From: "chiwah liu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : : I don't know if I am right, but for me, the "neutral" option depends on the : number of users : : - If we don't have enough user to reach a statistical significance (let's : say less than 100 users) for our survey, we should add a "neutral" option. : The users who don't have any idea can bias the survey. : : - Now if we have enough user to reach a statistical significance (200-300+ : users), we can force them to choose because they should give a random : answer. That mean if my scale is between 1 and 4, I should have the same : number of users that answer 2 than those who answer 3. If this case happens, : then I can suppose that users don't really have idea about the answer. : Otherwise, they might have preferences and it shouldn't be biased because it : is be statistically significant. : : No. I think the phrase 'force them to choose' shows exactly why this is a bad idea.
You ought to allow users to have the opinions that they have - even if those opinions include 'don't know' or 'don't care' (or both). The answer options you offer should depend solely on the answers that your users want to give - not upon how many users there are. If you don't know what answers your users want to give, then interview them to find out before running your survey. And by the way - you should do that anyway (i.e., interview some users first) if you want anything like good results from your survey. There's a longer version of my views at: http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article1269.asp Best Caroline Jarrett [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
