Introduction

As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that our software is up-to-date, useful and of high quality, we have conducted a web-based VMD users' survey. We designed the questionnaire used in the survey to determine the needs and expectations, as well as to assess the satisfaction of our users. A copy of the survey is on p. 18.

The survey sought to gather data on four basic areas:

1. user profile (items 1-7, 13, 14)
2. evaluation of present program (items 8a-8d, 12)
3. expected usefulness of future features and of interfaces to other tools (items 9a-9g, 11)
4. VMD support (items10a-10f)

On February 8, 1999, cover letters announcing the survey and specifying its URL location were electronically mailed to 1061 valid current VMD users. The 132 responses received after the first week represent a 12.4% response rate, with most replies arriving within the first 24 hours. A week later, on February 15, a first reminder was sent and the overall rate of response went up to 30.9% (additional 196 responses). Following the second reminder, two weeks later on March 1, the response rate topped 42% (additional 122 responses). The survey ended on March 15, 1999 with a total of 450 completed questionnaires.

Acknowledgements and thank-you notes were sent to all respondents, accompanied by immediate answers to technical questions raised by the survey participants.