DEV Community

What are some good questions for a "State of the Web" survey?

Ben Halpern on June 20, 2018

We're planning on putting out a little survey about the web. We have a few questions in mind, but we'd love a few more.

P.S. If anyone would be interested in doing a quick survey audit to point out possible leading/unscientific questions before it's published, also leave a comment below and I'll be in touch.

Collapse
 
pbouillon profile image
Pierre Bouillon

It may sound like a dumb question but: "do you feel safe when browsing?"
I don't know how to exactly express myself but I wonder if people trust the web the same way they did before wannacry, Cambridge Analytica, etc.

Collapse
 
scottishross profile image
Ross Henderson

No I know exactly what you mean. I don't think I really do anymore. I don't believe anything I read on it, I don't believe I'm secure and I'm terrified of how corporate and privately controlled it's becoming. (I.e. it doesn't feel like it's a community of internet lovers, but more a community of internet lovers being controlled by money grabbers)

Collapse
 
nektro profile image
Meghan (she/her) • Edited

I really like this question. I really don't honestly until I install uBlock Origin. I disable on a number of websites, but in general I don't trust the Web.

Collapse
 
nektro profile image
Meghan (she/her)

"Should browsers still allow users to disable JavaScript?"

Collapse
 
cathodion profile image
Dustin King

User Questions:

  • How often do sites' look wrong because you've increased your system font size?
  • How often do you have to zoom in/out on a web page?
  • How often do you find yourself waiting for sites to load?
  • How often do sites' layouts move after (you thought) they were already loaded?
  • How often do you lose the state of what you were doing, due to a site or app reloading (such as while you are browsing a timeline and the contents of the timeline being replaced)?
  • How often do sites fail or refuse service because of the privacy, security, or other settings you've enabled in your browser?
  • How often do sites feel sluggish or delayed?
  • How often do you feel like if you weren't a Developer, using a particular site or app would be impossible or much more frustrating?

Developer Questions:

  • How often are you able to use the language or tools you want for web development? (e.g. if you'd rather be using language x but can't because front end, or if you'd like to use language x but your company or web host mandates language y)
  • NoSQL or Mo' SQL?
  • What do you use for APIs, REST, GraphQL, or...?
  • Are the apps you work on Monoliths vs. Microservices?
  • How old are the apps you frequently work on?
Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

Don't forget ones related to accessibility. Obstacles people have encountered that others may have not, due to factors like their environment, disability (temporary or otherwise), connection quality, etc. How often do these happen? Do you know ways around them? How confident are you in general that a site is accessible enough at least functional in different situation or for different users?

Collapse
 
nitya profile image
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Count me in on the survey audit. I'd love to provide feedback if useful.

Some questions - and since I don't know the audience for your survey, I'll just go a bit crazy here.

1/ (As users) Do you prefer using mobile web or finding the native app to install, when you want to interact with a specific service (e.g., Maps, GrubHub, Spotify etc.). Given growth of PWA am curious about this trend

2/ (As users) What do you understand about GDPR and Data Privacy affordances for the web services you use? Do you perform regular audits on your data profiles?

3/ (As users) What browser do you use -- on desktop? on mobile? elsewhere (e.g., Kindle, tablet, tv). What are the top 3 sites that you visit via a browser on a regular basis? The type of site (travel, news and music) is probably good enough.

4/ (As developers) What frameworks & tools are you currently using for web development? Why (was it your choice, or was it a preset team/project configuration you had to work with)

5/ (As developers) What is your opinion of Web Components? Are you using it currently or planning to build/use any custom elements in your apps?

6/ (As developers) What is your opinion of multi-platform? (I define this as any framework/platform that lets me build multiple apps from one codebase, where each app targets a different device platform). Do you work on (or co-ordinate with) any teams on building a unified solution across mobile and web native platforms?

7/ (As developers) How do you approach the design problem? (a) You have a dedicated design team, (b) You get design guidance that you them implement, (c) You do your own design e.g, using some UI toolkit or support framework.

8/ (As developers) Ditto for the deployment/devOps problem.

9/ (As designers) What is your biggest challenge creating UI/UX for cross-platform usage (e.g., assume top modern browser platforms = Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera). What are your favorite design tools & sites?

Collapse
 
dominicduffin1 profile image
Dominic Duffin

I'd be interested in:

The proportion of time people spend on big platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Amazon etc.), smaller platforms (dev.to, forums etc.), federated platforms (Mastodon, Diaspora etc.) and traditional websites and blogs.

How people access sites (typing the URL, bookmarks/speed dial, search engines, social media links).

What search engines and browsers people use most and/or like best.

What news sources people read on the web, whether they get their news via news website home pages, search engines or social media.

It would also be good to be able to see how it compares among groups of people with different levels of IT proficiency and/or technical knowledge.

I'd be happy to take part in the audit.

Collapse
 
pmbanugo profile image
Peter Mbanugo

I'd like to know how people access the internet.

  1. How do you connect to the internet? Broadband - Dial-up - fixed wireless - satellite?

  2. What is your average connection speed? 500kbps - 2mbps - 5/10/15 Mbps?

Maybe also the browser and device people use.

Also, I can help with the survey audit.

Collapse
 
scottishross profile image
Ross Henderson

1/ How important is your data privacy to you.
2/ How important is it to you that a website has little to no ads.
3/ In regards to the above question, would you pay for an ad free service on the most popular sites you use.
4/ If not, why not?

Collapse
 
gj262 profile image
Gaibhinn McSeafrees

What do you do without the help of the web that you could do with the help of the web?

For example: Some people may get their transit schedule from a piece of paper affixed to their fridge with a magnet. Or get traffic updates from the radio. Or figure out directions from a map! Or shop in stores!

I'd be interested to see how far this readership has or has not webified.

Collapse
 
kresnasatya profile image
Kresna Satya

"What's your favorite browser if you're developer?"
"What's your favorite browser if you're user?"

Collapse
 
yechielk profile image
Yechiel Kalmenson

The results should be interesting.

I don't mind taking an early look at the survey.

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Cool, we'll send it over when it's ready.

Collapse
 
nektro profile image
Meghan (she/her) • Edited

"Do you think the state of browser engine diversity is healthy?"

Collapse
 
angelofarina profile image
Angelo Farina

Questions:

•How will web development change in the next 15/20 years?

•Nowadays with all the automations (like AI and stuff) and powerful instruments that can replace the work of a human being, some jobs are going to be cut off, or at least the demand for certain jobs will decrease... Is web development one of them?

•Technology is evolving very fast these years and it will be growing even faster in the next decade. In a long range prospective (40-50 years) which jobs do you think are the "safest"? With safest i mean that can assure you a salary until you retire.

Best regards

Collapse
 
rhnonose profile image
Rodrigo Nonose

I don't mind taking early surveys

Collapse
 
kulkarniankita9 profile image
Ankita Kulkarni

With Flash going away on modern browsers specifically Chrome. What is the plan of companies whose websites run on it? Use React 😁