Lighthouse Studio Erfahrungen

Our Main Tool for Survey Programming

Kommentare: This is the main tool we use to program surveys of any level of difficulty. Once you have done enough projects, all past surveys serve as excellent templates, on the basis of which it is possible to solve similar tasks, at the same time - customizing for specific needs.

Vorteile:

Super versatile, completely customizable, love the endless options of implementing PERl, Java, HTML by themselves and with the help of SSI Scripts. Can look overwhelming for somebody who needs simple SurveyMonkey-style surveys, but works as a real powerhouse for those who want more. Customer support is exceptional - very responsive, can create specific pieces of codes tailored for your task. Great response time both via the phone and email.

Nachteile:

Just sad that the standalone version of Sawtooth Web is slowly going away and probably will seize to be at some point.

Lighthouse Studios Review

Kommentare: Overall, I am still extremely happy and satisfied with the Sawtooth and the new Lighthouse Studios program. The customer support is second to none and the team is always available when needed. The employees are also very knowledgeable and answer any questions we have with a solution. After using Sawtooth for all 8 years of my employment at AMG Research, I do not think there is another company that could meet our needs as well as Sawtooth.

Vorteile:

We have used Sawtooth Software for many years. Recently, we upgraded to the Lighthouse Studios version 9. I really enjoyed some of the new features like a drag and drop rank, the increased mobile responsiveness, and the next to none learning curve from the original Sawtooth Software. I could go on and one, but overall it is a very easy to use program.

Nachteile:

With all of the good Lighthouse Studios offers there are some things I would really like to see improved; mostly with the market simulator conjoint. In the past, Sawtooth had a program called SMRT. With SMRT, I was able to make banner variables and analyze multiple segments all at one time. That function was not added to the market simulator. Segmentation is not as easy as it had been in the past. Also, while you can customize your layout surveys, it is difficult to change the .css style sheets to change font colors, text sizes, spacing, and text styles. I have a intermediate knowledge of css and it was still very difficult for me.

Expensive

Kommentare: OK for what we use it for.

Vorteile:

Efficiency for choice modelling. Not much beyond that.

Nachteile:

Expensive and few usability improvements over the years.

Deep Software That Empowers Users

Kommentare: It's been our bread and butter survey publisher for over 10 years! We love it! What else is there to say.

Vorteile:

Nothing is impossible. While many of the new slick, glossy software competing with Sawtooth prioritize aesthetics and wide-spreading integrated functionality, they sacrifice the deeper levels of customization and flexibility that Sawtooth enables with it's native scripting language, unverified perl, and advanced skip logic functionality. While many other softwares offer you a "boxed" solution that may be easier to use for casual users, Sawtooth rewards those willing to learn by empowering them to be able to do whatever they want.

Nachteile:

Some interface items could be streamlined (nested menu only enable you to interact with whatever window is in focus) and the styles could be more robust with animations - Although this has never been Sawtooth's comparitive advantage, in my opinion.

Best software for choice modeling

Kommentare: Use for product feature prioritization, pricing research, brand equity. LOVE working in it. It's my favorite tool.

Vorteile:

I love the amount of customization you can do with this software. The options available for doing choice modeling are the best of any available software. The expertise behind the product is amazing as well. Customer support has helped me numerous times. The information available on the website is comprehensive and helpful. The forum is particularly well moderated.

Nachteile:

Not quite as user-friendly as Qualtrics for some things such as survey flow.

My review

Kommentare: We are most often looking at price, but also other features and benefits of products and services. We haven't used the full functionality of the software (a) because we have our own interviewing and scripting software that our team uses (Dimensions) and (b) because we create our own simulators.

Vorteile:

It is just so easy to use. And there are a number of options available when creating a design so that if one doesn't work I can try something else. Also the ability to include my own designs for modelling if I need to, which I do sometimes.

Nachteile:

The time taken to design and/or analyse large or complicated experiments. Sometimes it's longer than I have available, but there are other options available to me in the software which I use instead.

