Introduction to the Project (Mission Control)

Planning is a critical step in a survey project to ensure success. Aims, objectives, communications, anonymity policies, and clear project timelines need to be carefully considered.

Beyond having a well designed survey and communications, the key steps in the mission include:

• Plan the Mission
• Distribute surveys
• Manage progress and follow up
• Analyze and share results

Mission Settings

The Project Settings contain the customizing information, including the project name, the title and footer visible in the survey, welcome and finish pages, language settings, branding and colours, sending email details, anonymising, consent and more.

The project Settings can be edited at any time in a live project. Edits will instantly change the visible project details for survey participants.

Below is an outline of the information that can be set in the project Settings.

The Advanced tab has an anonymising function.

Project Details

The Project details tab contains essential information about the project including the Project Name, Project Description, the Survey to be used and any Tags for the project.

Display options

The Display Options tab can be used to edit the survey title, sub title and whethere or not to display progress bars and messages. The display optons can be changed at any stage of a project, including after launch.

Participants

The Participant Instructions tab is a place to enter the Welcome and Finish instructions that are visible to participants when they start and complete the survey. Participant instructions can be changed at any stage of a project, including after launch.

If you would like to skip the welcome text & logo and direct the participant straight to the first page of the survey, you can turn the welcome display off.

Satellites

A Satellite is a unique link from which multiple surveys can be completed. Satellites can be used in Social Media, websites, Intranets and where you wish to share the survey with many people but perhaps do not have email addresses.

The Satellite Text tab is a place to enter the Welcome and Finish instructions that are visible to participants when they access the survey from a Satellite link. If you would like to skip the welcome text & logo and direct the participant straight to the first page of the survey, you can turn the welcome display off.

Mail Settings

By default, any mail sent from Spark Chart will originate from a default "noreply" address, with the sender name set to Spark Chart Surveys. You can change this by entering your own email details.  

Various mail themes  may also be selected.

Branding

Here you can control the branding, including project logo and the colours displayed on surveys when they are completed on the web. 

Advanced (including Anonymising responses)

The Advanced tab includes advanced functions like anonymising survey responses. When turned on, participant details are anonymised when they have completed the survey. Administrators can turn this feature on and off. Users can anonymise but cannot turn the anonymise feature off.

This feature allows surveys to be distributed with names and email addresses and followed up with email reminders. However, once a participant has completed a survey, their personal details and email address are no longer shown. The participant name is replaced with "Anonymous" and a number but their personal details are not shown.

Notes

The Notes tab can be used to add notes about a project. Notes can be changed at any stage of a project, including after launch.

Mission Status - Pause or Stop a Project

The mission Status shows the current status of a project and controls whether a project is Live, Paused or Stopped.

Pause or Resume a Project

This function allows a project to be paused temporarily. A reason and a customised message must be entered before confirming that the pause. Participants will not be able to login, and will be shown the customised message if they attempt to access the survey while paused. The survey data will not be affected in any way. Participants currently on a page of the survey will still be able to save their choices, and the pause message will appear for them when they proceed to the next page.

Restart the survey any time by clicking the "Run" button.

Stop a project

Click the Stop button to stop a project. You will be asked to enter a reason and a customised message before the project is stopped. Once a project has been stopped, it will no longer appear in Launched Projects. However, it can be restarted by returning to Project list in the Dashboard, entering the Mission Control, going to the Status menu and choosing "Run".

Monitor Progress

The mission Progress shows mission activity starting with project launch and includes events such as participants added and deleted and surveys started or completed.