POLL: Online quizzes... how many questions per page?

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Supposing there are about 120 questions, which is a damn lot:

1. All of them on one page. The page is going to be extremely long and there will be lots of scrolling (some people prefer to scroll down, others to load the next page). The load is going to be massive, but people on broadband won't really nice. People on dial-up will either love it for eliminating waiting periods between many pages, or hate it for having to wait a long time before the big page loads. The total load shouldn't exceed 120 KB in one portion.

2. Several pages, many questions on each. Not so awfully long and easier to manage and to navigate, but still involving scrolling. But the site graphics, headers, footers etc don't have to load so often. Perhaps 6 pages, 20 questions each. Somewhat more than 130 KB total load.

3. Many pages, several questions on each. Comfortably short pages, not much scrolling, but there's lots of "next page" clicking and graphics, headers and footers have to load often. Maybe 12 pages, 10 questions each. Probably a bit more than 150 KB total load.

4. One question per page. No scrolling or next to none. Graphics etc has to load 120 times. The total load may approach 1MB in 120 portions.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 27 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Online quizzes... how many questions per page? (27 votes.)

Online quizzes... how many questions per page? (Choose 1)
* #1, All on one page - 26% (7)
* #2, Several big pages - 26% (7)
* #3, A number of smaller pages - 37% (10)
* #4, One question per page, which means 120 small pages - 0% (0)
* Just show me the results - 11% (3)

 

Call it a short attention span, but if stuff spills over to another page i tend to forget what came before it. Give me one big, fat, ugly page to process. One page may seem daunting, but thanks to the mouse wheel, it requires little to no energy. Clicking 'next page' all the time, however, requires the movement of the wrist, thereby promoting carpal tunnel, and causing the wholesale suffering of the entire global community.

 

I generally prefer option 3. I don't like scrolling seemingly endlessly down and yet I don't like having to go to a new page after every question. Having a new page after every 10-20 questions reinforces the feeling that you are making some progress towards completing the questions.

 

Even 20 questions per page is just too long sometimes. Ten is nice and simple. I'm on dial-up and keep multiple windows open, I finish the page, click next and work my way to the circuit. I don't spend a lot of time just waiting, but when I have to I hit the can, get a drink and/or snack or check on the furnace...

 

Number 3 for me
I just find it boring scrolling down and down and down and down and down. Like Gnarfflinger does, I flick between pages when I clikc on the link, so it breaks up the quiz for me (hence meaning that I might actully have the patients to finish the entire thing).

 

#3 for me too. For that many questions, I would break each page in to 10 questions each...15 questions per page at the most.

 

One page is nice and easy to process in my opinion.

 

One big page, i prefer it over clicking next page all the time.

 

Oh-oh. Is this foreshadowing another long-winded chevalier post?

 

I can tell you the best way --I actually research this kind of stuff.

Generally, when forced to make a choice, people prefer paging (using several short pages) over scrolling (one long page). I won't bore you with all the details, but I'd suggest not having pages longer than about 2 or 3 screens long.

If anyone is interested in these kinds of things, you can visit www.surl.org or www.usabilitynews.org, the sties for my lab.

 

I think there's a limit for postlength, not sure if it's the same here though. I wanted to make a post that contains 102 limericks on another board, but it couldn't be processed, the post was probably a bit too much for the forum's software to handle, so i chopped it up in four posts. Still a long read though.

 

Thanks, guys. Keep it coming. It's not for these boards, or any boards, but for a website, so I'm not limited by any software.

But the less fun part is I'll have to write the software for it, hehe. After seeing the diversity in answers, I decided to rethink my strategies and make it available for the quiz taker to select how many questions he wants to see per page, with also the ability to change on the fly, i.e. if 20 seems much, then 10 next time... and maybe 15 on the following page. And so on.

It's going to take more time than making a couple of pre-made pages, but I think it will be worth the effort.

@Splunge: Want a long-winded chev post? http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/20/933.html

 

I tend to enjoy filling out short forms over long forms. I want to see a "goal" within two screens of scrolling. Gives me that nice feeling that I've accomplished something whenever I get to click on NEXT.

 

I too much prefer the feeling of accomplishment that clicking on 'next page' can lead to. Otherwise things just seem to drag on worse than a Kevin Costner film.

 

LOL @ that Kevin Costner comparison: Exactly! I also tend to not really think about answers after about 10 questions per page. Get it done fast und smooth...

 

Prince of Thieves and Tin Cup were awesome movies

 

Prince of Thieves had Alan Rickman

 

I liked the Postman. And Water world.

But I also like all of my questions on on page.