Understanding Criteria Dr. Lam TECM 4250

Why do we need criteria? 1.Allows people to measure success or failure. 2.Allows people to compare any number of things. 3.Allows people to establish arguments.

Inherent problems with criteria They are not relevant to the audience They are not created before comparing things and therefore not applied evenly across items

Not Relevant “This hard drive only stores 1,000 cat photos!” “This hard drive can’t be set up as a web server”

Not created before or applied evenly The WD hard drive is great because it uses a USB 3.0 connection. The Seagate hard drive is not as good because it’s $129.

Measuring Criteria Criteria can be measured in two distinct ways: Categorically – non-numerical measurement Color: black, white, gray, blue Size: small, medium, or large Battery life: Good, average, poor As an Interval Size: x’’ by x’’ Battery life: x hours Bottom line: If possible, measure criteria using interval-level measurements UNLESS: 1.It’s not possible (e.g., color) 2.The audience would benefit from simplifying an interval level variable (e.g., benchmark tests for SSD)

Establishing Criteria Start with your audience What is valuable to them? (consider from most to least) Are they most interested in value/price? or are they more interested in technical specifications? Are they power users or casual users? Are they technical experts or novices? What is your audience trying to accomplish? Consider secondary stakeholders

Organizing comparisons Whole-by-whole pattern – all relevant criteria of one item are discussed before the next item Use this when the audience is primarily interested in comparing the items themselves (e.g., hard drives) Part-by-part pattern – one criteria for all items are presented at a time Use this when the audience is primarily interested in the features (instead of the items)

Group Exercise Come up with a set of criteria and measurements for the following scenarios. Then, create a table for each scenario that compares at least 5 TVs. 1.Joan needs to purchase 10 new televisions for a bar she plans to open in January. Price is important, but it is not the only determining factor. Create a table that compares at least 5 televisions that will help Joan decide on a television to purchase. 2.Jon wants to buy a new television. He will be mounting the TV in his living room, which is 14 x 10 feet. The living room has a lot of natural light. He wants to spend between $1,000 and $2,000.

Group Exercise Complete exercise 2 on p. 65 of the WtW textbook