Categories and Dynamic Panels

Categories and Dynamic Panels

Available from version: 5.1

Categories can be used to store the characteristics of your panellists. It can contain information about for example allergies, shopping behaviour and food consumption behaviour. 
Using categories, and other information available in the panelist profile, the panel manager can create dynamic panels. A dynamic panel constantly checks and updates which panellists are eligible for the panel. This in contrary to a static panel, which is a fixed panel and does not change unless the panel manager manually adds or removes panellists.

Please note: dynamic panels are included in the professional and corporate pricing models whereas categories are available for all the pricing models.

In order to create a dynamic panel that includes a filter on category data, you first need to create the category. For instance: to create a panel that is not allergic to lactose, the user first needs to create a category in EyeQuestion.

Step 1.  

How to create categories in EyeQuestion?

Select Panel Management from the main ribbon then go to Categories > List



Click on the + icon to create a new category.



 

Specify the category identifier (which should be unique), name and type. At the moment you can only create one choice categories and open ended text categories.



After clicking Create, the new category will open automatically. Now you can add additional information to the category.

You can add details for the following fields:
  1. Name: the name of the category
  2. Description: the description of the category
  3. Data Sensitivity: specify if this category contains personal, medical or financial data. When a panellists decides to unsubscribe from your database, all sensitive data will be anonymised.
  4. Instruction Text: specify the question text that the panellist will see when adding a category into a questionnaire.
  5. Status: the current status of the category. When the category is in draft status, you can still make changes to the category. Once the status is changed to active you are not allowed to remove any existing category items. It is possible to still edit category information and items. If you do not use the category anymore, you can set the status to inactive.


The category items represents the answer options for that category. For example: the answer options for the lactose intolerant category could be yes and no. You can add the category items by clicking on the + icon. The display is the answer option that the panellist will see, the value is what will be stored in the data set.





Once all the details have been added then you change the status of category to active to start storing the panellist information.


Please note that once the category is activated you cannot delete category items anymore. However, it is possible to disable any item that you do not what to use anymore.



Similar categories can be group. For this you first need to create the groups by going to Panel Management > Categories > Groups



When going back into the category, all available category groups will be visible at the bottom. In order to add the category to a group you can select it using the tick box.



 

How to import categories in EQ?

It is possible to import categories in EQ environment via excel sheet from the version 5.3.0 onwards. The categories can be imported by a panel manager.
In order to import the categories click on panel management > categories > list



Click on the highlighted icon.



Add the excel sheet (refer to the example sheet at the end of the article) and click on import.



It is important to make sure the column headers are named correctly otherwise the data will not be imported correctly. The category answers have two components: Display and Item. 



If a category is added in the questionnaire then panelist will see the text written in "display" and it's corresponding value will be stored in background.


Step 2.  

How to collect the category data?

In order to collect data for the categories, you can add it to a questionnaire by clicking on EyeQuestion categories in the add question list.



 To save the category data of the panellist it is important a panellist answers the questionnaire using a logins. Otherwise EyeQuestion does not know to who the data belongs.

Step 3.  

How to create a dynamic panel?

You can create a dynamic panel by going to Panel Management > panels.



Select the dynamic panel.



There are different filters that you can apply to your panel.

To add a category filter, you can go to Select Category and click on the + icon.



Select the category item in order to filter the panel.



After adding the filter EyeQuestion will immediately show the panellists who qualify the criteria. For example: the screenshot below is of the dynamic panel with panellists who are not allergic to lactose.



Additionally, you can also filter the panel based on the user fields such as age and gender.





How to import panelist category data in EQ?

From version 5.3.0 onwards it is possible to import category data in EQ. If a user has already collected category data of panelists then it is possible to import this data in EyeQuestion and link it to panelist's profile. In order to do that panel manager needs to import an excel sheet containing panelist login and category identifier. 



The values in the category identifier column corresponds to value of the category items.




This excel sheet can be imported via panel management.



Step 4.  

How to add a dynamic panel to the project?

Once the dynamic panel is created it can be added to the questionnaire under panel>load from panel


Select the panel from the list.




Things to remember:

1) Categories and panelist category data can be imported by only a panel manager.
2) Dynamic panel functionality is available for clients that have professional or corporate license. For more information about license/pricing model please contact our sales department sales@eyequestion.nl
3) If the category is deleted from EyeQuestion then the category data linked to panelist's profile is also deleted.
 

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