WISE Surveys
UNED · ARTIS Research · US Air Force
2013 · Lead Developer · shipped
A Unity research platform used in hundreds of studies worldwide with more than 100,000 participants. Running since 2013, and I still support it.
Technologies: Unity, C#, PHP, MySQL, Docker
Gómez et al., Nature Human Behaviour
Related expertise: Unity, Backend & infrastructure
Overview
WISE Surveys is a research platform for field studies in social psychology. It was created in collaboration with a research group at UNED (Madrid).
It has been used in hundreds of studies around the world, with more than 100,000 participants, by teams at UNED, NYU, the US Air Force, ARTIS Research and others.
Background
A research group at UNED asked me to build a few simulations for their studies. After some months working together, we brought those simulations into a single research platform, which became WISE Surveys.
The platform is built in Unity and has a backend in PHP with MySQL. Data is collected locally on the device and synchronized with the server when an internet connection is available. Researchers can manage studies and participants, analyze the collected data and download reports.
Publications
The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict — Nature Human Behaviour · 2017
Ángel Gómez, Scott Atran et al.
What Makes a Terrorist? — Through the Wormhole · Science Channel
Scott Atran presents the research in the series hosted by Morgan Freeman.
La fusión de identidad — Canal UNED
TV documentary on the research, in Spanish.
The hard parts
Sensitive data. Some teams worked with very sensitive groups, such as people imprisoned for war or terrorism. A participant's answers had to be linked across surveys without anyone being able to identify them. Data was anonymised and sent securely, and anything stored on the device was encrypted in case it was lost or stolen. I learned about EU data regulations and designed the workflows together with the research teams.
No connectivity. The studies happen in the field, often with no internet. Data is stored on the device and synchronised later, and researchers can also edit surveys offline and sync them afterwards. Getting that synchronisation right took careful design.
Scaling up
As more research teams came on board, the platform started to struggle under the load. Storage, the API and asset delivery all needed work, and on-site studies got their own offline builds. A move to the cloud and a new API are now under way. The details are in Backend & infrastructure.
My involvement
- Built the WISE Surveys platform: the Unity participant app (surveys, games and simulations) and the backend behind it.
- Worked with the research teams on designing simulations that served the research and kept participants engaged.
- Supported studies run with participants across many countries.
- Still maintain and support the platform, which is in use today.