Overview
To better understand the ways energypedia is used by the energypedia community as well as to know the users' level of satisfaction, we recently conducted our first energypedia user survey. The survey was launched on 30th June 2015 and closed on 13th July 2015. The survey link was included on our website, sent via emails to all our registered users as well as spread via our communication channels such as newsletter, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The survey covered the following research questions:
- What is the energypedia user demographics?
- How and for what purposes do people use energypedia? What impact does energypedia have in their work?
- What is their level of satisfaction with energypedia?
- What motivates the users to get actively involved in the energypedia community?
A total of 185 people took part in the survey and gave us their valuable feedback.
Overall Satisfaction
About 86.9% (120 respondents) are either very satisfied or satisfied with energypedia's overall services. 11.6% (16 respondents) are slightly satisfied while 1.4% (2 respondents) are not at all satisfied.
58% (83 respondents ) have also recommended energypedia to other people.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/0/0e/Level_of_User_Satisfaction.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_4f9b112-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/5/55/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Recommendation.PNG': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_25f1abb-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Respondents Demographics
Regions and Professions
Out of the total 185 respondents, around 145 already have an energypedia user account. Most respondents are located in Europe and Central Asia followed by Africa. They also work mainly in the private sector, followed by the government sector and the non profit sector.
To better understand the usage of energypedia, we have divided our respondents into two groups, namely: registered users having an energypedia user account and non-registered users who do not have an energypedia account. There was no significant difference between the answers of these two groups except in their visit frequency for energypedia.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/3/3c/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Regions.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_5b36b5c-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/9/9c/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Profession.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_381a40d-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
graph is weired: usually the slices with the hightest % are side by side, no small % in between
Energypedia Usage
According to the survey, most of our respondents came to know about energypedia via the recommendation of their friends/colleagues and mostly use energypedia to update themselves about the latest developments in renewable energy. Furthermore, almost one fifth of all respondents also use energypedia to draw on lessons learnt for improving their own projects.
| Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/a/aa/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Recommendation_.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_1ef7e40-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/f/f8/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Use_.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_6219a0-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Visit Frequency
Most of our registered respondents visit energypedia every week or at least once a month while most of our non registered respondents visit energypedia once in a month or a few of times per year.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/b/ba/Energypedia_Use_Survey_-_Visit_Duration.PNG': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_2f90d87-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Users Contribution
About 28% (40 respondents ) of the total respondents said that they have at least once written or edited an article on energypedia while 43% (61 respondents ) said that they had no idea about how to do it.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/a/ab/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Article.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_300b80d-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Users Motivation
To further analyze the behaviour of our respondents on energypedia, we asked them what motivated or will motivate them to contribute to energypedia. Their answers have been summarized below:
- Sharing information about renewable energy is one of the biggest motivations of most of the respondents.
- The respondents would contribute if they had a better idea about what kind of information is in demand and if the information they will contribute will be beneficial or not.
- A clear picture about the users' traffic as well as the ease of working on energypedia would also motivate respondents to contribute to energypedia.
- For some respondents, they would only contribute to energypedia if it was part of their job requirement.
Energypedia Services: Awareness and Usefulness
Usefulness of Different Information Portals of Energypedia
According to the survey, the solar portal and the RE/EE Project Resource Center are the most popular and the Fuel Database and the transport portal are the least popular information sections on energypedia.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/8/88/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Portals.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_8f384c-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
why is don't know first? not sure, if popular is the best word for usefuel and not popular for don't know. people that dont know if portal is useful might just dont know it or dont feel capable to hve an opinion.
Ease of Finding Information on Energypedia
Most of the respondents said that is is easy to find what they are looking for on energypedia.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/2/21/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Find_Information.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_213dbc5-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Services Offered by energypedia
Most of the respondents were unaware of different features of energypedia like posting jobs, requesting training, sending news for the newsletter and so on.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/6/60/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_User_Activities.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_e0e4b-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Contact other Users
Most of the respondents also did not know that they could directly contact other users via the energypedia platform.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/e/e2/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Contact_Users.PNG': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_4c96e08-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Energypedia Newsletter
Out of the total 185 respondents, about 138 have subscribed to our monthly newsletter.
| Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/4/4c/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Newsletter.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_53cd065-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/0/0a/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Newsletter_Information.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_508ad7d-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
|
To further improve the quality of our newsletter, we asked our survey respondents for suggestions to improving the newsletter. Their suggestions are summarized below:
- Most of our respondents are satisfied with the current energypedia newsletter and have nothing to add.
- Some suggested us to include more new publications, as well as events in renewable energy sector.
- Some requested for more announcements on online trainings as well as call for proposals.
- We also got suggestions for a theme based newsletter with better design and feedback loop.
Donating to energypedia
Most of the survey respondents have either never donated to energypedia or did not know that energypedia needs donations.
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/ISWiki/prod/current/energypedia/images/5/52/Energypedia_User_Survey_-_Donate.png': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2641.
convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_5e25851-1.png' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3044.
Conclusion
This survey has provided us with great insights about the energypedia community. According to the survey, most respondents are satisfied with energypedia and use energypedia to keep themselves updated about renewable energy topics. Nevertheless, we also know now more about energypedia's weaknesses, e.g. that many people don't know how to write an article. We also received some constructive feedback for further improving the platform. We will take into consideration all the suggestions mentioned in the survey and incooperate them whenever possible in our future strategies.
