This is a list of special terms that appear in the documentation and application.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Active member
- A community member who can be invited to participate in activities.
- Active survey object
- The last survey object you added to the Table of Contents. A blue background indicates a survey object is active. Depending on the object's default behavior, the next item you click in the Survey Toolbox is automatically added to the active survey object. To turn an object off, click the white space.
- Activity link
- A link that allows nonmembers to complete an activity.
- Admin
- A user who has access to all areas of the Alida platform and can assign user roles or modify user permissions.
- Allocation (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to divide a numerical value among competing answer options.
- Analyst
- A user who has access to reporting-focused areas of the Alida platform including community metrics, dashboards, and activity reports.
- Appointment Booking (question type)
- A question type that invites participants to book a Calendly appointment.
- Attribute
- In conjoint analysis, a characteristic of a product or service (for example, brand, color, and price range). See also Level, Exclusion set, Choice set, Part-worth, and Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint).
- Automated test run (ATR)
- A system job that generates test responses in bulk, allowing you to test your survey's logic, functionality, and reliability without having to manually click through the survey.
B
- Banner
- A series of table column headers used to segment data in order to compare results between different groups. See also Crosstab.
- Bonferroni correction
- In significance testing, a calculation that reduces the likelihood of false positives when several statistical tests are being performed simultaneously.
C
- Card Sort (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to organize a set of cards into categories.
- Carousel (question display)
- A display option for Grid questions in modern surveys. One grid row appears at a time as a statement card. Participants view and answer one card at a time and proceed through the entire series.
- Carry Forward Answers
- A survey authoring feature that lets you display a subset of answers from a preceding Single Choice or Multiple Choice question in a subsequent question.
- Choice set
- In conjoint analysis, a group of profiles that participants must compare and select one profile from. See also Attribute, Level, Exclusion set, Choice Set, and Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint).
- Choice-Based Conjoint (question type)
- A question type that presents participants with different sets of product profiles, and asks participants to choose the most appealing product profile from each set.
- Classic survey
- A legacy survey type with no new features, question types, or performance enhancements planned for release. See also Modern survey.
- Clicked
- The number of times that people click an activity link. For members clicking activity links in invitations and reminders, only the first click is counted. For anonymous participants clicking recruitment or survey links, multiple clicks from the same person are counted separately.
- Community
- A group of engaged customers with an affinity for your brand who want your company to be better.
- Community theme
- A design skin that controls the visual aesthetic and branding of surveys and forums.
- Completed
- The number of times participants successfully completed an activity.
- Confidence level
- A percentage value indicating how confident you can be that your estimated range (confidence interval) contains the true value that exists in the entire population you are surveying.
- Confirmed
- The number of eligible members who confirm (or double opt-in) and join the community as part of a recruitment. This calculation exists for confirmation messages and recruitment links.
- Crosstab
- A complex table in reporting. See also Banner.
D
- Dashboard
- A configurable web page that communicates results to stakeholders visually using charts and text.
- Date (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to enter a date as their answer. Question items appear as an answer field and calendar button.
- Detractor
- A participant who rated something from 0 to 6 in a Net Promoter Score question, indicating they would not recommend it.
- Direct Success (metric)
- In unmoderated usability testing, the status achieved when a participant follows the prescribed path while completing the task.
- Disqualified
- The number of participants who try to complete a survey and are terminated because they do not meet the criteria to continue.
- Distribution
- The process of inviting participants to participate in activities.
- Double opt-in
- The recruitment step during which participants confirm they want to join the community after successfully completing the recruitment survey.
E
- Effective base
- The adjusted sample size after applying weights.
- Email (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to provide a valid email address.
- End Survey action
- A survey object that ends your survey and displays a message of your choosing. You can also use End Survey actions to redirect participants to a URL or another survey.
- Entry quota
- A numeric limit on how many participants can start a survey.
- Exclusion set
- In conjoint analysis, a combination of attribute levels that will never be shown to participants. See also Attribute, Level, Choice set, Part-worth, and Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint).
F
- Failure (metric)
- In unmoderated usability testing, the status achieved when a participant cannot complete the task.
- False positive
- An error in statistical testing where a result is identified as statistically significant when, in reality, there is no true difference or effect between the groups being compared.
- Filter
- A collection of conditional statements that determines which participants' data to display.
- Full launch
- The distribution of an activity to all intended participants. See also Soft launch.
G
- Gabor-Granger
- A pricing analysis technique that measures price elasticity by asking participants how likely they are to purchase something at five different price points. See also Van Westendorp.
