In my baccalaureate-paper, written at the institute for journalism and communication science in Vienna, I have qualitative analyzed three different designs of the type ranking‐questions, which are used in online surveys. At GOR 09 a poster shall be presented, which introduces the results of a quantitative study of the three designs. This study affords an objective assessment of the designs and a contribution to the actual usability research in online surveys. The intended goal is to enhance the interaction between the user and the survey. And thereby the efficiency of online surveys can be improved.

• The classic design: This is a classic select‐matrix, implemented with HTML‐Code.

• The innovative design: With this flash‐application the user is able to bring named bars in a specific order to realize a sequence.

• The puzzle design: The moving elements are designed as pieces of a puzzle, this should enable a more intuitive interaction. I developed this design for the survey.

The idea behind the puzzle design:

• Symbolic interactionism: “Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things“.

• The bars in the innovative design have no meaning for the user at first glance, so he or she doesn´t know exactly what to do.

• In real world, people can take pieces of a puzzle and put these pieces at the right position in the puzzle.

• A similar action is needed in ranking questions.