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Is There a Perfect Rating Scale?

// August 19th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // content

Web sites that rate products or sites that allow users to rate content are common. A ranking system is simple tool to implement, which can provide a point of discussion or a way for users to have a say in what’s popular on your site. Yet these systems are varied from the most basic, which let users recommend a story to star ratings to percentage based systems. Which one of these work best? Is there an ideal rating scale for web content?

I recently heard an interesting insight from a community software developer: if you provide a way to vote up content, but don’t provide a way to vote down, abuse reports increase.

I’ve observed this in one of the communities I manage where discussion frequently gets heated. The software that powers that community provides a method for people to recommend a comment, but no way to vote a comment down. The result is that nearly every comment in the community is reported as abuse (which is intended for things like hate speech.) This flurry of activity in the abuse section makes that tool nearly useless for moderators.

The same developer says they’ve seen this issue disappear when communities include a method for voting down comments. It seems human nature to want to be able to express your dislike for something if you give them the opportunity to express in favour. The vote-up only system that I use on that one community seems inadequate and frustrating for my users.

Digg has a great solution for community ratings with one of the most simplistic scales: thumbs up or thumbs down. This basic system makes a lot of sense for all sorts of content. After all, often you either like something or you don’t.

Digg’s like-it-or-not voting scale is great if you expect a number of community votes. You can judge how the community feels about the content based on the number of diggs or buries. But what if you’re providing expert reviews from one person on a product? One vote up for a Canon SLR camera would not reveal as much about the reviewer’s opinion on the product as a 4/5 star rating or a 85% rating would.

Let’s take a look at video game sites which offer a constant stream of product rankings from experts, usually received by game fans in a flurry of controversy. As a gamer, I’ve noticed that the controversy is sometimes due to the ranking scale chosen.

Reviews on video game sites are often given by one, two or three experts who each rank the game on a pre-determined scale. The community can often agree or disagree with the rank in the comments, but the review itself is left up to the expert. What scale the experts use is by no means standard and vary site to site. A mix of percentage scales, rank out of 10 and rank out of 5 are all common.

Jeff Gerstmann’s 8.8 “great” ranking of Zelda: Twilight Princess was met with huge backlash from the community who collectively decided that the game deserved a 9.3. Take those same two scores and apply it to a 5/5 rating system. If you used full stars and not halves, both of those rankings would be a 4/5 and Jeff may have not had so many death threats.

A percentage scale out of 100 can sometimes make something seem a little worse than it is. If you used the full scale, you’d mark an average game at 50%. But if you used a 5 star system, you’d mark it at 2.5 (or maybe 3 if you didn’t use half-stars.) I would be more likely to rent or buy a game ranked 2.5/5 instead of 50%/100% even though they’re the same rating. It may not make sense, but the rank in the smaller scale looks average, whereas the larger scale makes the game sound bad. Then again, if your content is a quiz that’s longer than 5 or 10 questions, it makes sense to provide your user with the percentage or a grade.

Essentially we don’t give enough thought to the ranking scales that we use on our sites. Site owners need to let their content dictate what rank scale to use and deploy the simplest one that makes sense for that situation. If your site is looking for a wide range of community opinions, try thumbs up or thumbs down. For expert or in-depth product reviews, try a 5 star system. Higher scales get more complex and should be used when the others don’t make sense.

Careful consideration of your rank scale could mean a less frustrating, more interesting experience for your users and moderators.

5 Content Tips for Realtors

// July 21st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // content

This image guarantees no click through to listing.

My husband and I are thinking of buying a place, so we’ve been casually browsing real estate listings online recently. I’ve previously designed and developed sites for a couple of realtors, but I didn’t maintain content. That task was up to the realtors who would add and update listings when needed. These five tips are for real estate agents who create and maintain content online. They’re based on a few common practices I’ve noticed in listings that could be improved.

1. Include Photos — Lots of Them

When I see the dreaded “No image available” picture, I simply do not click through to the listing. There’s lots of other competing listings that have photos and that’s where I spend my time. I also find that I spend less time on a listing when there’s only one photo. Take photos and include pictures of both the interior and exterior on every listing.

2. Take Neat Photos

Take a moment to straighten books, remove dishes from the sink and countertops, put away clothes and put the damn toilet seat down! Untidy houses are simply not as appealing as neat ones. You don’t need to dress the place up, simply take a few minutes to straighten up before taking a snapshot.

3. List the Address

Many people shop by neighbourhood. Include the street address or at the very least the postal code. One of the first things I do if a listing looks interesting is look up the location on Google Maps. If someone is very interested, they may drive by and take a look at the location on street level before booking a viewing appointment with the realtor. If I can’t discern where the listing is physically located, I click onto another one.

4. Pay Attention to Copy
   This breaks down into three recommendations:
   • Don’t Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word In A Sentence. It’s annoying and it doesn’t read naturally.
   • Use spell check. People search listings by keyword. If your listing has “grante countertops” it’s not going to show up if I search for “granite.”
   • Don’t use acronyms that people outside of the real estate industry don’t understand. It took a Google search to find what, “Gb&E, C.A.C. and All Elfs” meant. Don’t force me away from the listing to understand it. If you must use abbreviations, at least provide a glossary.
5. Prioritize the Listing

Look, I’m glad you’re an award winning realtor (really, congrats!) but I’m on your site to see the house. Too many listings have more information about the person selling the home than the home itself. Basically all I need on the listing page is how to contact you for questions or to book a viewing. Beyond that, link to a bio page — don’t put your glamour shots or life history on every listing.

I know realtors who would reject my suggestions to include more photos and address. There’s an old school of thought that says giving up less details forces calls and leads. Maybe this was true at one time, but now people demand information. Think of it this way: if I’m impressed by photos and already like the neighbourhood it’s in, I’m a more interested and qualified buyer. It will take less effort on the realtor’s part to sell a place that a potential buyer already has interest in.

That’s it! Hopefully a few realtors stumble across these tips and find them helpful.