{"id":551,"date":"2010-01-25T16:32:18","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T15:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=551"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:45:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:45:03","slug":"the-likert-scale-or-how-i-learnt-to-stop-worrying-and-strongly-enjoy-the-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/25\/the-likert-scale-or-how-i-learnt-to-stop-worrying-and-strongly-enjoy-the-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"The Likert scale \u2013 Or \u201cHow I learnt to stop worrying, and \u2018strongly enjoy\u2019 the bomb\u201d."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a practitioner of usability or user experience, a common way that you will attempt to investigate a user (or player, or customer)\u2019s perceptions is through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/11\/7-aspects-of-successful-usability-questionnaires\/\">designing and implementing a survey<\/a>. In designing a survey, its important to consider the format that questions come in, especially with common question types such as \u201cHow frustrating did you find this level?.\u201d Today we\u2019ll look at one of the most common question formats, the Likert scale, and the implications that using it has on your studies.<\/p>\n<h4>What is the Likert scale?<\/h4>\n<p>Lets start with an example.<\/p>\n<p>Most people have seen a Likert scale before. Do you agree with this statement?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strongly      agree<\/li>\n<li>Agree<\/li>\n<li>Neither      agree or disagree<\/li>\n<li>Disagree<\/li>\n<li>Strongly      disagree<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<div id=\"attachment_553\" style=\"width: 272px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-553\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/does_god_exist.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"does_god_exist\" width=\"262\" height=\"330\" class=\"size-full wp-image-553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/does_god_exist.png 262w, https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/does_god_exist-238x300.png 238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-553\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">And the responses should be balanced... unless you have an agenda<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Often used to gauge opinions, they are especially important for people involved with measuring usability or player experience, as they can help quantify subjective things like a user\u2019s experiences. They are usually in the form of a statement, followed by a selection of statements, to indicate how far someone agrees with the statement. They can often be used to quantify things like ease-of-use, or fun, which would be impossible to quantify through other methods. Hence they are of particularly important for us, since user experience is essentially abstract.<\/p>\n<h4>Different kinds of Likert scales.<\/h4>\n<p>The essential question when it comes to implementing a Likert scale, is how many responses to offer.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Forced Choice\u2019 scales are those which have an even number of options. Essentially this means missing out the \u2018neither agree or disagree\u2019 option, and forcing the participant to make a selection (see what they did with the name? very clever!). This would be done to force participants to show an opinion, but there are dangers inherent with this. Forcing a response may give a larger degree of \u2018static\u2019 in the responses, reducing their accuracy, since the responses may not map their opinions. People who don\u2019t agree or disagree may not be happy about being forced to give an opinion, reducing their likelihood to answer later questions accurately. However if your aim is to support a conclusion that people do\/do-not like a system, you may be willing to risk these to prove your point when designing the survey.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<div id=\"attachment_555\" style=\"width: 440px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-555\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/forced-response.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"forced-response\" width=\"430\" height=\"330\" class=\"size-full wp-image-555\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/forced-response.png 430w, https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/forced-response-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-555\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Forced choice means its hard to tell who is neutral, and who doesn\u2019t want to participate<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you select to use a scale with an odd number of options, there are a few issues that should be kept in mind when deciding between a five or seven point scale. The most obvious difference is that a finer grain of responses can be analysed from a seven point scale, as it can represent a wider range of views. Also, take into account that it\u2019s been shown participants shy away from the \u2018edges\u2019, the extreme like and dislike options offered. This means a five point scale will likely only get responses in the \u2018slightly\u2019 columns from all except the most ardent fanatics. Again, you have to consider whether a wider range of responses is useful to the topic you are exploring.<\/p>\n<h4>Should you use a Likert Scale<\/h4>\n<p>Ultimately if you are trying to track opinions, a Likert scale is a good method of accessing this data. There is no all-encompassing correct answer for which scale is appropriate, the context of use and what you want to find out will all affect this. As long as you keep in mind that not only the phrasing of the question, but the range and number of responses you offer will affect the results, and anticipate this affect, you can\u2019t really go wrong. Happy surveying!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a practitioner of usability or user experience, a common way that you will attempt to investigate a user (or player, or customer)\u2019s perceptions is through designing and implementing a survey. In designing a survey, its important to consider the format that questions come in, especially with common question types such as \u201cHow frustrating did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-user-research","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Likert scale \u2013 Or \u201cHow I learnt to stop worrying, and \u2018strongly enjoy\u2019 the bomb\u201d. - Steve Bromley - User Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/25\/the-likert-scale-or-how-i-learnt-to-stop-worrying-and-strongly-enjoy-the-bomb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Likert scale \u2013 Or \u201cHow I learnt to stop worrying, and \u2018strongly enjoy\u2019 the bomb\u201d. - Steve Bromley - User Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a practitioner of usability or user experience, a common way that you will attempt to investigate a user (or player, or customer)\u2019s perceptions is through designing and implementing a survey. 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