Pairwise graphical/numerical comparisons can be used to express your judgment about the relative importance or preference or likelihoods of the two elements shown on each line.
In the example below, we are asked to compare the relative importance of each pair of objectives with respect to the decision of which car to purchase.
For each pair, you can enter a judgment by dragging the slider bar or by entering a number (greater than zero) in the left or right boxes below the slider bar.
In the top line of the example above, a judgment is made that "Performance" is about twice as important as "Cost of Ownership" with respect to the decision "Purchase a new car."
You can drag the bar only up to ratio 9:1 as the extreme (see Performance vs. Style). Judgments with ratios > 9 to 1 can be entered numerically (see Cost of Ownership vs. Style), which will move the slider on the extra white spaces from 9.
Graphical judgments can also be entered by clicking on the chevron icons 
or 
. If the mouse is held down on either of these two icons, the slider will continue to move in the appropriate direction with increasing increments the longer the mouse is depressed.
If you realize that your judgment is inverted, you can click on the 
icon.
Your judgment will be automatically recorded when you go to another step, such as by clicking 
.
You can also enter judgments about the relative preference of two alternatives with respect to an objective by using the multi pairwise graphical/numerical comparison method.
