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Gardening Research

sorcha.breslin.2020sorcha.breslin.2020 Posts: 8
in Tools and techniques
Hello, I posted in here a while ago looking for participants to help me with my dissertation research. My final year engineering project is to design an assistive gardening tool.
I have decided to share my questionnaire here in the hopes of getting some feedback with regards to people's gardening habits and experiences.
The questionnaire is open to anyone and everyone who gardens, regardless of experience.

https://forms.gle/rZMyqP43TWjPLcQK8

If you follow the link, the questionnaire should not take longer than 5-7minutes to complete. I appreciate any and all feedback you might have. If you experience any issues, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me at [email protected]

Sorcha

Posts

  • K67K67 Posts: 2,507
    edited March 2021
    Sorry started but couldn't be bothered to finish. Hard to answer page 4 questions , read assertive instead of assistive at first so that threw me. Surely all tools assist you so can't see what you are after.

  • sorcha.breslin.2020sorcha.breslin.2020 Posts: 8
    @K67 I'm sorry to hear you had difficulty completing my questionnaire, I have rephrased the question to hopefully make it clearer for those filling it out in the future.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,579
    I also got puzzled by ‘assistive’ because that is the definition of a tool - something that assists you in doing a task - and that could be anything from a pencil being used as a dibber to a ride-on mower costing many thousands of £s.

    I think you should clarify if you want responses about tools being used because of a disability or an infirmity, or just any garden tools.

    Also, for future reference, it is best to leave the personal questions about age, gender etc to the end. Engage the respondent’s attention before asking for the personal information. Asking, indeed insisting, on an email address as your first question is a major faux pas.
    Rutland, England
  • sorcha.breslin.2020sorcha.breslin.2020 Posts: 8
    @BenCotto That is my oversight for not removing the email address section. It has since been removed, thank you for your feedback.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,004
    It was the email request that put me off too. I agree about the placing  personal data questions too. It makes you feel as if you've been put in a box before you've even given your views.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • sorcha.breslin.2020sorcha.breslin.2020 Posts: 8
    @B3 I appreciate your feedback, the email section was an oversight of mine and has since been removed.
  • delskidelski Posts: 274
    Emails might put me off for some types of survey, but as this is an academic one, I wouldn't have been too bothered. Easy enough just to put a fake email like [email protected].
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,262
    I've completed the survey. 

    I wonder whether the final question might somehow be worded differently; I answered that I was "neither likely nor unlikely" to use a new assistive gardening tool, but wanted to say "likely if I can forsee its use for me personally, otherwise not".  (Someone once gave me a long-handled trowel, which I've never used - I can see it might be helpful for a gardener who found it difficult to bend, but it's much less useful for me, as my problem would be with my eyesight at that sort of distance, not with bending...)

    Good luck with your research.   :)
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • sorcha.breslin.2020sorcha.breslin.2020 Posts: 8
    @Liriodendron I really appreciate this feedback, it is very useful for me. Unfortunately, due to the number of responses I have received I don't feel it would be appropriate to change the question at this stage. However, I will definitely use your comment when analysing my report. Many thanks again.
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