Group quarters (GQs) are places where people live or stay in a group living arrangement provided by an organization that may also provide services for the residents. Examples of GQs include university student housing, residential treatment centers, and correctional facilities. The U.S. Census Bureau has developed special procedures to enumerate residents of GQs during the decennial census, and is currently exploring the development of a new enumeration method to enable residents of select noninstitutional GQ types to complete their Individual Census Questionnaires online (also known as internet self-response or ISR). The use of this method would require GQ administrators to use a web-based instrument to provide residents’ names and email addresses and to provide information about the GQs themselves (e.g., expected population on Census Day). After GQ administrators complete this process, the Census Bureau would then send email invitations to residents with links to access the questionnaire. Administrators would also be able to use the instrument to monitor response rates at individual GQs and identify nonrespondents that need encouragement to respond.

To support the requirements gathering process for the administrator instrument, we conducted usability interviews with GQ administrators to assess their reactions to an initial design of the interface of the instrument using nonfunctional wireframes. The wireframes approximated the page layouts of the administrator instrument and presented questions/instructions, response fields, buttons and links for various functions, etc. We presented the wireframes to administrators to explore their understanding of the expected tasks presented on each screen and identify potential problems that might interfere with correct understanding. We also asked administrators for their opinions about the appearance of the interface, workflow and expected tasks, and asked them to describe their processes for obtaining requested data. This report details findings on the administrators’ reactions to implementing internet self-response for their GQs and recommendations on improving the design of the instrument for collecting information from GQs administrators.