- Group Code
- A technical configuration setting that determines the list of available languages in survey responding and which survey URL, community theme, support email, and footer links will appear for participants.
H
- Hard bounces
- The number of members for whom email delivery fails because of a server error or an invalid email address.
- Heatmap
- A data visualization with a color-coded overlay indicating which areas participants were most interested in. Used to report on Highlighter and Usability Task questions.
- Hierarchical Bayes (HB) analysis
- In conjoint analysis, a data modeling method that uses an iterative algorithm to borrow strength (that is, fill in a data gap by taking data obtained under a similar enough circumstance). Used to make predictions in the conjoint market simulator.
- Highlighter (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to highlight an area of an image. Participants can highlight multiple areas of an image, undo their last action, and clear all highlights.
- Hub
- A private website that supports content-sharing and engagement among members or stakeholders. See also Member hub and Stakeholder hub.
I
- In-survey quota
- A numeric limit on how many participants can complete questions or sections within a survey.
- Inactive member
- A community member with a status of Purged, Unsubscribed, or Undeliverable.
- Incentive
- A monetary reward given to participants after completing an activity.
- Incomplete
- The number of times that participants coming from invitation emails or links start the survey, but do not complete it.
- Indirect Success (metric)
- In unmoderated usability testing, the success status achieved when a participant deviates from the prescribed path, but still completes the task.
- Instant video discussion
- A moderated, qualitative activity type during which a small group of participants provide feedback on video. Participants' availability is known, so they can all be invited directly to one timeslot. See also Video discussion and Scheduled video discussion.
- Internal users (Member Hubs)
- Any Member Hub user who has Owner, Moderator, and Collaborator permissions. When privacy settings are enabled, internal users can see the Member Count, Collaborators, and Members tab in the hub. For more information, see Privacy settings and Team roles.
- Invitation
- A type of distribution email sent to participants informing them of a new activity.
- Invited
- The number of participants invited to complete an activity.
J
- Joined
- In forum distribution, the total number of members who signed in to a forum and chose a screen name.
L
- Least Filled
- A concept testing methodology that prioritizes response collection for concepts which have the lowest number of completed responses. Also known as Least Full, Least Fill, and Least Filled Quota.
- Level (Choice-Based Conjoint)
- An attribute value in conjoint analysis. For example, if color is the attribute, the different levels could be red, blue, and yellow. See also Attribute, Exclusion set, Choice set, Part-worth, and Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint).
- Level (Tree Test)
- The position of a node within the tree's hierarchy . See also Node (Tree Test), Tree, and Tree Test (question type).
- Live data
- Data collected from actual participants for research purposes. See also Test data.
- Long Answer (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to formulate answers using their own words instead of selecting from a list of possible answers.
- Locale
- A region-specific variant of a language.
- Lurked
- The number of participants who joined a forum but never posted or voted.
M
- Marked as spam
- The number of members who mark the message as spam. This count only includes members who have a Yahoo!, Hotmail, or AOL email address.
- Mask
- A Mask uses a condition to show or display only the answers that are relevant to the participant based on their profile or response data.
- MaxDiff (question type)
- A question type that presents participants with a series of attribute sets, and asks them to select their most and least preferred attributes from each set.
- Maximum (statistic)
- The largest value in a group of values.
- Maximum weight
- The maximum weight factor applied to a variable or variable combination. The recommended maximum weight is less than 3.
- Mean
- A value derived from adding all the values in a group of values, then dividing by the number of values in the group. For example, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 equal 30, which is divided by 6; the mean value in this case is 5.
- Media Player
- A page element that lets you present a YouTube video to participants and ask a series a follow-up questions.
- Median
- The value that occurs in the middle of a group of values, with half of that group being larger than the median and half of that group being smaller than the median. If there is an even number of values in the group, the average of the two middle values is used as the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.
- Member
- An individual who consents to join your community during recruitment and participate in research activities.
- Member hub
- A website where community members can view content, interact with other community members, and access activities to which they're invited. See also Hub and Stakeholder hub.
- Member status
- A system variable that describes a member's status in a community.
- Minimum (statistic)
- The smallest value in a group of values.
- Minimum weight
- The minimum weight factor applied to a variable or variable combination. The recommended minimum weight factor is greater than 0.5.
- Misclick (statistic)
- In unmoderated usability testing, the number of clicks outside of a defined hotspot on this path, expressed as a percentage of all clicks.
- Moderator
- A user who actively guides the tone of a discussion or activity. Moderators exist in different contexts in the Alida platform: in video discussions (where they host and guide the discussion); in forums (where they monitor participants' contributions); and in hubs (where they approve posts).
