Right after we launched Battery Go!, we put out this little survey to gain a bit of insight on what people thought of the application. We really wanted to get some opinions which we could use to help develop future updates to the app.
We never really publicized the survey, so we've only seen 56 responses so far. However, there has been a lot of useful information from what we've had which we will definitely use in the future. While it isn't a huge sample size, it definitely gives us enough feedback to see value in the responses as a whole.
We've decided to publish some of our findings, mostly to show you guys what we take out of a survey so that you can hopefully use this information to create your own survey when you create an iPhone app or create a product in general. It's kinda amazing as to how much you can take out of a quick survey of only a couple questions.
The first question we asked was an obvious one, as we wanted to know what percentage of our respondents actually have bought Battery Go!. As you can see, we had a fair amount of people answer the survey who don't own the application, which is great. Some would look at this as a negative, but we like having this mix so that we can get opinions on the app from people who aren't huge iPhone users and have a different opinion on what makes a good app.
We never really publicized the survey, so we've only seen 56 responses so far. However, there has been a lot of useful information from what we've had which we will definitely use in the future. While it isn't a huge sample size, it definitely gives us enough feedback to see value in the responses as a whole.
We've decided to publish some of our findings, mostly to show you guys what we take out of a survey so that you can hopefully use this information to create your own survey when you create an iPhone app or create a product in general. It's kinda amazing as to how much you can take out of a quick survey of only a couple questions.
The first question we asked was an obvious one, as we wanted to know what percentage of our respondents actually have bought Battery Go!. As you can see, we had a fair amount of people answer the survey who don't own the application, which is great. Some would look at this as a negative, but we like having this mix so that we can get opinions on the app from people who aren't huge iPhone users and have a different opinion on what makes a good app.
Next, we wanted to just judge peoples' overall feelings on the app. Here we wanted to know in general, all things considered, if the app was worthwhile. Obviously we know these numbers are fairly skewed, as people visiting our site and taking the survey are probably proponents of the application in the first place, which is why they're checking us out. Still, very good data none the less.
The next (and maybe most important) question of our survey had to do with Battery Go!'s accuracy. In developing a battery app, accuracy is huge and we wanted to know what people thing of our current marks. This question played most into our current development of our update, as we now know that most people find the app accurate enough, so we don't need to focus on that component as much. Obviously, we'll continue to work on our accuracy, but this next update will focus most on design and new features thanks to the results of this question.
Finally, we wanted to know if people would share Battery Go! with their friends or family. Viral advertising is, in our opinion, the best kind of advertising for an app like ours, so we want to make sure that we have an app that people are willing to share. 
So hopefully you can see the value in the responses we've received and can take this back to your own projects in the future. We've learned that short surveys are the best, as people are more willing to answer completely and honestly. It's amazing though that a couple quick questions can provide us so much data which will direct our entire project into the future. If you develop an iPhone app or any other software project, definitely consider putting together something similar. It's easy to get jaded in your work, since you'll never thing it's bad because you're the one who made it. It's tough to read honest opinions from others, but it definitely helps in developing a better product.
So hopefully you can see the value in the responses we've received and can take this back to your own projects in the future. We've learned that short surveys are the best, as people are more willing to answer completely and honestly. It's amazing though that a couple quick questions can provide us so much data which will direct our entire project into the future. If you develop an iPhone app or any other software project, definitely consider putting together something similar. It's easy to get jaded in your work, since you'll never thing it's bad because you're the one who made it. It's tough to read honest opinions from others, but it definitely helps in developing a better product.