Probably ubiquitous in North America, and perhaps in Western Europe. Certainly, it isn't too hard for people from other cultures to become socialized into using such a system. Likert and other such interval scales have been around for at least two generations in North America and their use has become near universal in that culture (down to McDonald's restaurant 1-minute surveys). The influence of science as well as scientism (as in Christian Science, Scientology and Intelligent Design) is very strong in North American culture and the hard sciences demand quantification of just about any measure. Scales are introduced to children in pre-school -- and so are stars. I am not sure that my mother, who was raised in India, and despite her exposure to Western culture (and even after having visited a variety of countries) would be able to use a star rating scale automatically.
The other problem is the implicit criteria used in a star rating as both Jonathan and Jim point out. What's an alternative though, that is simple and quick, as well as reliable? -m On 12/16/07, Jonathan Koren <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Jim hit on the head. Stars are ubiquitous because they're > ubiquitous. People expect them, and they're deceptively simple. murli nagasundaram, ph.d. | www.murli.com | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | +91 99 02 69 69 20 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ 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
