{"id":33686,"date":"2022-08-02T19:03:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T01:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/?p=33686"},"modified":"2023-06-07T22:21:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T04:21:07","slug":"comparison-of-seq-with-and-without-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/measuringu.com\/comparison-of-seq-with-and-without-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparison of SEQ With and Without Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Over the past few months, we\u2019ve conducted several studies with different versions of the seven-point Single Ease Question<\/a> (SEQ\u00ae<\/sup>), a popular task-level metric for perceived ease-of-use.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve seen with other research on rating scales<\/a>, response means tend to be rather stable despite often salient changes to formatting.<\/p>\n

In our earlier SEQ research, we found that reversing the polarity of the response option endpoint labels (Very Difficult on the left for standard; Very Easy on the left for alternate) produced\u00a0<\/span>very similar means<\/span><\/a>. However, there were some significant\u00a0<\/span>differences in top-box scores<\/span><\/a>, especially when the task was difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we manipulated the item stem<\/a> (the part of the item that precedes the response options\u2014original: \u201cOverall, this task was:\u201d; alternate: \u201cHow easy or difficult was it to complete this task?\u201d), we found no significant differences in means or top-box scores.<\/p>\n

Ah, but what about dropping numbers altogether? Surely that could affect scores. This isn\u2019t just a hypothetical question we wanted to explore. In experiments we conducted with the earliest version of the SEQ in 2009<\/a>, the response options were similar to our current version (Figure 1, Version 1), but they were not numbered (Figure 1, Version 2).<\/p>\n

\"Shows<\/a><\/p>\n

In this article, we report our findings on the measurement differences between numbered and unnumbered versions of the SEQ.<\/p>\n

Experimental Design: SEQ With and Without Numbers<\/h2>\n

Using our MUIQ\u00ae<\/sup> platform<\/a> for conducting unmoderated remote UX studies, we set up a Greco-Latin<\/a> experimental design to support a within-subjects comparison of numbered and unnumbered versions of the SEQ in the context of attempting easy and hard tasks.<\/p>\n