Where the respondent is asked to give values that together sum to say 100 points (for relative importance of a range of items or attributes), sliding scales for each attribute become difficult and confusing. Numerical methods lack visual stimuli and levels require frustrating adjustment to sum correctly.

By dividing one sliding scale into attributes the relative importance of each is easily determined. It would then be easy for respondents to evaluate all items at the same time and visually determine the proportion of total points to allocate to each item.