ACA is software for conducting Adaptive Conjoint Analysis studies over the Internet, or using devices not connected to the Internet (CAPI-based) data collection. ACA is part of Lighthouse Studio. For more general information about ACA, we suggest that you read the "ACA Technical Paper" available for downloading from our home page at www.sawtoothsoftware.com.
ACA is an older adaptive conjoint technique that was quite popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but is not used as often today as CBC or ACBC. Yet, for certain purposes, it is still a useful conjoint analysis method. ACA has its weaknesses, however, and the researcher should become familiar with those weaknesses and the differences between ACA, CBC, and ACBC to ensure proper usage.
Your license entitles you to free technical support via phone or email. We encourage you to contact us at support@sawtoothsoftware.com or +1-801-477-4700 if you cannot find the answer to your problem or question in this documentation. We are available Mon-Fri during our business hours (Mountain Time Zone). (Note: we provide full technical support for composing and testing your Internet survey on your local PC, and provide written instructions on how to install your questionnaire on your server. We cannot take responsibility for or be expected to provide technical support to debug any customized HTML or JavaScript you may add to your survey. You are also responsible to make sure that Perl is running, a database is available, and that you can run Perl (CGI) scripts on your web server. We can provide some assistance related to Lighthouse Studio's use with your server once the fundamental Perl functionality and a database is in place.)
A sample ACA questionnaire and supporting files are available within your installation of Lighthouse Studio. You can easily access this example study by clicking Help | Sample Studies. This questionnaire lets you see an example of an ACA survey and investigate how it is set up.
If you know a little HTML (which is not necessary to use ACA), you can employ some "tricks" that will help you customize the look of your survey beyond the standard options provided by the software. By opening the sample study and looking at the settings and text we've used, you can become familiar with some of the possibilities.
To get started, we suggest you view other areas within this online help library, especially: