In an earlier article, we examined a large dataset of rating scale data. After analyzing over 100,000 individual responses from 4,048 multipoint items across 25 studies, we reported the typical standard deviations for five-, seven-, and eleven-point items. We found that the average standard deviation tended to be around 25% of the maximum range of
Surveys are one of the most popular methods in applied research. While many have argued that surveys are overused, it’s hard to believe that surveys have no place in multi-method UX research. When conducting survey-based research, you’ll often encounter the terms census, poll, and questionnaire used in conjunction with—and often interchangeably with—the term survey. But
How much did you spend last month on clothing? What grocery stores have you visited in the last three months? How helpful are your Netflix recommendations? Surveys and other research methods (such as in-depth interviewing) often rely on participants recalling prior events or behaviors. For example, these could be about purchasing a product or service
A blank page can lead to writer’s block. Writing survey questions can also seem like trying to write the Great American Novel. It can be particularly daunting knowing that subtle word changes may lead to unanticipated responses. The good news is that you don’t have to start from scratch each time. Instead, you can follow
When Kraig Finstad (2010) developed the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX), his goal was to replace the ten-item System Usability Scale (SUS, a popular measure of perceived usability) with a shorter questionnaire that would (1) correlate highly with the SUS and (2) have item content related to the ISO 9241 Part 11 international standard,
The UMUX-Lite is a two-item standardized questionnaire that, since its publication in 2013, has been adopted more and more by researchers who need a concise UX metric. Figure 1 shows the standard version with its Perceived Ease-of-Use (“{Product} is easy to use”) and Perceived Usefulness (“{Product}’s capabilities meet my requirements”) items. Figure 1: Standard
When thinking about user experiences with websites or software, what is the difference between capabilities and functions? Is there any difference at all? In software engineering, a function is code that takes inputs, processes them, and produces outputs (such as a math function). The word capability doesn’t have a formal definition, but it most often
Like pictures and pixels on a screen, words are a type of user interface. Complex language, like complex software, can lead to misunderstanding, so words should communicate effectively while being easy to understand. The solution, to paraphrase William Zinsser, is to use words that are simple and concise—a guideline that also applies to UX questionnaires.
It seems like every few years a new standardized UX measure comes along. Standardization of UX measurement is a good thing for researchers and practitioners. Having common methods and definitions helps with objectivity, generalization, economy, and professional communication. At MeasuringU, we pay a lot of attention to the continuing evolution of standardized UX measurement. The
Human: Computer, can you recognize speech? Computer: I think you said, can you wreck a nice beach? Both the quality of synthesized speech and the capability of communicating with a computer using your voice have come a long way since the debut of this technology in the 1970s. One of the most famous synthetic voices
