What is CAPI?

CAPI stands for Computed Assisted Personal Interviewing and is a process where a candidate responds to a digital survey on an electronic device (such as tablet or smartphone) in the presence of an interviewer. The research is particularly useful in locations that don’t have a trustworthy telephone or computer signal, yet because of the technology involved costs are generally higher than other interview methods.

There are both advantages to carrying out CAPI research. For example, whilst any type of question can be asked and can be accompanied by physical material shown to the participant. However, it does carry strong geographical constraints as you need to have a large number of applicable respondents in a given location to make it worthwhile.

Either way, one crucial aspect of CAPI research that a researcher must consider is the software used to record answers. You must have a robust and capable set-up before commencing the research.