Title: Updates to the WordPress User & Developer Survey Author: Andrea Middleton Published: June 28, 2019 Last modified: August 5, 2019 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 10:19 pm _on_ June 28, 2019 Tags: [survey ( 4 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/survey/), [user-developer-survey ( 4 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/user-developer-survey/) # Updates to the WordPress User & Developer Survey For many years, information on how people use WordPress has been gathered through an annual survey published on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/). In the early years of WordPress, interesting results were shared at the State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. [https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/](https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/).. In 2017, I shared [results from 2015-2017 surveys in a post on the News blog](https://wordpress.org/news/2017/12/wordpress-user-survey-data-for-2015-2017/). There was no survey in 2018. In preparation for the 2019 survey, I’d like to collect topic suggestions from WordPress contributor teams. Ideally, the questions can be updated to gather information that will help inform contributor work in the coming year. A few important notes: 1. This survey is mostly publicized through WordPress.org, which affects the base of respondents. 2. A full export of the raw data will not be published, to avoid sharing information that might reveal something that respondents consider private. _(I’d love to make this information as accessible as possible, though, so if you have a suggestion for an OS project or tool that would allow people to access with the data, but that still protects individual response privacy, please leave a comment on this post!)_ 3. Long surveys generally gather fewer responses. It might not be possible to include questions on every suggested topic. #### Suggest a topic! WordPress contributor teams, what information would help you prioritize or direct your work in 2020? Suggest some survey topics in a comment on this post! [#survey](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/survey/), [#user-developer-survey](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/user-developer-survey/) ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=bluesky) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=x) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=facebook) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/06/28/updates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey/?share=linkedin) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fupdates%2F2019%2F06%2F28%2Fupdates-to-the-wordpress-user-developer-survey%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 10:19 pm _on_ June 28, 2019 3. +make.wordpress.org/community +make.wordpress.org/meta 4. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a15532e2de67c56ac93ed4e3a26c5b139bf8450f788262910590cd2991b7874c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Jose Castaneda](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jcastaneda/) 10:46 pm _on_ June 28, 2019 * +make.wordpress.org/themes 5. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a436ab0e9c96432f9852e6c89a6efba387bbbd837e6f3eb29d1c97edad80f6ec? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 6. [Drivingralle](https://profiles.wordpress.org/drivingralle/) 12:29 pm _on_ June 30, 2019 7. Maybe the survey could be shown on the dashboard of all WordPress Installations to reach a wider range of people. 8. As we learned from the Event-WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. this is a every effective way to reach the WP user base. 9. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fa1675858df18178ecaee955ff16f29142492a5d2973b6461c11d4675f6db69f? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Morten Rand-Hendriksen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10/) 11:53 pm _on_ June 30, 2019 * Some data points worth exploring: - Question(s) about the long-term planning around WordPress use, ie (needs rephrasing) “Do you see yourself using WordPress as your main web publishing platform 5 years from now?” This is a standard question on surveys about satisfaction of jobs, services, etc. - Question(s) about brand awareness, especially around the difference between WordPress (the software) and WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. [https://wordpress.com/](https://wordpress.com/)( the SaaS offering from Automattic). Not sure about phrasing, but the goal is to see if people a) understand the difference, and b) consider the commercial offering part of the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project. - Question(s) about hosting and backup with special focus on managed hosting vs. cloud services vs. shared hosting. - Question(s) about security services and plugins, to gauge their prevalence. - “Has your site ever been hacked or subjected to a DDoSDistributed Denial of Service A type of online attack where a large number of infected computers are used to overwhelm a target computer, to the point where it no longer has the resources to perform its normal job. [Read more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack#Distributed_attack). attack?” - “Has your site ever crashed and had to be recovered by a backup or reinstallation?” - “Do you use the Classic Editor pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. or similar?” * “What is your current WP version?” - “How many themes / plugins are installed in your current site?” Separate questions with variate around active / inactive. - Something about WordPress MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through [https://www.meetup.com/](https://www.meetup.com/). A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup. com will help you find options in your area. and WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). awareness and attendance to find out if people know about them, if they go, and what barriers stand in their way if they don’t. - “Who makes decisions about the WordPress Open Source Project?” Open-ended question with large text input field. - “Who controls the WordPress trademark?” Open-ended question with text input field. - “Who is the official spokesperson / persons / entity for the WordPress Open Source Project?” Open-ended question with text input field. - Questions about use of the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application( think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think“ database” or “file system”) [https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/](https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/). - Questions about the installation of 3rd party blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. plugins for added blocks. - Questions around accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both“ direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) needs; number of team members with direct needs, what type of needs, whether accessibility tests are part of the dev and design process, etc. - Questions about learning and development; do they use the Codex or Handbooks, where do they get their learning (articles, videos, events, school, etc). - Questions around Privacy and other legal compliance (ask the privacy team for more details). - Onboarding / funnel questions along the lines of “How likely are you to recommend WP to friends / family / small business / enterprise business / organizations / other?” - Discovery questions along the line of “where did you first hear about WordPress?” with a side question on whether the first interaction was with self-hosted or WP.com. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/17e3cbd63c4ddcf873d1848277de062a48239d962359ecaf1978e966429f5b6f? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Rocio Valdivia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/_dorsvenabili/) 11:40 am _on_ July 4, 2019 * Thanks for the post [@andreamiddleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/)! * I love [@drivingralle](https://profiles.wordpress.org/drivingralle/)‘s idea! 😀 - We could add a call for answering the survey in the WP dashboards - Depending the language activated in the dashboard, we could show the link to the survey in that language. - We could work with the Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. [https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/) to get the survey translated in as many languages as possible, I’m sure they would be super happy to help with it * - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8e997e7b6570ba04b872e29f736ce77a396a6b024e434de7c82530456a253e65? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Courtney P.K.](https://profiles.wordpress.org/courtneypk/) 9:00 pm _on_ July 5, 2019 - +1 on this from me too. This is a good idea ⭐ - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5783a2d9b93f04f6d0a1ddabddcfd71f15136d7eaea7a87f9962d3f93f780224? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Ian Dunn](https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn/) 6:56 pm _on_ July 8, 2019 - We don’t have a great way to add arbitrary content to the Dashboard right now. One hacky way of doing it would be to modify the w.org/news RSS feedRSS Feed RSS is an acronym for Real Simple Syndication which is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. This is the feed. so that the desired item would be pinned to the top of the feed, and therefore pinned to the News & Events widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.. - The downside there is that other w.org/news posts would not be shown as prominently or as long as they otherwise would be. They’d only show up for a few days as part of the planet.w.org feed (the 3 bottom news links in the widget), as opposed to staying for several weeks in the top position. See [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43441](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43441) for more details on how that works. - That might be worth the tradeoff, though. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/15c1992340b393e287c6050901b6c4a5a10204d854c84ee8be6be84aca77de95? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Timi Wahalahti](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sippis/) 7:38 am _on_ July 9, 2019 * Sounds like a reasonable tradeoff. If we do it, I’d like to track how many respondents did come from the link in the dashboard. That would be an interesting detail to know, to support possible decision making about adding a proper way to the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. to show arbitrary content in the future. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a436ab0e9c96432f9852e6c89a6efba387bbbd837e6f3eb29d1c97edad80f6ec? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Drivingralle](https://profiles.wordpress.org/drivingralle/) 9:06 am _on_ July 9, 2019 * Should be make a tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.[https://core.trac.wordpress.org/](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/). ticket to discuss it? * Maybe related: [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38064](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38064) * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/15c1992340b393e287c6050901b6c4a5a10204d854c84ee8be6be84aca77de95? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Timi Wahalahti](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sippis/) 11:48 am _on_ July 4, 2019 * Huge +1 for [@drivingralle](https://profiles.wordpress.org/drivingralle/)‘s idea! 10. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6ae5aac9c9f6b33d57fb70c593808445da3aefe9cc3a250641073a199810414c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 11. [Paul Gilzow](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gilzow/) 2:47 pm _on_ July 1, 2019 12. Wow. I think [@mor10](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10/) covered just about everything I could think of 13. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6845456dbc9056f20a4cd50a6b95db78f2ae31df5c0601c613ee5b8939c41a82? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 14. [Jon Brown](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/) 3:44 pm _on_ July 1, 2019 15. I like Morten’s Questions, while he’s got a lot of them there is one line of questions missing. 16. The missing line of questions is: 17. * is there functionality you feel is missing from WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.? If so, what is it? Do you currently use a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress. org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. to do the functionality? If so which plugin? 18. With so many questions it would make sense to have a short and long form of the survey. A short form of 5 questions, and then a prompt “thank you, that information is super helpful to us, would you be willing to answer a few more questions?” 19. I’ll finally note that the least interesting questions of the type “do you make a living with WordPress”, “do you use WP as a CMS”, “are you learning JS”, etc…. those were interesting 15 years ago they’re not now. 20. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2ff9243b5bac71ad3e341dcb5f31c36e68515c9e7d42cfd400caa998ccfdb9df? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Rian Kinney, Esq.](https://profiles.wordpress.org/riankinney/) 5:36 pm _on_ July 1, 2019 * Hey Andrea, I’m not sure what the intended purpose of the survey is, because I don’t see it stated anywhere. The bulk of the questions seem to relate to user demographics (target market/segmentation, etc.), but there are also questions included related to user concerns: “What’s the best thing about WordPress? What’s the most frustrating thing about WordPress? Is it as good, or better than its main competitors?” * If the intention is not merely to identify the user population but to determine user engagement, to truly to gauge user interests and concerns, I agree with Morten and Jon Brown in expanding the questions and ability to write in answers in order to enhance the quality and depth of data collected. * Leading questions and limited answer choices can skew results. * I understand allowing for open fields will add to the time necessary to process the data but Jon Brown’s proposed question is extremely well crafted, allowing for Users to share their specific concerns without being constrained to limited answer choices, which may not accurately reflect their sentiment or intended response. Jon Brown’s proposed question can also take a lot of the guess work out of formulating specific accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), privacy, etc. questions, by simply allowing the respondent to tell you exactly what functional improvements they feel would best improve their experience. * Questions relating to brand awareness and potential consumer confusion surrounding WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/)/. com is of particular interest to gauge how well this distinction is being marketed and communicated, as well as if and where improvement is necessary. If the survey doesn’t establish whether the respondent knows/understands the difference between the two WordPress’s, or which they are using, you can’t ascertain the reliability of their responses. 21. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/890bd890338f9b6a17143a65ac10a20410e135583d95106bb09f20d91f66afe2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 22. [Tor-Bjorn Fjellner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/) 12:54 pm _on_ July 2, 2019 23. I like the questions suggested by [@mor10](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10/) but in some places (for instance: Which editor do you use) would it be good to add an open-ended “Why/additional comments:” 24. The “Do you make a living on WP” is not as much about how many people do make a living on WP as a way to analyze responses with regards to various types of usage. Now, in the era of one-click, we could even ask: Have you ever used a FTPFTP FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol which is a way of moving computer files from one computer to another via the Internet. You can use software, known as a FTP client, to upload files to a server for a WordPress website. [https://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients](https://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients) client? 25. Pingback: [Community Team Chat Agenda | Thursday, 4 July 2019 – Make WordPress Communities](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2019/07/03/community-team-chat-agenda-thursday-4-july-2019/) 26. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 27. [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 6:54 pm _on_ July 8, 2019 28. +make.wordpress.org/accessibility +make.wordpress.org/core +make.wordpress.org/ design +make.wordpress.org/docs +make.wordpress.org/hosting +make.wordpress.org/ marketing +make.wordpress.org/mobile +make.wordpress.org/plugins +make.wordpress. org/polyglots +make.wordpress.org/support +make.wordpress.org/training +make.wordpress. org/tide 29. