Appendix B - Image Users Survey

An online survey of image users was conducted between late March and the end of June 2001. The survey was initially placed on the front page of my existing photographic website (http://members.fortunecity.com/abracad/gallery.html) and users were invited to complete it before entering the site. At the beginning of June it was also placed at http://members.fortunecity.com/abracad/imgusr.html and advertised in various relevant USENET newsgroups. The USENET postings also included a text version of the survey.

In order to maximise the number of responses all questions were made optional and no client-side validation was employed.

Some of the responses received contained inconsistencies, e.g. several users who answered no to "Do you ever purchase images from stock libraries?" also answered questions beginning "If you purchase images from stock libraries, do you purchase…". These inconsistencies could be resolved in future online surveys by using client-side form validation and/or DHTML to create further questions in relation to previous answers. However, in view of the time constraints of this project, all responses have been included in the results given below.

Of the 30 responses received 13 respondents supplied e-mail addresses, 9 of those indicated they would like to be informed of developments to the proposed site.

What is your main occupation?

In which industry do you work?

To the question Do you ever purchase images from stock libraries? 11 respondents answered "yes" and 17 "no".

If you purchase images from stock libraries, do you purchase:

Image type(s) purchased

Quantity of images purchased

Of the four heavy image users (purchasing 100 or more images a year) two stated they bought both traditional and digital images, one mainly traditional and the other mainly digital.

If you purchase images from stock libraries, what subject(s) do you purchase:

Most respondents purchase images in two or more categories.

To the question Have you ever purchased images from the web? 12 respondents answered "yes" and 16 "no".

If you have never purchased images from the web, why?

If you have never purchased images from the web, do you plan to do so in future?

If you have used online stock libraries, which one(s)?

What, for you, are the most important features of a stock library

When searching for images what criteria do you use?

If you have used online stock libraries, what problems have you found?