Collect Data
Collecting Data in Network Canvas
With your protocol built, this phase of your study is about running interviews and gathering data. Depending on your design, interviews can happen in person on a device you control, or remotely in participants' own browsers. Alongside the interviews themselves, you will also manage the practical side of fieldwork: getting protocols onto devices, and getting interview data back off them.
The central decision at this stage is which app to collect data with. Network Canvas offers two: Interviewer, the browser-based app — installable to a device you control and usable offline — for in-person, interviewer-assisted interviews, and Fresco, which lets participants complete interviews remotely in a web browser. The main difference is where the interview happens and where the data is stored. Which app you use might also depend on the schema version of your protocol — see Protocol Schema Information. The table below compares them.
Not sure which to use?
Choose Interviewer for in-person interviews guided by a trained interviewer on a device you control.
Choose Fresco if you need participants to complete interviews remotely, in their own browser, and you can host the app yourself.
Interviewer itself comes in two supported versions: the normal app, which runs in your web browser — installable to a device you control — with an improved interview experience and support for schema 8, and Interviewer Classic, the established offline desktop and tablet app you download and install (schema 7). Interviewer is recommended for all new studies.
| Interviewer | Fresco | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Interviewer runs in a web browser (installable as a PWA); Interviewer Classic is a desktop & tablet app | Web browser (desktop or laptop — not mobile) |
| Setup | Open Interviewer in your browser — or download and install Interviewer Classic on each device | Deploy and host your own instance |
| How interviews happen | In person, guided by a trained interviewer on a controlled device | Remotely — participants visit a URL and complete it themselves |
| Connectivity | Interviewer Classic works fully offline; Interviewer is offline-capable, but some schema-8 interfaces (e.g. Geospatial) require internet | Requires internet; runs on a server |
| Where data lives | On the device, exported as files you transfer yourself | In a database on your server, exported from the dashboard |
| Protocol & participant management | Per device — Interviewer imports protocol files; Interviewer Classic imports from a file or a URL | Centralized web dashboard |
| Best for | In-person, interviewer-assisted studies; offline settings | Remote data collection and centralized study management |
| Status | Interviewer and Interviewer Classic supported | Supported (known limitations) |
Good to know:
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a website you can optionally install to your device. Interviewer runs in any modern web browser with nothing to install; installing it as a PWA adds quick access from your device and offline use.
Once you have chosen an app, the Interviewer and Fresco pages cover each one in detail. Protocol and Data Workflows gives the big-picture view of how a protocol and its data move through each way of running a study, and Interviewer Online and Offline Workflows covers the practical steps of getting protocols onto interview devices and data back off them.