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/46d3ca74e9d1debb47accf911e53fcd852be3bebfa92e9c53ecbd614dd620984? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 30. [sarah semark](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tinkerbelly/) 10:02 am _on_ July 10, 2019 31. One of the things I’ve personally struggled with, in terms of making informed decisions, is the lack of data about who is using WordPress and how they’re using it. It would be so great to use this as an opportunity to establish a baseline data set that we could then use a jumping-off point for further explorations and research. 32. That said, in order for that data to be helpful, we’d need to get a pretty wide respondent base and we’d need to post the survey in a more visible place to end- users who might not be involved in the open-source project. The questions we ask, accordingly, would probably be different depending on our coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. purpose here: are we trying to learn about WordPress’ end users, or are we trying to learn about the WordPress project’s contributors? 33. If we want to learn about _end users_, here are a few of the things I’d be particularly interested in: 34. * What is their (self-rated) level of technical expertise? * What other platforms have they used in the past? What made them choose and stay with WordPress? If they were starting a new website from scratch, would they use WordPress or another platform? * How many WordPress sites do they own or manage? * What is their industry and primary role? * Did they build their site themselves, or did someone build it for them? * How frequently do they publish posts/log in/change themes/install new plugins or functionality/etc? * What is their primary goal for their website? * What plugins would they recommend to others? * Do they use the new editor? * If there’s one piece of advice they could offer the WordPress team, what would it be? (We ask this question during user research sessions and it was always revealing.) * Would they be willing to be contacted for further research? 35. Regarding #2: 36. > A full export of the raw data will not be published, to avoid sharing information > that might reveal something that respondents consider private. (I’d love to > make this information as accessible as possible, though, so if you have a suggestion > for an OS project or tool that would allow people to access with the data, but > that still protects individual response privacy, please leave a comment on this > post!) 37. When we’ve made user research data public, what we did was anonymise the data first, by stripping out names and other identifying data. This meant that people could access and help parse the data, but didn’t have access to any identifiable or private user data. It’s pretty lo-fi, but it’s effective. You can also replace the identifiable data with codes, and then have a (private) lookup table for the codes, but that’s only important if you’re processing the data in such a way that being able to tie the results back to a specific individual is helpful, which often isn’t the case, especially in a large-scale survey like this where the aggregate of responses is likely more useful than individual responses. 38. Pingback: [Design Meeting Notes for 10 July 2019 – Make WordPress Design](https://make.wordpress.org/design/2019/07/10/design-meeting-notes-for-10-july-2019/) 39. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5783a2d9b93f04f6d0a1ddabddcfd71f15136d7eaea7a87f9962d3f93f780224? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 40. [Ian Dunn](https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn/) 2:29 pm _on_ July 11, 2019 41. I think one of the most useful topics we could collect data around would be the impact of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. [https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/) on the ecosystem. I’ve heard anecdotes of agencies avoiding blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. development because it takes exponentially longer than the corresponding shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. would. Similarly, [@chrisvanpatten](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisvanpatten/) recently published an insightful post about [the difficulties that the average agency is having when trying to adapt to Gutenberg and modern JS](https://www.chrisvanpatten.com/the-gutenberg-crisis). For developers, I can personally attest to [just how difficult the learning curve can be](https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript-in-2016-d3a717dd577f). 42. All of that makes me wonder: what kinds of questions would help us identify the biggest, most existential problems that users/companies/developers/etc are facing? Getting data on those would help us focus our attention on solving those problems, and track our progress over the next few years. 43. Additionally, I’ve also had a hard time getting actionable feedback from users who complain about Gutenberg on the forums and in reviews. It would be helpful to ask some questions that could provide insight into the specific reasons behind the negative experiences that some people report, which should help lead to solutions to those problems. 44. Here’s a few rough ideas: 45. For business owners/managers 46. * How easy is it to find/retain developers who can build blocks that meet your clients/customers needs? (very easy, moderately easy, moderately hard, very hard) * How often do you use or build blocks for your clients/customers (very often, sometimes, not very often, never) * At the end of the day, has Gutenberg made your clients/customers happier with the projects you deliver (yes/no, with an text field to explain more if they answer no) 47. For developers: 48. * Do you feel like you’ve learned JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. [https://www.javascript.com](https://www.javascript.com/) deeply? (yes/somewhat/no) * Are there any barriers that prevent you from building blocks? (yes/sometimes/ no, with a text field for identifying them if they answer “yes” or “sometimes”) 49. For users: 50. * Have you switched to using the new block editor for writing posts and pages?