The Making of TABS
The Technology Adoption Barriers Survey (TABS) is more than just a questionnaire; it is a comprehensive research initiative supported by a robust technical ecosystem. Building and maintaining a platform that ensures data integrity, user privacy, and high availability requires a suite of specialized tools and services.
This page provides an overview of the "stack"—the collection of technologies and methodologies—we employ to bring TABS to life. From the survey instrument itself to the analytics that help us understand our audience, every component plays a critical role.
TABS Presentation
We maintain an interactive presentation that explains the project mission, key challenges, and roadmap. You can view it here, or open it full-screen.
Tip: click inside the presentation before using keyboard navigation.
The Survey Instrument
Qualtrics
At the core of our research is Qualtrics, a premier experience management platform. We chose Qualtrics for its sophisticated logic capabilities, enterprise-grade security, and versatile data export options. It allows us to construct complex question pathways that adapt to the respondent's role and industry, ensuring that every participant sees only the questions relevant to them.
Prolific
To reach a diverse and representative sample of organizational leaders, we partner with Prolific. Unlike traditional survey panels, Prolific specializes in high-quality academic research. It enables us to pre-screen participants based on specific criteria—such as job seniority and industry sector—ensuring that our data reflects the true voice of decision-makers.
Web Architecture & Deployment
Next.js & React
This website is built using Next.js, a React framework that offers optimal performance and search engine optimization (SEO). By rendering pages on the server and generating static content, we ensure that the site loads instantly for users around the globe, regardless of their device or connection speed.
GitHub Pages & Actions
We leverage the power of GitHub not just for code storage, but for the entire deployment lifecycle. Using GitHub Actions, we have automated our Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. Every change to the codebase is automatically tested, built, and deployed to GitHub Pages, ensuring a stable and verified release process.
Analytics & Integrity
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
To understand how researchers and participants interact with our findings, we utilizeGoogle Analytics 4. This provides us with aggregate, privacy-safe insights into traffic sources, popular content, and user engagement, helping us refine our dissemination strategy.
Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Google Tag Manager acts as the command center for our analytic tags. It allows us to manage and deploy marketing and measurement tags without modifying the code. This abstraction layer improves site performance and gives us the agility to add or update tracking tools as needed.
This "Making of" section is a living document, updated as our toolset and methodologies evolve.