Scaling of input forms by a simple pair comparison approach

This paper aims to introduce and demonstrate a method that supports design decisions in an easy and practicable way.

Complete paired comparison is a well‐established scaling method for ratio‐scaling sets of stimuli. This method is well‐proven for scaling variants of user interface designs. The paper demonstrates how the method can be applied to input forms, for example search masks of a library catalogue.

The investigation shows that paired comparison is well applicable for interfaces used in library systems and results are presented of the comparison that are relevant for the design of catalogue searches. Major aspects are influences of visual design, vertical alignment of (search‐) fields, and vertical spacing of form elements.

Since the method can be used without much (technical) effort, a theoretically quite complex approach can be used also by persons not familiar with psychometric scaling techniques.