( yes/sometimes/no, with a text field to explain why not if they answered “sometimes” or “no”) * What are the hardest things to do in the new block editor? * Are there things that you can’t do in the new block editor that you could do in the Classic editor, or that are easier to do in the Classic editor? 51. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5fd14da569e96e1ea91f6f1a6cd9677f78e5444dc108a56844f1a2e92d604df1? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 52. [Maria](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mariawoothemescom/) 4:16 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 53. Survey design is very tricky. Many research questions people have are not best suited to be answered in a survey. Rather, other research methods such as interviews can be more effective especially for the open ended questions people have. I would not recommend too many open-ended responses. 54. Survey questions are best reserved for examining current behavior and should not be used to predict future behavior. People are terrible at it which makes the results not as helpful. 55. I’d love to see us try to promote this survey wider than the .org community. We don’t really do ourselves justice by sticking with that and we could really use a better lay of the land of the total WordPress eco-sphere. 56. I completely agree with the research focus and questions that Sarah recommends above. I also like Ian’s thoughts around the impact of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. [https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/) on the ecosystem. And agree it would be good to start with the goals of this survey. Would love to see us find more research professionals with survey experience to help with the design of this. 57. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/05d2dfe4847b8890aad5d6b5e0c0913c8332280e5a0e19f2cfa547d8b58f7dfd? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 58. [kvsquared](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kvsquared/) 5:38 pm _on_ July 12, 2019 59. I have a background in questionnaire design and I hope the following suggestions/ thoughts are helpful to you all… 60. 1. **Get crisp on your objectives**. I see a lot of ideas for questions to ask but it might be helpful to take a few steps back to first outline what you want to get out of the research before you start creating questions. I often find that after I go through this exercise, I realize I need multiple surveys or I need to use more than one method (beyond a survey) to meet my objectives. You can start by making a long list of all of your needs. Then, you can group them by topic. 61. 2. **Don’t waste precious time with the respondent, asking things you can answer yourselF**. The survey questions should focus solely on the things you cannot already get out of your systems about the respondent. _(And you should use the survey only to collect what you need to ID them to enable you to append that data later…)_ 62. 3. **Minimize the use of open-ended questions**. Open-ended questions help us get context to responses. We love love love to ask them in surveys because we want to use the survey to get ALL THE ANSWERS. However, analyzing the open-ended results is truly difficult (even nightmare-ish) and can become really really expensive very quickly. They are also taxing to answer so they increase the length of the survey significantly. They are usually best used in a qualitative environment and I recommend avoiding them in surveys whenever possible. 63. 4. **Your data quality is heavily reliant on asking good questions**. Take a lot of time to think through the way you ask a question to ensure it’s clear, objective, easy to answer, and will give you the answers you truly need. For example, you will get a binary (yes/no) response to a question like, “Do you see yourself using WordPress as your main web publishing platform 5 years from now?” But you can rephrase it to get richer information: “Using a scale of 1-5, how likely are you to use WordPress as your main web publishing platform 5 years from now?” 64. 5. **Know your audience**. Do all you can to ensure the questions are relevant to the survey respondent. This will make the survey respondent feel valued while also minimizing survey abandonment. For example, considering how you distribute this survey, will ALL of your possible survey respondents know what a “DDosDistributed Denial of Service A type of online attack where a large number of infected computers are used to overwhelm a target computer, to the point where it no longer has the resources to perform its normal job. [Read more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack#Distributed_attack). attack” is? Or will they know what plugins (and how many) they use? If not, you’ll need to consider various survey design approaches to account for the variances in your respondent craft. 65. Pingback: [Hosting Meeting Notes: July 17, 2019 – Make WordPress Hosting](https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2019/07/19/hosting-meeting-notes-july-17-2019/) 66. Pingback: [Hosting Meeting Agenda – July 22th, 2019 – Make WordPress Hosting](https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2019/07/22/hosting-meeting-agenda-july-22th-2019/) 67. 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