Introduction
From the writing on paper to the typing of virtual keys on a smartphone, technology influences almost everything in our day-to-day activities. It is also changing how we communicate; unlike the ancient days where we used to communicate using letters, it is changing how we share and learn information and how we conduct research; all of this is changing due to mobile form apps. Institutions like healthcare, research groups, and NGO’s are making changes from collecting data on the paper form to a mobile form app. However, the question is; what are mobile form apps? What do you consider when changing from paper to mobile entry forms? What are their benefits? What are their limitations?
What are Mobile Forms?
This is an electronic or digital form application that functions on a smartphone or tablet, or iPad. Mobile form apps are also known as mobile surveys. They enable user-friendly and high-quality data collection by combining mobility with data validation, conditional logic, image and video fields. We will unlock and explore more on the term “mobile forms,” their limitation and advantages and how to apply this data capture system for your purposes.
Importance of Mobile form Apps
Since smartphones became popular, the functionality of mobile devices has progressed widely. Due to this progression, these devices have secured their place as the most used component for communication, entertainment, socializing, learning and research since it provides a better, safer, and more sustainable research. Mobile form apps have been widely used in researches such as clinical research, environmental research, and humanitarian aid, among many others.
1. Clinical Research
Having form builders such as team scope, the previously paper forms of patients medical history, progress notes, medication, laboratory data and immunizations can now be completed without the need of a computer desktop and hence right by the patient at the bedside using a smartphone. This has enabled healthcare workers to make better decisions and provide better care for the patient, strengthening the relationship between clinicians and their patients.
2. Humanitarian Aid
There is a lot of pressure in enabling the effectiveness of humanitarian projects and due to mobile form apps, it has been easy since the collecting and gathering data from a number of sources and locations assists in making quick, informed and right decision on resource allocation and tracking the progress of community development projects.
3. Environmental Research
The climate crisis is worsening each day with an increase of 1.5 degrees C, 80-90% of the coral reef would disappear and the global temperature will increase by 2 degrees C. such researches are done in a remote location with unstable network connectivity and hence the mobile form apps are enabling the collection of climatic data even when offline thus it helps in understanding the environmental changes and making informed decisions about effective changes.
Practices to Know Before using a Mobile form App
After choosing a mobile form app, there are challenges that will convert your paperwork into a data collection platform. Although different data collection mobile form app has different features, the following applies to many other mobile data collection tools.
1. Less is More
The smaller the screen size and slower typing speed in smartphones may hinder the rate of data entry. Also, having to type long answers with a mobile keyboard can make you tedious. So by minimizing the number of fields and data that are collected, you can avoid long unnecessary responses. Just keep your form as short as possible and divide a single questionnaire into multiple questions.
2. Split Tables into Individuals Fields
Some data requires table entry or grids. If a table has too many columns or a horizontal device space is too narrow, it can be tedious during data entry and scrolling. The solution to this is by creating a cell on a table as an individual form.
2. Create titles within sections
Users may not understand where they are when a form is too long. By creating sections with titles will help them understand your form.
3. Use emoji’s in your Form
Emoji is one of the best way to make your form more user-friendly since it breaks the monotony in a form, thus reducing mistakes in data collection.
Advantages of Using Mobile form Apps
The following are advantages of using mobile form apps:
- Data Reliability: when using a paper-based form, issues arise when interpreting handwriting. Mobile form apps have the ability to transform the words typed on the screen to neat and readable handwriting that can be easily auto checked and validated.
- Time Efficiency: the paper-based form takes a lot of time since one must design them in word, print them and have participants fill them. When using mobile form apps requires less time since it can be shared directly on smartphones, iPad or tablets; the forms can also be filled when offline and afterward sync with the cloud.
- Storage and Security: storing collected data is no longer limited by physical space due to mobile form apps. It can only require less than 10% of a GB, thus cheap. It has also prevented security issues and has provided features such as data encryption, audit trails, access management and backups.
Disadvantages of Mobile form Apps
- Small Keyboard: the mobile keyboard is smaller and slower than a desktop computer keyboard when typing a long sentence, thus distracting the participant when filling the form and leaving the data incomplete.
- Device Screen Size: designing a form in a smartphone is tiresome due to the limited screen size. For instance, creating a table with many columns is much easier on a desktop than on a smartphone since it will be cut off and force the user to enter the data horizontally.
- Cost of Mobile Devices: the cost of mobile devices is expensive, thus convincing some institutions to remain loyal on a paper form.
Converting from paper-based data to electronic data capture has reduced project costs, collected data faster, and made fewer mistakes. Researchers may find the traditional web-based data capture is less handy after researching the challenges. With mobile data capture applications’ help, data collecting is more effective even when in offline settings. Even though smartphones, tablets, and iPads are becoming powerful each day, researchers must also recognize their limitations.
