Evidence‐Based Survey Design: The Use of Continuous Rating Scales in Surveys

When practitioners and researchers develop structured surveys, they may use Likert-type discrete rating scales or continuous rating scales. When administering surveys via the web, it is important to assess the value of using continuous rating scales such as VASs or sliders. Our close examination of the literature on the effectiveness of the two types of rating scales showed benefits and drawbacks. Many studies recommended against using sliders due to functional difficulties causing low response rates

Chapter Multipoint vs slider: a protocol for experiments

Since the broad diffusion of Computer-Assisted survey tools (i.e. web surveys), a lively debate about innovative scales of measure arose among social scientists and practitioners. Implications are relevant for applied Statistics and evaluation research since while traditional scales collect ordinal observations, data from sliders can be interpreted as continuous. Literature, however, report excessive times of completion of the task from sliders in web surveys. This experimental protocol is aimed at testing hypotheses on the accuracy in prediction and dispersion of estimates from anonymous participants who are recruited online and randomly assigned into tasks in recognition of shades of colour. The treatment variable is two scales: a traditional multipoint 0-10 multipoint vs a slider 0-100. Shades have a unique parametrisation (true value) and participants have to guess the true value through the scale. These tasks are designed to recreate situations of uncertainty among participants while minimizing the subjective component of a perceptual assessment and maximizing information about scale-driven differences and biases. We propose to test statistical differences in the treatment variable: (i) mean absolute error from the true value (ii), time of completion of the task. To correct biases due to the variance in the number of completed tasks among participants, data about participants can be collected through both pre-tasks acceptance of web cookies and post-tasks explicit questions

Interacting with 3D Reactive Widgets for Musical Performance

International audienceWhile virtual reality and 3D interaction open new prospects for musical performance, existing immersive virtual instruments are often limited to single process instruments or musical navigation tools. We believe that immersive virtual environments may be used to design expressive and efficient multi-process instruments. In this paper we present the 3D reactive widgets. These graphical elements enable efficient and simultaneous control and visualization of musical processes. Then we describe Piivert, a novel input device that we have developed to manipulate these widgets, and several techniques for 3D musical interaction

Improving perception accuracy in bar charts with internal contrast and framing enhancements

Bar charts are among the most commonly used visualization graphs. Their main goal is to communicate quantities that can be visually compared. Since they are easy to produce and interpret, they are found in any situation where quantitative data needs to be conveyed (websites, newspapers, etc.). However, depending on the layout, the perceived values can vary substantially. For instance, previous research has shown that the positioning of bars (e.g. stacked vs separate) may influence the accuracy in bar ratio length estimation. Other works have studied the effects of embellishments on the perception of encoded quantities. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the effect of perceptual elements used to reinforce the quantity depicted within the bars, such as contrast and inner lines, has not been studied in depth. In this research we present a study that analyzes the effect of several internal contrast and framing enhancements with respect to the use of basic solid bars. Our results show that the addition of minimal visual elements that are easy to implement with current technology can help users to better recognize the amounts depicted by the bar charts.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

ASA 2021 Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation

This book includes 25 peer-reviewed short papers submitted to the Scientific Opening Conference titled “Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation”, aimed at promoting new statistical methods and applications for the evaluation of policies and organized by the Association for Applied Statistics (ASA) and the Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications DiSIA “G. Parenti” of the University of Florence, jointly with the partners AICQ (Italian Association for Quality Culture), AICQ-CN (Italian Association for Quality Culture North and Centre of Italy), AISS (Italian Academy for Six Sigma), ASSIRM (Italian Association for Marketing, Social and Opinion Research), Comune di Firenze, the SIS – Italian Statistical Society, Regione Toscana and Valmon – Evaluation & Monitoring

Designing virtual spaces: redefining radio art through digital control

Radio Art is a composition practice that is constantly evolving. Artists share a commonality to redefine, reinvent, and repurpose analogue radio. It is an art that often bends to the will of antiqued technology, celebrating a wide pallet of found sounds. This research extends the boundaries of the art form by exploring Radio Art through sonic-centric lens and establishing a consistent and reproducible compositional framework. By shifting radio from a found object to an instrument, I have deconstructed its sonic aesthetics into two parallel materials for composition, gestural noise and broadcast signal. When tuning an analogue radio to a signal, relationships between these materials unfold. Contrast is a term found throughout my research. Contrast is embodied throughout radio and its history; radio is used as both a scientific communication device and for artistic expression. it is a symbol of democracy and oppression. Radio produces broadcast noise and signal, creating poetic reception, such as control and chaos, anxiety and ecstasy, distance and closeness. This research explores the characteristics of these forces and materials as a symbiotic relationship of unfolding radiophonic behaviours. A major focus of this research is the control of analogue radio through deconstruction and composition. I embarked on a twenty-four-month development period to build a Digital Audio Workstation called Radiophonic Environmental Designer, (RED). RED enables composers to create virtual radiophonic environments that are navigated by rotating the dial. Material is positioned along a horizon, and tuning behaviours sculpted. There is also a physical interface embedded into an analogue radio shell to control the virtual tuning, namely, Broadcast Link-up Environment, (BLUE). BLUE is an ad-on program offering an online digital platform for the diffusion of Radio Art. Using an internet connection and gyroscope technology that is built into most smart phones, a radiophonic environment is interacted through a purpose-built website. In my creative practice, analogue radio has been redesigned by adopting digital technological practices to control, edit and model it’s unique sound. In doing so, I reflect upon relationships between analogue and digital design principles through an extensive study on virtual analogue software and interfaces

A new user interface for musical timbre design

This thesis characterises and addresses problems and issues associated with the design of intuitive user interfaces for timbral control. The usability of a range of synthesis methods and representative implementations of these methods is assessed, and three interface architectures - fixed architecture, architecture specification and direct specification - are identified. The characteristics of each of these architectures, as well as problems of usability inherent to each of them are discussed; it is argued that none of them provide intuitive tools for the manipulation and control of timbre. The study examines the nature of timbre and the notion of timbre space; different kinds of timbre space are considered and criteria are proposed for the selection of suitable timbre spaces as vehicles for synthesis. A number of listening tests, designed to demonstrate the feasibility of subsequent work, were devised and carried out; the results of these tests provide evidence that, where Euclidean distances between sounds located in a given timbre space are reflected in perceptual distances, the ability of subjects to detect relative distances in different parts of the space varies with the perceptual granularity of the space. Three contrasting timbre spaces conforming to the proposed criteria for use in synthesis are constructed; the purpose of these spaces is to provide an environment for a novel user interaction approach for timbral design which incorporates a search strategy based on weighted centroid localization. Two prototypes which exemplify the proposed approach in alternative ways are designed, implemented and tested with potential users in order to validate the approach; a third contrasting prototype which represents a simple contrasting alternative is tested for purposes of comparison. The results of these tests are evaluated and discussed, and areas of further work identified