- Modern report
- A report type that offers support for new features and better performance. See also Standard report.
- Modern survey
- A survey type that offers support for new features and question types and better performance. See also Classic survey.
- Multi-variable weighting
- The process of weighting survey data according to the targets specified for answer categories in more than one question or profile variable.
- Multiple Choice (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to select one or more answers from a list of possible answers.
- Multiple Choice Grid (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to select one or more answers for a series of question items. Question items appear in rows while answers appear in columns.
- Multiple communities
- A subset of customers that requires a unique member experience, within the overall scope of your company or brand.
- Multiple response survey
- A survey that allows participants to be invited to respond multiple times.
N
- Net Promoter Score℠ (question type)
- A Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®)1 question asks participants how likely they are to recommend your products, services, or organization to someone else.
- Node (Tree Test)
- An element within a tree structure. Can be a category or subcategory (a parent node), an item nested inside a category or subcategory (a child node), or a page or piece of content at the end of a navigation path that cannot be expanded further (a leaf node). See also Level (Tree Test), Tree, and Tree Test (question type).
- Nonmember
- A person who is not yet an active member of the community. The individual's email address and profile variables are stored in the application; however, the individual has not been recruited into the community.
- Numeric (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to enter a number as their answer. Numeric question types appear as a text field or slider scale to participants.
- Number Slider (question display)
- A question type that asks participants to drag a slider across a numeric scale to indicate their answer.
- Number Text Field (question display)
- A question type that asks participants to enter a number in a blank answer field.
O
- Observer
- In video discussions, a person who is there to gather insights without participants being aware of their presence.
- Opted in
- The number of eligible members who confirmed (or did a double opt-in), and joined the community during recruitment. See also Confirmed.
- Over Quota
- The number of participants who are blocked from completing the survey because the entry quota is full, or who are removed from the survey by survey logic with a quota.
P
- p-value
- A value that, when compared to the significance level, expresses the probability that results are statistically significant. A p-value less than or equal to the significance level indicates the results are statistically significant. See also Significance level.
- Part-worth
- In conjoint analysis, a statistically deduced value indicating the impact an attribute level has on consumer preference. See also Attribute, Level, Exclusion set, Choice set, and Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint).
- Participant
- A person who participates in an activity; this person might or might not be a community member.
- Participated
- A participant who is recorded as Complete, Disqualified, or Over Quota in the survey participation report, or a community member who created or voted on a post in a forum. For more information see Survey participation and Forum participation. In Community Metrics, this number also includes members who are recorded as Started, Complete, Disqualified, or Over Quota or joined a forum, regardless of whether they created or voted on a post.
- Passive
- A participant who rated something from 7 to 8 in a Net Promoter Score question, indicating neutral feelings.
- Pending
- The status of a person who has been recruited to join the community. However, this person has not completed the recruitment survey yet, or has not confirmed membership yet.
- Portal
- See Member hub.
- Posted
- The number of members who posted in a forum.
- Power user
- A user who has access to almost all areas of the Alida platform similar to an Admin, but who cannot assign user roles or modify user permissions.
- Profile (Choice-Based Conjoint)
- In conjoint analysis, a combination of attribute levels displayed to participants as a concept.
- Profile variable
- A piece of information associated with a member.
- Progressive profiling
- A relationship-based research approach that gradually builds richer customer insights over time through cumulative interactions.
- Promoter
- A participant who rated something from 9 to 10 in a Net Promoter Score question, indicating they would recommend it.
- Purged
- An member who is removed from the community for the purposes of community health management. For example, you may want to purge members who no longer fit the profile you are looking for, or who have become unresponsive to avoid including them in future activities.
Q
- Question group (surveys)
- A block of up to 50 questions and survey elements. From the participant's perspective, groups appear the same as regular survey flow. However, authors can apply conditional survey logic to the entire block. See also Page.
- Quick poll
- An embedded activity in a hub consisting of one question, intended to engage members and capture feedback in a fun, easy, and timely way.
- Quota
- A limit on the number of participants who can complete a survey or answer a certain question or survey section.
R
- Random Iterative Method (RIM) weighting
- A method of weighting data using multiple independent variables. The RIM weighting algorithm attempts to calculate and balance target values for all variables in a weight scheme to achieve convergence (that is, to make the data match the targets set for all variables). Also known as Raking or Iterative Proportional Fitting.
- Rank Order (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to order a list of items based on a specific attribute, characteristic, or preference.
- Rating (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to select a rating from a visual scale of stars, hearts or thumbs.
