Some interesting information can be gleaned from one-question polls, but not nearly as much as two-question polls can provide. One-question polls can lead to, for example, the question of if certain groups of people tend to think differently than others. Sometimes we see "Christian only" or "Atheist only" polls -- an example of something that can be improved upon.
A two-question poll provides insight into correlation between things, and helps form a better picture of what people think, life experiences, or anything else that a one question poll is good for.
Apart from points for or against the feature, this thread could be used to suggest designs for how the feature could be implemented. I am more or less proposing this from scratch. I have roughed out a few possibilities.[footnote]I understand that this is a software change, and as such requires work. I don't know the situation with the forum software, it may well be purchased, it may be closed-source. Perhaps this would represent a marketable feature. Perhaps this could be accomplished via volunteers, open-source, or as the work of an intern.[/footnote]
I borrowed these thumbs from OpenOffice. We have grouped separate bars and grouped by stacking, optionally normalized so that each grouping takes up 100% height (if so, preferably with numbers or an extra set of bars showing the number of responses each category received). A set of pie charts might work, as well.
Here, a quick mockup showing blots whose size corresponds to votes. I like this one for its at-a-glance nature (particularly because the poll-maker can order these so that a correlation becomes evident at a glance), but the numbers are obscured.Presumably the pixel coverage is proportional to the votes, but you could argue for using radius rather than pixel count to indicate votes is more intuitive, I think.
Here, a quick mockup showing simply a table. Not as easy to read at a glance, but the numbers are directly exposed, it too keeps the order determined by the poll creator, and it's easier to implement than graphical representations.
As a footnote, we don't necessarily need to limit ourselves to one question (or group of two questions) per poll. But I'll take what I can get.
A two-question poll provides insight into correlation between things, and helps form a better picture of what people think, life experiences, or anything else that a one question poll is good for.
Apart from points for or against the feature, this thread could be used to suggest designs for how the feature could be implemented. I am more or less proposing this from scratch. I have roughed out a few possibilities.[footnote]I understand that this is a software change, and as such requires work. I don't know the situation with the forum software, it may well be purchased, it may be closed-source. Perhaps this would represent a marketable feature. Perhaps this could be accomplished via volunteers, open-source, or as the work of an intern.[/footnote]
I borrowed these thumbs from OpenOffice. We have grouped separate bars and grouped by stacking, optionally normalized so that each grouping takes up 100% height (if so, preferably with numbers or an extra set of bars showing the number of responses each category received). A set of pie charts might work, as well.
Here, a quick mockup showing blots whose size corresponds to votes. I like this one for its at-a-glance nature (particularly because the poll-maker can order these so that a correlation becomes evident at a glance), but the numbers are obscured.
Here, a quick mockup showing simply a table. Not as easy to read at a glance, but the numbers are directly exposed, it too keeps the order determined by the poll creator, and it's easier to implement than graphical representations.
As a footnote, we don't necessarily need to limit ourselves to one question (or group of two questions) per poll. But I'll take what I can get.