Very sound software, constrainted interface

Kommentare: That was our first use of Lighthouse.
We have made some design choices that made the analysis of the results complicated: instead of using levels adjusted to the context of the respondents, we duplicated CBC questionnaires with updated levels.
Due to lower responses that expected we had to regroup the responses, that could not be done with the tool but with the help of the support we could do it separately and feed it back in the Analysis tool.
Although not recommended that saved our analysis and we could get reasonably good results.
The flexibility of the tool was a real plus here, though there is a great margin of improvement still.

Vorteile:

Extensive documentation. Well defined steps (Design, Run, Analysis, Simulation) with csv input/output between last 3 steps to allow adhoc processing in the middle.

Nachteile:

The interface of the questionnaire design is the weakness, some particular points: - impossible to keep the documentation opened while editing the questionnaire - Not possible to copy-paste CBC questions within a questionnaire - UI design of the surveys is fastiduous. we had difficulties to use standard javascript libraries in survey. Also the use of a format easier to process for the .ssi files (XML ?) would enable to update questionnaires by script.

Comprehensive Survey Software - Sawtooth

Kommentare: We rely on Lighthouse Studio for our product optimization efforts, enabling us to do scenario planning, product development prioritization and alignment to customer segment targets.

Vorteile:

If you are in need of sophisticated analyses (e.g. conjoint, MaxDiff, etc.), there is no comparable to Sawtooth in terms of feature breadth, sophistication of exercises, and overall flexibility in survey design incorporating these complicated exercises.

Nachteile:

The overall UX is built for hardcore programmers, and while there is seemingly infinite flexibility, this is often too much for the modest user, and is not comparable to the other SaaS software options like Qualtrics, SurveyGizmo, Decipher or Dynata.

Lighthouse Studio Review

Kommentare: Overall good experience and I would recommend and continue using myself.

Vorteile:

MaxDiff and general ease of use. I will be using the simulator as well once I have a better handle on it.

Nachteile:

Can be pretty expensive, and support can be challenging.

The software is very user friendly. Conjoint and maxdiff analysis is very powerful and recommendable

Kommentare: Overall experience is very good that's why I have associated with this software for last 5 years.

Vorteile:

Output of conjoint and maxdiff is very user friendly. Making customized survey is very easy. The best part is data collection in different mode like online/offline and can integrate with other platform is also helpful to sustain in market. Some desired questions are not there by default but can make it using Jquery/CSS/HTML like text highlighter/Heatmap.

Nachteile:

Sometimes data lost for any particular question which should not but we can find the same in history table which is good.

Solid package, especially if you'd like to customise or if you're into Conjoint, MaxDiff etc.

Kommentare: Compared to other survey software, Lighthouse is a solid product that has a lot of capabilities and helps develop great surveys. Sure there is a lot that could be improved (and hey, Sawtooth, if you'd like some input or ideas, you're welcome to get in touch;) but in comparison it is one of the better solutions if you are looking for a certain degree of freedom and know your way around JS, CSS, Perl etc.

Vorteile:

Highly customisable. Tailored towards people who are developers or have a strong tendency towards developing and therefore more intuitive than other products that do have more pleasing UIs yet more cumbersome UXs. It's one of the few solutions that provide good functionality when it comes to all types of Conjoint studies, MaxDiff etc. Backwards compatibility in terms of "the interwebs" is pretty deep (supports browser and platforms way back) although that's also something that holds the software back more than it should. Offline functionality works ok - although only on Android.

Nachteile:

Innovation is lacking a bit. The overall architecture, look and feel of the software is almost unchanged in the past decade. Still relying heavily on jQuery and other libraries (which is totally unnecessary since almost everything can be done with vanilla JS and much reduced overhead!). The DOM and the structure comprises of a lot of jank. After all it's a web-experience and there are many things that can be improved upon to rise up to modern days web-standards to provide decent loading times, UXs for the respondents and make use of modern APIs and browser capabilities. I wish there was a more open dialog with developers in terms of roadmaps, development cycles, including suggestions etc. Offline functionality for iOS would be nice!