- Recruitment
- The process of inviting participants to join a community. This process includes a recruitment survey to determine eligibility and collect profile information, followed by membership confirmation.
- Recode
- A new reporting field based on an existing field, created to fulfill an analysis need such as regrouping and reorganizing data.
- Recording action
- A survey action that allows you to record participants' screens and capture video and audio with their consent during a portion of the survey.
- Recruitment link
- A link used to recruit new members through a website, social media, or print media.
- Recruitment survey
- A survey that collects profile information and determines someone's eligibility to join the community. Also known as a profiling questionnaire, screening survey, or sign-up survey.
- Respondent
- See Participant.
- Respondent variable
- A variable type that collects information about survey participants as they complete a survey, including device type, locale, and member ID.
- Reminder
- A type of distribution email sent to participants to remind them to complete an outstanding activity.
- Right-to-left survey
- A survey in a language that reads from the right of the page to the left (for example, Arabic or Hebrew).
S
- Scale value
- A numeric value assigned to points along a scale in various survey question types, allowing for the conversion of qualitative responses into quantitative data.
- Scheduled video discussion
- A moderated, qualitative activity type during which a small group of participants provide feedback on video. Participants' availability is unknown, so they are prompted to select one of several interview times. See also Video discussion and Instant video discussion.
- Screening survey
- A preliminary activity that profiles participants and determines whether they're a good fit for another activity.
- Scripting
- The use of code snippets to customize survey behavior.
- Segment
- A subset or group of customers or participants who are defined by specific characteristics or criteria.
- Sent
- In recruitments, a statistic that describes the number of pending members who were sent a confirmation message.
- Sent Confirmations
- The number of times that unconfirmed members are sent confirmation messages. Multiple confirmation messages that are sent to the same person are counted as one confirmation.
- Sentiment analysis
- The categorization of open-ended responses as positive, neutral, or negative.
- Set Value action
- Set Value actions use conditions to summarize collected data into a single or multiple choice data point. Use a Set Value action when you want to combine data from two or more questions or profile variables into a single data point. You can also use a set value action to pipe response from open end numeric questions into a single or multiple choice data point.
- Signed Up
- The number of times that individuals click the recruitment link, complete the member sign up page, and proceed to a recruitment survey. If someone completes the member sign up page multiple times, each completion is counted separately.
- Significance level
- A value calculated by subtracting the confidence level from 100%. For example, for a 95% confidence level, the significance level is 100% - 95% = 5% = 0.05. See also Confidence level and p-value.
- Significance testing
- A statistical method used to ensure that the observable differences between groups are meaningful or statistically significant, and not attributable to random chance.
- Single Choice (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to select one of two or more possible answers. See also Single Choice Buttons, Single Choice Slider, Single Choice Drop Down.
- Single Choice Buttons (question display)
- A display option for Single Choice questions that asks participants to select one answer from a list of two or more possible answers displayed on buttons. See also Single Choice Slider, Single Choice Drop Down.
- Single Choice Drop Down (question display)
- A display option for Single Choice questions that places answer options in a single list and asks participants to select one of them.
- Single Choice Grid (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to rate a group of items using the same criteria. Items appear as rows while criteria appear as columns, and participants may only select one column for each row. See also Single Choice Grid Cards, Single Choice Grid Sliders.
- Single Choice Grid Cards (question display)
- A display option for Single Choice Grid questions that asks participants to classify a series of cards according to answer categories. See also Single Choice Grid.
- Single Choice Grid Sliders (question display)
- A display option for Single Choice Grid questions asks participants to use slider to select one of two or more possible scalar answers from a series of question items. See also Single Choice Grid.
- Single Choice Slider (question display)
- A display option for Single Choice questions that asks participants to use a slider to select one of two or more possible answers arrayed on a scale. See also Single Choice Buttons, Single Choice Drop Down.
- Single response survey
- A survey that allows participants to be invited to respond once.
- Single variable weighting
- The process of weighting survey data according to the target percentages specified for answer categories in one question or profile variable
- Soft bounces
- The number of members for whom email delivery fails because the member's inbox is full.
- Soft launch
- The distribution of an activity to a limited subset of intended participants in order to test for potential issues. See also Full launch.
- Stakeholder hub
- A private website for sharing insights across your organization, and curating and centralizing content about your organization.
- Standard deviation
- A value that indicates variability from the mean. A low standard deviation indicates that data is clustered closely around the mean; a high standard deviation indicates that data is spread out on either side of the mean.
- Standard error
- A value representing the standard deviation of the sampling distribution associated with the estimation method.
