Results from recent surveys

1
Results from recent surveys
id21 insights and email newsletters
2
Who are our users? Where are they based?What do
they like about our products?What do they
dislike? Suggestions for improvement?How do they
read our products?Which products do they use /
are they aware of?How relevant are we to their
work?What actions have they taken after
reading?What is their information sharing
behaviour?How engaged/interested are our readers?
Survey questions
3
What types of organisations do users work for?
What types of roles do they do? And where are
users based?How engaged / interested are users?
1 About id21 users
4
Insights where we send subscriptions to
5
Insights where respondents to the feedback form
are based or where they work
6
Email Newsletter where respondents of the
survey are based
7
Website - where visitors access id21 from
8
Types of organisation users work at
9
Types of jobs users have
10
How engaged / interested our users are
11
2 Strengths Weaknesses

• What do users like about our products?
• What do they dislike?
• What would they like us to improve?

12
Over half of respondents like
Strengths
id21 is holistic and covers up almost all
socio-economic-political topics
Good scan of current thinking in development.
Always a couple of articles I want to read / need
to read to stay current.
id21 insights is the evergreen source of
knowledge and ladder of backward communities of
the world.
It's one of the most useful and interesting of
the many email newsletters I subscribe to
Can easily forward it to rural groups in Africa
Easy to access and can follow up electronically
13
Weaknesses Format / Presentation of email
newsletters (17) and to a lesser extent
insights (33) and information found elsewhere
for email news (23)

• What respondents least like
• Lots said nothing others expressed their
  satisfaction and urged us to continue providing
  these products (19 insights, 15 email news)

14
Main suggested improvements
These were very similar to those suggested by the
respondents to previous surveys two years ago
15
3 Behaviours and use

• How do users read our products?
• What is their information sharing behaviour?
• Which other products are they aware of / do they
  use?
• How relevant are we to our users work?
• What actions have they taken after reading?

16
How our users usually
read insights
Behaviours
I usually read "contents" or "In this Issue" of
id21 insights. Then I slowly go through editorial
and every article
if theme catches my attention
I read it all then send it to my friends or put
on display
17
How our users usually
read email news
Behaviours
Having clicked on the links, I look for date,
author and institution, before I decide to read
the full summary
18
How our users usually share
insights
Behaviours
Sharing with colleagues, students, employees,
trainees, patients, friends and family members,
their community
Who?
When it is relevant to a particular discussion In
workshops/seminars sometimes use facts
When topics deemed relevant / interesting to
others' work
When?
with the library, in the office, meeting /coffee
room I photocopy for my local community members.
Others pass on their own copy
Usually I just keep them at home, I refer the
info by email. Through our free CDs.
Contributions to radio or press programmes
Where?
How?
Others perceptions
People I share with enjoy reading the articles
They want to become subscribers
Several noted that they only receive one copy,
which is not enough, and so are not able to share
/ have to give their's away. Others do not
receive their copy back - due to colleagues
finding it useful and keeping it
Barriers
19
of email news readers of other products
Awareness Use
85 of respondents have unlimited access to email
and web via a good connection and can download
files easily
9 have access to email and the web but
downloading files is difficult/too slow
69 access the id21 website via the links in the
newsletters, only 24 then browse the site and
15 use the search box. 18 access the website
directly, whilst 6 access via Google
20
Of our products to our readers
Relevance
21
Actions users take after reading our products
Usage
22
Further information
Please let us know your reactions to the survey
results , or get in touch if you have any more
feedback . Please contact The id21 team,
Institute of Development Studies, University of
Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RE, UK Tel [phone] ?
Fax [phone] ? Email editor_at_ids.ac.uk
id21 is one of several knowledge services based
at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and
is funded by the UK Department for International
Development (DFID) www.ids.ac.uk/go/ids-knowledge
-services