Easy to learn, difficult to master survey software with a lot of freedoms

Kommentare: All in all, Lighthouse is a very good choice for all those who want to set up complex online surveys and who need a lot of freedom (e.g. in filter management, design customization or quota control). If you regularly carry out conjoint analyses, there is no getting around the program. If you prefer fancy user interfaces and want to carry out relatively simple surveys, where nothing can go wrong with the programming, even with infrequent users, you should use something else.

Vorteile:

Sawtooth is incredibly flexible and lets the user conduct even the most complex online surveys. Especially the conjoint features are absolutely unbeaten. The design of the online surveys is modern and automatically optimized for mobile use. Even the integration of a dedicated survey server is relatively simple. Customer service is excellent and fast.

Nachteile:

The freedoms come at a price: anything that goes beyond a simple survey is quite complex and requires employees who are at least familiar with a little coding. The design of the user interface could also use a few updates.

GReat Product, Troublesome on Macs

Kommentare: Overall, pretty good except for when Parallels makes my computer crash.

Vorteile:

Lighthouse has excellent functionality and everything I need to do my MaxDiff and CBC surveys and analysis. The help section is incredibly useful, as is tech support. Anytime I have a question they really take the time to help me solve the issue, which I absolutely love because I'm newer to this and I need the help. The software is relatively easy to use and figure out

Nachteile:

I have a Mac, so I have to use Parallels to get it to run. Parallels slows down my computer LIKE CRAZY. Sometimes starting up Sawtooth in Parallels takes 25 minutes just to get Sawtooth TO OPEN. It also freezes up on me. I've had to un-install and re-instal Sawtooth a handful of times just to get it to work. I think this is Parallel's issue, not Sawtooth. But if there was ONE thing I could change about Lighthouse is that I would make it run on Macs. It's 2020, you guys need to get past this PC vs Mac war. That is so 2004. Both have been around for decades, neither is going away, and I have a Mac, please make your software work on my computer.

User Friendly and Intuitive

Vorteile:

I have used several kinds of online survey programming platforms and Lighthouse is, by far, the most user-friendly and intuitive. The ability to import most of the survey from Word has also been revolutionary in our ability to get a project programmed and out the door. Additionally, their customer service and support is wonderful. Whenever I run into a road block on a project, they are extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and patient whether that is on the phone or through their support email.

Nachteile:

I have been using this product for over 7 years, so I have become very familiar with the survey flow commands and list-building syntax needed to accomplish most of my needs in a project. I often feel that the help resources and reference guide, though, could be more helpful if more details and more varied examples of HOW to accomplish some of the more technical and advanced functions. There have been several times that I have found that a particular action was possible, but not enough information about how to adjust the one example given for my particular project needs.

Sawtooth Software

Kommentare: I conduct around 10 conjoint projects per year, and have used the looping feature to make very complex studies manageable.

Vorteile:

This is the goto software for Conjoint Analysis. Very flexible platform that is approachable for basic needs and can be customized by advanced users. Documentation and resources very thorough, the team seems to be proactive about helping users.

Nachteile:

Steep learning curve for advanced use if the users do not have a strong background in mathematical logic and basic computer programming. The documentation is good, but there could be a better way to pull the most popular topics from the online forum into a secondary documentation center. It would also be nice to be able to run batch commands.

Highly Customize-able, Clear Software

Kommentare: My preferred software for survey crafting. The ability to customize and the wealth of knowledge in the community allows for almost everything I want programmed to be programmed. I have legitimate fun when programming through Lighthouse.

Vorteile:

The capacity for customization, especially if you know JavaScript and CSS. Easy to navigate UI. Easy to transfer text from another source (especially text in tables to create answer options). The forums provide answers to a lot of questions you might have for more customized stuff, and the general Lighthouse help manual has a lot of easy to parse information. Helpful customer service with great solutions. Self-hosting ability.

