I like taking personality tests, but I don’t put much stock in most of them. If your categories are generic enough, you’ll find you fit into all defining factors, which doesn’t really serve individuals well.
Today I stumbled across Signal Patterns today via a FaceBook ad. I typically don’t click on those ads, but I’m a sucker for online quizzes.
Signal Patterns (admittedly in beta) wants to not only provide you with in depth analysis of your personality (via 45 traits) and preferences (music, with other topics to be added later), but wants you to be able to share the findings with your friends, as well as meet other people like you. It’ll pull in your profile details from FaceBook and MySpace so you don’t have to create yet another profile page.
Its primary shortcoming is the length of the test. 100 questions are used to get at 90 personality traits. Currently, they list the questions one at a time. By the time I had clicked through the 20th question, I was bored. . . but I committed to the endurance event because I wanted to see the outcome 80 questions later. By the end, I was annoyed it had taken so long.
Signal patterns would be better served by including 10 questions per page. Nor would it hurt to include some cheeky one-liners encouraging testers to keep on clicking. I’d love to see their drop off rate — people who just give up and jump to another site.
Next, some of the statements are double-barreled. For each statement, I must gauge on a scale from not like me at all to very like me. But some of the questions include 2 statements that could conceivably contradict each other; I agree with one but not the other. After reading through seemingly accurate results, I’m less concerned with this issue, but those questions might need some tweaking.
My third issue with the site: After clicking though 100 responses, you have to register with the site to get your results. (Don’t force me to register; if I find the results worthwhile I’ll do so to save them. ) I hate coercion in all forms, but I wanted my test results; I imagine others would feel the same way. I just spent 20+ minutes clicking away, so I want results! I registered with an old Excite account, so I could guiltlessly sever ties if not impressed with the findings.
But I find myself nodding my head at the findings. You can take a look at your results graphically by trait or the factors that those traits are clustered into.
My top 10 traits (of 90)
- Introspective
- Aesthetic
- Creative
- Intellectual
- Independent
- Organized
- Astute
- Solitary
- Unsettled (comfortable on home turf, less so in unfamiliar social settings)
- Discreet
After reading though the blurbs on each trait, I’d have to agree. I’m very “in my head” and prefer to be alone, though I bust out my inner social butterfly for professional networking opportunities.
It also brings to mind another recommendation. Since Signal Patterns aims to make connecting with other people like you possible, it would be great if they could pull in career data on all users, so a more comprehensive list of possible careers that fit with these traits could be developed.
If you take test, let me me know what you think. My overall results are below.
Discover
zak’s
Personality Patterns
Recent Comments