- Standard report
- A legacy report type with no new features, question types, or performance enhancements planned for release. See also Modern report.
- Started
- The number of participants who started the survey.
- Stop (survey participation)
- The number of times participants stopped the survey when they reached the question.
- Success (metric)
- In unmoderated usability testing, the status achieved when a participant reaches the end screen.
- Success rate
- In distribution, a percentage value expressing the number of sent distribution messages (minus the number of hard bounces and soft bounces), divided by the total number of sent distribution messages.
- Survey
- A series of questions measuring attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and habits that yields quantitative data from a sample population.
- Survey logic
- A condition you create to determine which survey objects are displayed or hidden from participants as they move through your survey. You can create a survey logic condition based on a participant's previous answer, a profile variable, or a respondent variable. See also Profile Variable and Respondent Variable.
- Survey object
- Any question, page element, or survey action used to build your survey. See also Page elements and Survey Actions
- System variable
- A variable with a reserved name, used by the application to track members' activities and statuses.
T
- t-test
- In standard reporting, a statistical test used to determine if the difference between two samples is statistically significant or merely due to chance. See also z-test.
- Tag
- A descriptive label that moderators can add to a forum’s posts and replies to enhance filtering and data analysis workflows.
- Tag cloud
- An interactive visual representation of the tags applied to a forum’s posts and replies.
- Task Success (metric)
- The success status of a task completed by a participant during unmoderated usability testing.
- Termination point
- See End Survey action.
- Test data
- Data collected when someone previews the survey for review purposes, or uses a test link. See also Live data.
- Text & Image (page element)
- A page element that lets provide introductory text to your survey or other information about a group of questions. See also Page elements.
- Third party sample
- A group of participants that is from an external provider rather than your own community. Also known as external sample.
- Tree
- A text-based, hierarchical navigation structure, similar to a sitemap. See also Level (Tree Test), Node (Tree Test), and Tree Test (question type).
- Tree Test (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to review a tree and indicate where they would expect to find something. Often used in usability testing. See also Level (Tree Test), Node (Tree Test), and Tree.
- TURF
- Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency. An analysis method that determines the optimal combination of products, services, or offerings to appeal to the largest audience possible.
U
- Undeliverable
- A member status indicating the member is unable to receive email
messages. A member is marked Undeliverable if the following occurs:
- Three hard bounces (email delivery fails because of a server error or because the email address is invalid)
- Ten soft bounces (email delivery fails because the member's inbox is full)
- One spam complaint (email delivered to a Hotmail, AOL, or Yahoo account is marked as spam)
- Unmoderated usability testing
- A research activity type focused on evaluating the user's experience while interacting with a product, website, app, feature, or prototype. The activity is self-paced and conducted without a moderator present.
- Unsubscribed (statistic)
- The number of members who click the Unsubscribe link in a deployment message to unsubscribe from the community.
- Unsubscribed (status)
- Someone who no longer wishes to receive email messages from the community and has requested removal from the community. You cannot invite this individual to participate in future research or recruitment.
- Unweighted base
- The total number of responses before weighting is applied.
- Usability Task (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to complete a task in order to capture and understand their experience when interacting with a digital interface.
V
- Van Westendorp
- A pricing analysis technique that establishes a broad pricing range for completely new products, services, or offerings that have no point of comparison in the current marketplace. See also Gabor-Granger.
- Video discussion
- A moderated, qualitative activity type during which a small group of participants provide feedback on video. See also Instant video discussion and Scheduled video discussion.
- Video Discussions User
- A user who works exclusively with video discussions.
- Video Feedback (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to record and upload a video response.
- Voted
- The number of participants who agreed or disagreed with a forum post.
- Voted or posted
- The total number of members who voted, posted, or replied in a forum.
W
- Weighted base
- The total number of responses after weighting is applied.
- Weighting
- An adjustment applied in reporting to ensure the results reflect the target population, or to address biases introduced during data collection.
- Weighting efficiency
- A percentage value from 0% to 100% that expresses how close the weighted sample is to the target population. A high value indicates minimal adjustments to the sample, while a low value indicates substantial adjustments were made to make the sample better match the target population.
- Word cloud
- An interactive, text-based, visual representation of the most frequently occurring words in a forum's posts and replies.
Z
- z-test
- In modern reporting, a type of significance test that compares proportions between two sample groups. See also t-test.
- Zip / Postal Code (question type)
- A question type that asks participants to provide a valid Zip Code or Postal Code.
1 Net Promoter, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are
registered U.S. trademarks, and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are
service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc. and Fred
Reichheld.