Does this software exist
April 7, 2015 4:29 PM   Subscribe

Is there an existing software, perhaps for scientists, that facilitates making a list of observations to make, and then facilitating the user recording those observations and analyzing them?

If I were to build this tool myself, these are the tables I would build:
1. Projects - I might have to do tests for a lot of different projects. "Apples" "Bananas" "Cherries"
2. Test Plans - A test plan would contain the project and the objective of the test. I might do multiple tests for the same project for different reasons. "Apple quality." "Banana availability"
3. Test Prompts - a list of the observations I'm looking for in each test, attached to a Test Plan. "Record the color of the apple", "Record the ripeness of the apple", "Record the variety of the apple"
4. Test Instances - a list of individual tests that have been run (A set of prompts attached to a date & time) "We did the Apples quality test on 3/4/14, this is what we found."
5. Test Notes - The observations made against each test prompt in a test instance. I want to be able to specify what kind of notes should be made for each observation, also. "Qualitative description of prompt", "Commentary"

These are the interfaces I would build:
1. An interface that lets me input data into the tables above such that I wind up with a list of test prompts.
2. An interface that lets me print out a guide of test prompts and areas that I can fill in my observations in the field.
3. An interface that lets me do data entry to type in my observations against each prompt.
4. An interface that lets me see all of the observations for each prompt across all of the test instances. "How many Fuji apples were found?"

Is there something like this in existence? I'm not sure where to start looking.
posted by bleep to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)
 
Response by poster: Oh and while Google Docs could probably be used to kludge something up it can't be used in this instance because reasons. Believe me, I love Google Docs.
posted by bleep at 4:38 PM on April 7, 2015


I would give Filemaker a good look.
posted by Mac-Expert at 4:43 PM on April 7, 2015


A simple database like Microsoft Access or Filemaker would make all of this possible.
posted by grouse at 4:45 PM on April 7, 2015


Response by poster: Ya if nothing like this already exists then it will have to be done in Access but it would be better to not do that if possible due to time constraints.
posted by bleep at 4:47 PM on April 7, 2015


You're essentially doing a survey. Why not use SurveyMonkey?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:14 PM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


Morae might work for you. It's a tool that's primarily used for qualitative research and can do what you're asking, but has a lot of additional features that market research and user experience professionals use to record and socialize their observations. Ergo, it's not cheap. But, it could be something to look into.
posted by homesickness at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2015


This might be something you could use a software manual-QA tool to do. I wrote an internal tool at a previous job that did a lot of what you describe (although maybe not exactly as you want it done). I believe before my company adopted my tool, they were using ApTest Manager. They all hated ApTest, which was why it was being replaced, but you may want to check it out.
posted by town of cats at 8:09 PM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Heh, I'm only asking this question because I hate Morae very much!
posted by bleep at 9:28 PM on April 7, 2015


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