While PDA surveys run on handheld PDA devices, the actual survey design is done on the desktop computer which introduces an inherent problem as to how the survey will look like on the actual pda device.
This problem is common one and usually most survey software packages include some sort of a preview of the PDA device. Here is a preview example take from SurveyToGo (www.dooblo.net/stgi):
While preview is a good way of getting a sense of how the question will look like on the PDA, when you design a mobile survey you would like a way to see how the entire survey will behave, which includes all the answers, the skip rules, branch rules, validation rules, piping options etc.. to put it in less words: I want to see the entire survey right on my desktop!
One option of course is to deploy the survey to the PDA and see it on the PDA itself. While being the only way that truly shows you a 100% view of the survey, this is usually a very time consuming process requiring you to switch back and forth from the desktop to the PDA, identify problems, correct them on the desktop and then deploy the survey again to the PDA. Try it once on a big complicated survey and you will get tired of it real quick 
Another big concern is device orientation. Are you running the survey on a landscape device? Or maybe a square screen device? Good luck getting preview of these..
So, do we have any other option?
Luckily we do. SurveyToGo (www.dooblo.net/stgi), a PDA survey software solution allows you to run your PDA survey on a desktop PDA emulator which gives you a sense of how the survey will behave on a PDA right from the comfort of your desktop. Moreover, when you change your survey, you won’t even have to save the survey to see the changes in the emulator. The emulator will automatically pickup the change and will reload the survey for you, making on-the-fly changes a no-brainer and making survey design finally an easier task!
Here’s a sample of the Survey Emulator that runs from your desktop:
And here is a sample of the emulator that runs in Landscape mode:
Square screen support as well! Cool!
Designing mobile surveys using the emulator as a checking tool makes survey design a much easier and bearable task for everyone, especially for those who don’t have a PDA handy at all times
Tags: field data collection, handheld surveys, mobile survey, Mobile surveys, PDA forms, pda quistionnaires, pda survey, PDA surveys, questionnaires, survey software
