Overview of the MaxDiff Design Platform

A choice set is a collection of items from which a respondent must select an item that is most preferred (best item) and one that is least preferred (worst item). Use the MaxDiff platform to specify the number of items that appear in a choice set and the number of choice sets to be presented to a respondent.

The MaxDiff platform provides you with a single survey. If you have several respondents, you can administer the same survey to all respondents or construct a survey for each respondent.

The MaxDiff design is constructed to match the incidence matrix of a balanced incomplete block design as closely as possible. This implies that each pair of items occurs equally often in the design. If the number of choice sets allows a balanced incomplete block to be constructed for the specified number of items in a choice set, the design that is constructed is a balanced incomplete block design.

The items or profiles are considered to be the levels of the treatment factor. The choice sets are considered to be blocks. In a MaxDiff study, the block size is smaller than the number of treatments.