Measuring User Experience - Overview and Comparison of two Commonly Used Questionnaires

Since the turn of the millennium User Experience (UX) has emerged in the field of human computer interaction as an extension to the classical concept of usability. This new approach tries to grasp the user’s experience as whole also considering factors beyond the usefulness of a product, such as pleasure derived from the interaction with it. Given the fairly young age of the field, scientific tools for accurate measurements are still rare and a lot of questions are brought up when it comes to the quality of the current scientific tools used in the field of UX (Bargas-Avila & Hornbaek, 2011). The goal of this Bachelor’s thesis is to take a closer look at two commonly used questionnaires in the field of UX and compare them both with each other as well as with theoretical literature on scale development and questionnaire construction. In a first step, the two questionnaires VisAWI (Moshagen & Thielsch, 2010) and AttrakDiff (Hassenzahl, Burmester, & Koller, 2003) will be examined closer in terms of their development and validation process. These particular questionnaires were chosen because they both aim to measure UX in one form or another, their authors tried to construct and validate the questionnaires in a scientific way, and they are now available online for use by both researchers as well as practitioners (www.AttrakDiff.de; www.VisAWI.de). This means that even if their specific focus is different, the VisAWI’s focus lies on aesthetics while the AttrakDiff focuses on the pragmatic and hedonic aspects of the user’s experience, their overall goal is to make accurate scientific measurements in the field of UX. In a second step, the two questionnaires will be compared, both with each other as well as with the best practice for questionnaire and scale development and validation as presented in current scientific literature. In the end, the goal would be to have a better understanding of what it takes for a scientific instrument to be created and whether or not the two scales in question meet the criteria.

Techniques and adjustments in valuing privately-held enterprises in Thailand

This article investigates the tools appraisal firms use to value privately-held businesses in Thailand. It also tests for covariation between selected descriptive variables and the techniques valuers employ to assist owners in deciding on their companies’ worth. A review of literature relating both to valuation and to strategic planning served as the basis for hypothesis development and questionnaire construction. All 81 approved Thai appraisal firms received the questionnaire. The main findings are that the number and kind of tools Thai appraisal firms employ vary widely. Furthermore, manager and practitioner characteristics such as education, professional association membership, years of work experience, and cases previously handled as well as an appraisal firm’s age and size sometimes are associated with the valuation techniques applied, account adjustments made, and interest rate alternatives chosen. The study furthermore suggests that reporting justifications for the specific valuation techniques employed and the weights assigned their results would increase transparency, afford clients additional useful information, and provide linkage between theory and actual practice. Reliance on senior practitioners and top managers as questionnaire respondents raises the possibility of key informant bias. Future research might examine the extent to which appraised values resulting from application of the tools respondents say they use to agree with prices subsequently paid in arm’s length, market transactions.

The Crit Value as an Effect Size Measure for Violations of Model Assumptions in Mokken Scale Analysis for Binary Data

In empirical use of Mokken scaling, the Crit index is used as evidence (or lack thereof) of violations of some common model assumptions. The main goal of our study was two-fold: To make the formulation of the Crit index explicit and accessible, and to investigate its distribution under various measurement conditions. We conducted two simulation studies in the context of dichotomously-scored item responses. False positive rates and power to detect assumption violations were considered. We found that the false positive rates of Crit were close to the nominal rate in most conditions, and that power to detect misfit depended on the sample size, type of violation, and number of assumption-violating items. Our findings are relevant to all practitioners who use Mokken scaling for scale and questionnaire construction and revision.

Concluding Comments

The term culture should be understood from microlevels and macrolevels. Microlevel is the study of different subgroups within a society or a community such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, language, and even political orientation. At the macrolevel, cross-cultural analyses can be viewed as the comparison of different nations and continents. Incorrect screening instruments or bias diagnostic procedures lead to false implementation of treatments, and false treatments can harm clients socially, psychologically, and financially. Cross-cultural measurement development requires the researchers to be aware of cultural nuances of the target culture. Researchers should consider gender differences within the target culture at every step of the instrument development. When an instrument is developed for two or more cultural groups, representatives of these groups must be invited to participate in the research process from the formulation of the research questions, conceptualization, and operationalization of research variables to questionnaire construction and interpretation of the results.

Die samestelling en gebruik van vraelyste in kerklike opnames met verwysings na die Ned Geref Kerk se Kerkspieël-vraelyste

The construction and usage of questionnaires in church surveys with references to the Dutch Reformed church’s ‘Kerkspieël’ questionnairesThis article works from the premise that practical theology interprets the functioning of the church. Therefore, practical theologians should also be knowledgeable about empirical approaches to investigate these matters. Surveys are an important tool in empirical investigations and questionnaire construction forms an integral part of this process to ensure collection of quality information. However, questionnaire construction can be challenging since it involves human communication and interpretation that is fluid and unique by nature, but attempts to generate from it standardised and controlled responses. Therefore, the quality of each item in a questionnaire must be examined thoroughly. As an example, this article identifies certain flaws in the Dutch Reformed Church’s ‘Kerkspieël’ surveys. These entail the following: double barrelled, ambiguous, unclear, general, abstract and emotionally-related wording, timeframe in questions, leading questions, and assumed knowledge. In practical theological research, these deficiencies can serve as examples urging researchers to be more focused when aiming to develop quality surveys.