The questions were not suited for the educational industry, but since that might be out of your scope is that somehow acceptable. However, I found the questions not that suited for the industry as well. It had been a good idea to let someone with insight into Visual Programming Languages and how to put up surveys help you.
this question example, where only one can be selected!? 33. Which size of projects are a best fit for visual programming workflows? Micro Small Medium Large
With regards to the question example that you give, I think typically the answer would be large project size, since in a large project you would typically have more repetitive tasks on a large scale that would benefit the most from programming workflows. However, I didn’t check the survey. Maybe it’s in fact generally not suitable like you say.
Of course, it depends on the project type and all project sizes can benefit from this in one way or another. Larger project just have the biggest benefit.
I think his problem with the question was that being able to select only one option was a weird choice, in addition to the question itself being an odd choice as someone in the industry.
The scale of the project might have different pros and cons for how Dynamo can be useful but to say one size scale benefits more than another is a hard topic to battle and in my opinion not worth the fight.
Meaning, smaller scale projects can utilize more direct changes/graphs and easier to troubleshoot/shorter development time. A larger scale project comes with more problems even for a repetitive task (try geometry intersection on a 4 tower apartment complex). And say you develop a graph to do the repetitive task for a large scale, it still works for small scale.
But, as you said, larger scale projects lets you use the same graph to do x amount more of repetitive actions.
Both give Dynamo a way to be useful, and I would say neither one receive more benefits.
Edit: Back to the original survey question, “which… are a best fit for visual programming workflows?” the answer is all of them.
I thought this was a pretty decent attempt, you clarified that you were a student and you were modest enough to ask for input. I would take on-board everything Erik says
I would perhaps try and apply greater structure to the questions, perhaps around themes, to help you clarify the question you are looking to answer.
Unfortunately question 29 seemed to freak out and I couldn’t complete the survey, parts 2 and 7 kept going blank when I submitted.
To follow on from the comments above, if you have lots of similar small projects, that may give the repetition you need for a dynamo graph to pay back quickly. Also, some things are simply impossible without Dynamo or a plugin, so the payback is inherent.
As Jonathan says, we’d be grateful if you could post your findings.
You must always be careful with the formulation of your questionnaire, especially in an academic context.
Try to test all your questions and the possible replies. Try to reverse the answers.
This means, that dynamo is NOT suited for small projects etc. if a majority selects Large as their options. This answer can be given for a lot of reasons. One could be that if it is good for large projects, then it is also good for all the other. Problem is, that this is exactly not what it is saying if you reverse the answers.
I think you need to reconsider your questions and/or the answer options. Otherwise will this not give neither you or the community any insight. Worst could be that it could be reused from third parties in a completely different way than you might intend. This is why we in academia always must be aware of not suited implementation of methodologies.
The question I put up was just an example, you need to verify your entire survey!
Smaller projects have tighter deadlines and must go faster as a result. Also, firms that go small tend to do so often and with a lot of repetitive work. You’re also spending more time on repetitive work in the overall scheme as there are less ‘typical’ details as there is less room for repetition.
All of this is to piggy back on what Eric said above. He’s a bit of an expert on that front.
You all have some good points. Also, dynamo could be used help with organization and construction documents on all projects, no matter the size. I was just saying from my own experience, I find it tends to be much more helpful on large projects, enabling fewer people to accomplish much more on a bigger scale. I don’t do a lot of small scale repetitive work.
I also wanted to spark a little debate. It’s interesting to hear people’s different insights
Thank you all very much for your comments and for those that completed the survey. I am afraid I am unable to edit the survey at this time because this would invalidate the precious reponses I have already recieved. However the limiting aspects of the way I have pharsed the questions will be noted in the final report.
I will be posting the results of this research in January next year.
Thanks again, and also please anyone else can you complete the survey
@simon_murphy1
Looks like you will bring the world yet another survey not really usable. However, do I expect to see it misused in a way that cant be recognized by the community… not necessarily by you, but writing academic stuff means that everyone can refer to it. I am aware that it is not on a researchers level, but you would be amazed how much is floating around of surveys and other materials done on a inadequate level.
true words Erik. I think he should first reading some books about how to create an academic questionnaire and books about research methodologies. And then you should test your survey with 2-3 participants (or with your own answers), before make it public to the whole community. The whole research is worth nothing if the questions are crap. If you start wrong with the questionnaire, the whole research project will be a fail.
@Marcel_Rijsmus I think it is a MSc distance learning course =)
@simon_murphy1 you should also know how to analyse the survey. For example the software SPSS (check what licences your uni offers).
books:
standard for all types of research: Alan Bryman - Social Research Methods
questionnaires:
Surveys in Social Research by D.A. de Vaus
Handbook of Web Surveys
Online Surveys for Dummies
Designing and conducting survey research - A comprehensive guide by Louis M Rea
Handbook of Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences
SPSS for Dummies