basis (2+ cups per week)?
2. YES/NO Do you use any alternative transportation on a regular basis (like a bicycle, walking, or bus/carpool; 2+ times per week or during certain seasons all the time).
3. YES/NO Is education beyond high-school intrinsically beneficial? 
4. WIKILEAKS/WORLD CUP  Which event last year was more important (had a larger impact, greater implications, etc): the Wikileaks release of more than 250,000 private diplomatic correspondences, OR, that the world cup was held on the African continent for the first time in the Cup's history. 
5. TRAVEL DOMESTIC/ABROAD If you had vacation/free time, and money and all else being equal (not factors to consider) would you rather travel somewhere within your own country, or somewhere outside your country?

 

RESULTS:

in the bar graph i divided each question between the two possible responses.

 

in the pie graph i show only the highest response from each question.

 

thoughts/conclusions:

because the large majority of people i polled were from one source, the general congruence in responses is not surprising.  had i interviewed people that i didn't know (even though many who responded I know only as acquaintances) i might have seen a more even spread within the different questions.  that applies also in that only 6 of the 34 responses were from people who have an age difference of greater than 10 years, from the average age of the majority.  further, the sample size was not very large (n=34) so if i were to perform the survey again with greater reach i'm sure i'd see more of a normal distribution in responses.

but...this is Design.  i have a fantastic program with which i was able to enter my collected data and after some adjustments to color, font, etc, produce clean and discernible results.  i am confident that if i were to be presented with other data shown in a similar fashion, i would be able to draw clear inferences from the data set.  perhaps there will be more to glean from this exercise, but for now i'll let you consider the results, and share comments if you want to make any observations or inferences you deduce.