Create Site To Survey Visitors
I would like to create a site to survey site visitors. From an admin control panel, I want to be able to select certain survey results according to specific criteria, then calculate some simple statistics on these results (mean, median, mode). The site will also need to have some sort of ad-serving ability – preferably with the ability to geo-target ads. I also need to measure the number of impressions for each ad (and set limits, frequency etc). Although I have some HTML experience, this project will need some easy way for me to add content and new pages. If a CMS is used, it should be some thing relatively simple, popular and widely used (such as WordPress or Joomla etc).
All pages need to have Google Analytics tracking code. I will provide this code.
The survey is to ask visitors to the site where they think a certain financial market will be trading at various dates in the future. The main forecast relates to the period ending at 5:00pm in New York on the Friday of ‘next week’. For example, a person submitting a survey response on Thu 4th Feb would be giving their forecast for Fri 12th Feb (New York time). Each week on at 5:00pm on Friday (New York time), a ‘new’ survey commences. Although this feeds into the same database, each survey period will be identified by a code based on the date of the ‘weekly’ forecast. For example, if the survey is asking for forecasts for 5:00pm (New York time) on Friday 12th Feb, the code for that survey period would be 20100212 (which is YYYYMMDD), the following survey will be named 20100219.
Each week at 5:00pm New York time, the survey page should automatically update to ask people for their forecast for the relevant date – coinciding with the new survey name.
In addition to the weekly forecast, people will be asked for their forecasts for this market for the end of each of the next four quarters – e.g. 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. There needs to be an override function to allow these dates to be changed to ensure that the date shown is not a Saturday or Sunday. If the end of a quarter is a Saturday or Sunday, the date shown should be the Friday immediately prior to the end of the quarter.
Q1 is simply the end of the ‘next’ quarter (the one nearest to the current date). The month of the Weekly forecast and Q1 forecast should never be the same. For example, survey 20100226 will become ‘live’ at 5:00:01pm New York time on Friday 19th February 2010. The date for the Q1 forecast will be 31st March 2010. The following week, when survey 20100305 becomes active, the date for Q1 will ‘roll’ to 30th June 2010. As a consequence, the date for the Q2 forecast will roll from 30th June 2010 to 30th September 2010, the date for the Q3 forecast will roll from 30th September 2010 to 31st December 2010 and the date for the Q4 forecast will roll from 31st December 2010 to 31st March 2011.
The survey will (initially) ask just 11 questions – all of them are optional.
1. Email Address
2. Name
3. Company
4. URL
5. Location
6. Category
7. Weekly forecast
8. Q1 forecast
9. Q2 forecast
10. Q3 forecast
11. Q4 forecast
In addition, each response needs to be tagged with the relevant survey number (such as 20100212) and a timestamp (YYY:MM:DD / HH:MM:SS). The server is unlikely to be in the USA, so the time stamp function and automatic roll over of the survey periods might not be accurate if they are based on survey time. It might be better to base them on a tool such as Qlock.com or similar. It might be necessary to provide a manual override or manual adjustment to account for changes in daylight saving etc.
I would like to make sure that anybody visiting the site can only provide one response per survey (eg 20100212) for Weekly, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 forecasts. It would be good though if a user had the opportunity to amend a response already submitted in the current survey. Using an IP address to do this might work, so long as it did not mean that it would prevent numerous people from the same company submitting responses. I do want numerous people from the same business (bank, trading room etc) to be able to submit their responses even if they share an IP address.
It would be good if the site could remember an individuals responses to the first 6 questions – so that people do not have to re-enter these details each week. They do need to have the ability to edit them if they wish.
There should be a tool for calculating statistics based on the survey responses. This stats/admin page must hidden and only accessible with a username and password. There should be an option to download survey responses (all and filtered) as a CSV and/or a TXT file. There should also be an option to view all responses direct from the database.
Before performing analysis on the survey responses, the admin panel should provide the ability to filter the survey responses in the database. These filters should be as follows….
– There should be an option to analyse all survey responses, or to limit the analysis to a particular survey as identified by the survey name (such as 20100212).
– There should be an option to select lower and/or upper limits to the levels (the actual forecast number) of responses to the Weekly forecast, Q1 forecast, Q2 forecast, Q3 forecast and Q4 forecast. Only numbers that fall within these limits will be included in the survey analysis.
– There should be an option to select the Location of survey respondents to be included in the analysis. The default setting is ‘all’. This is probably best achieved by having a drop-down list of locations with a check-box next to each one. There should also be buttons to “Select All” or “Clear All”.
– There should be options to limit the analysis to only the responses that have included
– a valid email address
– a real name
– a company name
– a valid URL
– The default setting would be to select all responses. It might be best to use check-boxes next to each of these terms so that survey results can be filtered by any combination of these details
– There should be an option to filter survey responses by by “Category’. Default setting would be to include all Categories. There are currently about 5 Categories and one for “Other”. This will be explained in more detail.
– Once all selections are made, the admin panel should show the total number of responses that meet the selection criteria.
For the survey responses that are selected (after being filtered through the above choices), the admin panel then needs to calculate the following data for each of the forecast dates in the survey. This means, individual calculations are needed for Weekly, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 survey responses. The calculations required are as follows;
– Number of filtered responses for the relevant date
– Mean (average)
– Median (middle number when all filtered responses are listed in numerical order)
– Mode (the figure that is forecast by the greatest number of survey respondents
– Closest to the mean – Which respondent was closest to the Mean? If more than one, the response with the earliest time stamp is selected.
I have made a mock-up of one idea for the survey page. If chosen, I will show this to you but I am looking for a better, more professional looking site. Being a financial site, the look needs to be professional and conservative – yet modern.
I want the survey to appear on the Homepage of my site. On this site, I also want space for an advertising banner across the top and another one (skyscraper or box) down either the left or right side of the page. After survey results are submitted, users should be taken to a thank-you page. this will also include space for advertising. Ads are likely to be either GIF or SWF but it should be possible to post other formats.
Although there is a lot of detail in the above, I believe this should be a relatively simple job for a suitably qualified person.
I look forward to your response.
Thanks,
Alex.