Page 4 - Customer Needs and Use Assessments (CNUA) of Hydrocardon Sensors

ACT In Situ Hydrocarbon Sensors Customer Needs and Use Assessment.....................................................3
V. SURVEY RESPONSES
This section presents a synthesis of the answers to the survey questions. Survey
questions could be answered either quantitatively or as narratives. The results are
presented as comprehensibly as possible. Answers with quantitative data are typically
shown as bar charts. Each chart shows the percentage of respondents who selected each
option. Actual numbers of respondents are shown in parentheses next to the percentages.
Simple, quantitative data are at times summarized as narratives and, sometimes, complex
narratives (as in Question 7) are distilled down and shown graphically. Some answers
have both bar charts and narrative summaries below each section.
Note that Users and Vendors are capitalized when referred to as the survey groups in this
study. Thus, Users constitute a set users and Vendors a set of vendors. User responses
are presented first, followed by Vendor responses. In cases where responses were
basically indistinguishable or if the bias was not noticeable or a discrepancy deemed
irrelevant, responses were combined. Finally, when applicable, additional narratives
were divided between Users and Vendors and shown with very little editing as they
appeared in the survey responses.
Understandably, there is bias in such a small, focused survey. By dividing the results
between Users and Vendors, we feel it may be informative to compare and contrast
responses. For the purpose of designing the protocols for the Performance Evaluation,
ACT presented a synthesis of Colleague and Vendor responses before an audience of
Technical Advisors, ACT personnel, and vendors in order to capture a broad view of
applications and needs that extend beyond just instrument users. For instance, Users are
heavily weighted by researchers more than by representatives from industry. Range
(detection limits), reliability, accuracy and precision ranked mutually as priority concerns
among both groups, as well the need to test in estuarine and nearshore environments
under moored and profiling modes. ACT hopes to attract as wide an audience as possible
while fulfilling our primary mission.