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Subject:
From:
William Hudson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
William Hudson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:11:36 -0000
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How to use Likert scales seem to be a pretty touchy subject (from my
past experience), but I just had to share this example of how (I think)
not to do it.

This is a ten-point scale from a film rental site I use:

Painful
Poor
Dull
Disappointing
Just OK
Average
Good
Very good
Great
I love it

One issue that struck me about this is that some of these words are just
not on the same dimension of meaning as the others. For example, the
film I wanted to rate I thought was just bad, but I found that the word
corresponding to my strength of feeling on the 10-point scale was
'dull'. Dull it wasn't - it was full of action and killing, but still
bad.

My own approach is to label just the end points, so in this example,
'very bad' at one end and 'very good' at the other with numbered points
in between. However, I have found that this does confuse respondents
very occasionally ('What do the points in between correspond to?' is the
occasional question).

However, if you like labelling each intermediate point with words, I
think they need to be in what I would call a single dimension, like
those shown here:
<http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/research/instrument%20Reliability%20
and%20Validity/Likert.html> 

What do list members think? What do you use when conducting surveys?

Regards,

William Hudson
Syntagm Ltd
Design for Usability
US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM
UK 01235-522859
World +44-1235-522859
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.syntagm.co.uk
http://www.designforusability.com

Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered
number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS.

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