It is common knowledge in the research profession that survey respondents have become fatigued and bored while taking online surveys, leading to poorer data quality and lower response rates. Therefore, researchers have attempted to retain respondents’ attention by incorporating methods that we hypothesize make the survey more interesting, such as gamification and creative formatting. One of these techniques is visual scale enhancements. But as these scale enhancements are introduced into surveys, researchers have to wonder if they affect respondents’ ratings, particularly if there are plans to “upgrade” a tracking survey after it has been in field for a period of time.

In the article, Does Interesting Have to Mean Different? Assessing the Value of Visual Scale Enhancements, published in the June 2014 edition of Quirks Magazine, Rockbridge’s Senior Director, Sara Farbry, examines the results from an experiment that tests different visual scale enhancements in an online survey – revealing the impact of using different visual formats and whether there is an ideal method for scale formatting.