When and Why to Use

Use this to ask binary forced-choice questions across multiple comparisons. It's ideal for:

• Preference testing between paired items
• Quick-fire brand or concept comparisons
• Engaging users with fast-paced choice tasks

Supports randomization and media-based comparisons.

Chat Experience

• Each pair appears as a row with two side-by-side buttons or tiles
• Users select one item at a time

With images	Without images

Traditional Experience

• All pairs displayed in grid format
• Responsive to keyboard or remote selection
• Layout adapts to show multiple pairs simultaneously

With images, mobile optimized	Without images

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Required	Default	Description
question	string	yes	-	The main prompt for the task
row_options	`List[List[str	MediaItem]]`	yes	-
randomize	bool	no	False	Shuffle the order of rows
randomize_columns	bool	no	False	Shuffle left/right order within each pair
default	Dict[str, str]	no	random choices	Default test responses per pair
recodes	Dict[str, str]	no	-	Map raw values to grouped outputs
image	MediaItem	no	-	Top-level image shown above the task
image_label_field	str	no	-	Label to show above any media items
show_image_label	bool	no	True	Whether to show labels on image tiles
image_size	Tuple[int, int]	no	-	Size of displayed images
custom_validator	`Callable[[Dict[str, str]], str	None]`	no	-
tags	s.tag()	no	-	Used for token substitution and reporting

Example Code

s.this_or_that_question( "Which of the following do you prefer?", row_options=[ ["Apples", "Oranges"], ["Coke", "Pepsi"], ["Dogs", "Cats"], ["Winter", "Summer"] ] )

With recodes:

s.this_or_that_question( "Which of the following do you prefer?", row_options=[["Netflix", "Disney+"], ["Prime", "Apple TV"]], recodes={ "Netflix": "streaming", "Disney+": "streaming", "Prime": "ecommerce", "Apple TV": "streaming" } )

With custom validator:

s.this_or_that_question( "Choose your favorite in each pair", row_options=[["Day", "Night"], ["Hot", "Cold"]], custom_validator=lambda d: "Please vary your responses" if len(set(d.values())) == 1 else None )

Notes

• Each row_options entry must contain exactly two items
• Randomizing column order helps reduce left/right bias
• recodes simplify grouped reporting or segmentation
• Use custom_validator to enforce answer patterns or detect straight-lining