Survey Representation Document for Collaborative Editing

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional electronic survey systems are inflexible and inefficient when used in collaborative contexts, allowing only one author to edit at a time, leading to system resource overburden and inefficient storage usage due to multiple user logins and version management.

Innovation Solution

A survey representation system that maps electronic survey components into a single document, enabling multiple authors to collaborate by generating a survey representation document that can be accessed and edited outside the survey system, synchronizing updates efficiently across linked repositories.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If multiple authors collaborate on a single electronic survey in conventional survey systems, then each author can access and edit the survey, but system resources are exhausted by requiring multiple user logins

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecollaboration capabilityVSAvoidsystem resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a survey representation document as an intermediary that maps to the electronic survey. Multiple authors can access and edit this document without needing to log into the survey system, while the system only needs to maintain a single instance of the electronic survey. This intermediary layer enables collaboration while minimizing system resource consumption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If conventional survey systems store multiple versions of an electronic survey for multiple authors, then edit conflicts are avoided, but storage resources are wasted

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconflict avoidanceVSAvoidstorage resource waste

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a copy of the electronic survey in the form of a survey representation document that can be freely edited by multiple authors. This copy contains all the necessary information to represent the survey but is not the actual survey data structure. Authors work on this copy rather than the original, eliminating the need to store multiple versions of the actual survey while still allowing concurrent editing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Use of energy by moving object

If conventional survey systems allow only one author at a time to edit an electronic survey, then system resources are preserved, but collaboration efficiency is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem resource efficiencyVSAvoidcollaboration efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Use of energy by moving objectVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the survey editing function from the survey data storage. The survey representation document is divided into sections that map to different portions of the electronic survey, allowing multiple authors to work on different segments simultaneously. This segmentation enables parallel editing without requiring multiple instances of the entire survey, thus maintaining system resource efficiency while improving collaboration productivity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS10949399B2Dynamically synchronizing electronic surveys and collaborative survey representation documents

Publication Date: 2021.03.16 QUALTRICS LLC

AI summary

The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for dynamically generating a single survey representation document that includes the disparate components of an electronic survey maintained across one or more repositories by an electronic survey system. Furthermore, the systems and methods described herein provide the survey representation document for collaboration to one or more author computing devices, and synchronize any edits made to the survey representation document with the original electronic survey.