Simplified user poll and experience report language (SUPER): implementation and application

Biological computing is generally organized as standalone implementationon a PC-type computer or on a central facility (e.g. a universitycomputer center). Services provided by central facilities needto be tailored to the user community. Unless very work-intensiveindividual contacts are used, the feedback must be collectedwith generalized tools, such as questionnaires distributed inthe form of a newslettter. We have developed a method to havesuch polls automated and tailored, as well as having multiple-choicequestions combined with branching after fundamental questions.As the evaluation of the results needs to know the questionsasked, we have also included a method to process the answersand give detailed tables on the answers. SUPER was applied ina poll to query the academic usership in Switzerland on theusage of molecular biology databases.