Figure 7:<\/strong> Participant preference for SEQ formats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSummary and Takeaways<\/h2>\n
We conducted an experiment to check potential differences in measurement properties between two SEQ formats that had the same response options but different stems\u2014the original version (\u201cOverall this task was:\u201d) and our current version (\u201cHow easy or difficult was it to complete this task?\u201d). Over several years, we evolved from the original to our current version because it works better in moderated studies and equally well in unmoderated studies.<\/p>\n
We conducted this experiment because it seemed plausible that including the phrase \u201ceasy or difficult\u201d in our current stem, with \u201ceasy\u201d first, could slightly bias respondents toward selecting \u201cVery Easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
What we found, however, was that across many ways of analyzing the data, there were no statistically significant differences (in fact, the smallest p<\/em>-value across the analyses was .30).<\/p>\nThe largest nominal (nonsignificant) finding was a top-box difference between the original and current SEQ formats of 4.2% for the easy task (Figure 6, Panel A). For that comparison, the original version had a higher percentage selection of Very Easy, which is the opposite of what you would expect if the current item stem (that includes \u201ceasy or difficult\u201d) tended to bias respondents toward selecting \u201cVery Easy.\u201d This was the most extreme outcome\u2014across all analyses, most differences were closer to 1.5% usually, but not always, with nominally higher scores for the original version.<\/p>\n
Because participants in the experiment used both formats during the task sessions, we asked them which they preferred. Over half of the participants had no preference. For those who had a preference, votes were about evenly split between the two versions, with a nominal (but not significant) preference for the current version.<\/p>\n
Takeaway 1<\/strong>: UX practitioners can consider these SEQ formats to be both mean and distribution equivalent. We found no evidence of consistent differences due to the wording differences in these item stems.<\/p>\nTakeaway 2<\/strong>: Even though these appear to be equivalent SEQ forms, we recommend using our current version because it works better than the original in moderated usability studies and equally well in unmoderated studies. Consequently, it\u2019s the default wording in our MUIQ platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We use the seven-point Single Ease Question (SEQ\u00ae) frequently in our practice, as do many other UX researchers. One reason for its popularity is the body of research that started in the mid-2000s with the comparison of the SEQ to other similar short measures of perceived ease-of-use, the generation of a normative SEQ database, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1570,"featured_media":33738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_price":"field_56e41332a1ae5","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"Tribe__Tickets_Plus__Commerce__WooCommerce__Main","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,62,39],"tags":[102,45,29,26],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1570"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33436"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33759,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33436\/revisions\/33759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}