Nachteile:

Missing some question types and features found in other softwares. Steep learning curve. Hosting on Sawtooth's own server can be frustrating and overly complicated, especially with multiple users involved.

Pros and Cons

Kommentare: Excellent! Built-in modeling features are easy to use and simplify our work

Vorteile:

Advanced analytics features such as MaxDiff, ACA, CBC are very useful from Sawtooth. In addition, the ability to customize the survey beyond the built-in features is great.

Nachteile:

It is somewhat pricey, however, it is comparable to other programming software.

Ease to learn, easy to teach

Vorteile:

Honestly, the thing that blows me away from Sawtooth is their support. The software is very intuitive, but if you have questions, you can get answers from A) a real person with expertise or B) their very extensive and active product forum.

Nachteile:

I can't really think of anything. I'm a huge fan

Powerful product with excellent customer service

Kommentare: Overall, this is powerful software that I am happy to use and work with for my research projects.

Vorteile:

We use Lighthouse Studio for an Adaptive Choice Based Conjoint design. The great benefit is certainly excellent customization possibilities, which gives a lot of flexibility to collect the data the way we intend to. What I enjoyed was the overall great responsiveness of the customer service team/their employees, if I had questions where I could not find an answer. This resulted several times in receiving recommendations/customized solutions to solve my problem. You do get the feeling the employees care about the success of their users.

Nachteile:

The high level of customization comes with the downside of complexity which may need some time to get everything set up and find answer to the specific questions. I higher amount of "how to videos" for the different analyses types/could be helpful here (seeing screens is quicker than reading through their very extensive how to guides.

Indispensible

Vorteile:

We primarily use the analytics portions of Lighthouse. It's easy to use and highly customizable so when we have out of the box needs, we can usually figure out some way to modify things for our needs.

Nachteile:

We don't use the fielding piece often - except when we do ACBC. I don't love having to add in Perl script or modify CSS. As marketing scientists, we would end up spending a lot of time doing trial and error trying to work through aspects that are just not part of our core skill set. That said, to have the customization that I mentioned previously, it's probably necessary to move away from completely templated or drag-and-drop approach.

Simply love it

Vorteile:

The sanity checks throughout the application that prevents stupid mistakes The ease of use and diversity of options The ease of customization

Nachteile:

Nothing comes to mind at the moment, sorry!

Gold Standard for Choice based modeling

Kommentare: its great. can rely on sound research methods and rigor, customer service is always easy to get a hold of and can competently talk through almost all of our clients' quirky requests and use cases.

Vorteile:

very user friendly, has great customer support and statistical rigor. Sawtooth has great name recognition in the industry and is accepted as a go to software for choice modelling.

Nachteile:

honestly not much, we dont use the scripting or survey hosting as we have our own internal team for data collection and survey scripting so we create designs and generate utilities on our maxdiff and CBC projects with Lighthouse and the tool is great.

Easy to Use, But also Powerful

Vorteile:

This software is easy to use, and you can create surveys that are very simple, or more complicated surveys with Conjoint or MaxDiff. It's customizable and you can add your own code or HTML to make your surveys look or behave how you want it too.

Nachteile:

I wish that that it was easier to debug the code you write, like in a IDE. I'm not the greatest programmer so I'd appreciate if Lighthouse would eventually be able to tell me things like where specifically the error in my PERL or JavaScript code is occurring and why.

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Kommentare: friendly use

Vorteile:

easy to use low rate of errors work on all kind of tablets

Nachteile:

nothing it is really good we didn't find any issues with the program

Review

Vorteile:

We work with Sawtooth for both conjoint and maxdiff analyses. It is an easy to work with software. Help and information is easily found online. We can easily integrate conjoints into the rest of our projects using a link.

Nachteile:

It is sometimes a bit cumbursome to integrate the perl script to all attributes and levels, but maybe there is a more easy way of doing that than the way i do it.