In 2013, 20% of surveys were taken on a mobile device. That is double from 2012 .. and the pace of change increases into 2014. And yet, over 60% of researchers avoid surveys on the mobile platform. One of the reasons for this low use by researchers is that they don’t trust mobile surveys to be able to handle the complex kinds of questions that they employ in regular surveys.

What they don’t realize is that with 60% of American adults owning smartphones, most of these folks are doing complex tasks on their phones already. Cell phone owners have the capability and capacity to do complex surveys on their phones.

One of the most complex of survey tasks is Conjoint — also more specifically referred to as Choice-Based Conjoint or Choice Modelling. Last year, with the help of the AbsolutData team, I designed and tested conjoint on mobile. The results showed that both in the US and internationally, people are ready to do complex surveys on the mobile platform. Other than specific sampling needs, there is no reason to avoid mobile and many reasons to embrace it more consistently.

See the presentation I gave at the 2013 Sawtooth Software conference on this topic that details the findings of our international study.