During the last decade, researchers put a lot of effort into the development of the multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM) capable of dealing with the uncertainty and vagueness of the initial information. MCDM approaches that work under the environment of the interval-valued neutrosophic sets (IVNS) demonstrate credibility for the analysis of different opinions as well as for the inconsistency of the criteria evaluation data. The novel multicriteria decision-making approach MULTIMOORA-IVNS (multi-objective optimisation by ratio analysis under interval-valued neutrosophic sets) is presented in this paper. A novel heuristic evaluation methodology HEBIN (heuristic evaluation based on interval numbers) that exploits MULTIMOORA-IVNS for the processing of the evaluation results is also presented in this research. HEBIN is able to increase the accuracy of the checklists-based heuristic evaluation and to diminish the impact of the inconsistencies caused by the evaluators. A comparison of six e-commerce websites is introduced to reveal the practicalities of the proposed multicriteria decision-making application.

Data symmetry and asymmetry might cause difficulties in various areas including criteria weighting approaches. Preference elicitation is an integral part of the multicriteria decision-making process. Weighting approaches differ in terms of accuracy, ease of use, complexity, and theoretical foundations. When the opinions of the wider audience are needed, electronic surveys with the matrix questions consisting of the visual analogue scales (VAS) might be employed as the easily understandable data collection tool. The novel criteria weighting technique VASMA weighting (VAS Matrix for the criteria weighting) is presented in this paper. It respects the psychometric features of the VAS scales and analyzes the uncertainties caused by the survey-based preference elicitation. VASMA weighting integrates WASPAS-SVNS for the determination of the subjective weights and Shannon entropy for the calculation of the objective weights. Numerical example analyzing the importance of the criteria that affect parents’ decisions regarding the choice of the kindergarten institution was performed as the practical application. Comparison of the VASMA weighting and the direct rating (DR) methodologies was done. It revealed that VASMA weighting is able to overcome the main disadvantages of the DR technique—the high biases of the collected data and the low variation of the criteria weights.

Properly designed and installed interior stairs provide safe and convenient access to all residents of the house, including children and elderly people. While safety considerations are paramount for stair design and placement decisions in a two-storey single-family house, sustainability becomes another important factor in these deliberations. Nevertheless, safety and sustainability of the interior stairs can be seen as conflicting objectives in decision-making processes (i.e., while a larger staircase area positively affect residents’ climbing ability, it also causes higher energy consumption and material usage). Therefore, increased awareness of stair-project selection processes is required when multi-objective tasks are involved. Seven criteria affecting stair safety and sustainability in a single-family house are identified in this paper. The integrated AHP-MEREC criteria-weighting approach is proposed, to determine their weights in decision-making processes. Four different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches, ARAS, SAW, TOPSIS and PROMETHEE, were used to determine alternative evaluations. Since the selection of the most suitable MCDM method is full of uncertainties, the novel combined-decision-making approach formally called CORST (COmbining MCDM appRoaches using method STability coefficient) is proposed in this paper. The new method stability coefficient is used to determine the stability and reliability of the specific MCDM approach. Nine U-shaped inside-staircase projects dedicated to a single-family house were evaluated, to test the effectiveness of the CORST approach.

Serious games together with the gamified and the game-based surveys (GBS), offer an engaging way to increase citizens’ participation in urban planning projects. However, there is always the risk of untrustworthy participants, which can decrease the overall reliability of the game-based research. Trustworthiness analysis is a highly challenging task since the neuropsychology of the GBS respondents and the infinite amount of their possible in-game actions causes many uncertainties in the data analysis. The novel MCDM approach PROMETHEE-mGqNN (PROMETHEE under m-generalised q-neutrosophic numbers) is proposed in this paper as the solution to the described problem. Five criteria that might be automatically calculated from the in-game data are proposed to construct the decision matrix to identify the untrustworthy respondents. The game-based survey “Parkis” developed to assess the safety and attractiveness of the urban public park “Missionary Garden” (Vilnius, Lithuania) is proposed as the case study of this research. By applying the proposed methodology, we calculated the trustworthy index value and noticed that it is capable of detecting the behavioural tendencies of the GBS players. Keyword : MCDM, PROMETHEE, mGqNN, urban planning, game-based research, gamification, public participation, data mining

When investing in blockchain-based crowdfunding campaigns, choosing the right one is difficult. Therefore, it is important to recognize success factors that express the value of the specific campaign. This study is aimed at determining the success factors impacting the investors’ decision to fund blockchain-based crowdfunding campaigns and ranking them according to their importance in decision-making. An online survey was employed to collect expert opinions. The modification of the visual analogue scale matrix for criteria weighting methodology called VASMA-L was presented in this study to rank the list of the predetermined factors. To reduce the uncertainties in the decision-making process and the cognitive overload of the survey respondents, all the predetermined success factors were split into two smaller groups and assessed as those that fit both traditional and blockchain-based crowdfunding models and those that are specific only to the blockchain-based crowdfunding model. The main findings disclose that the three factors with the highest VASMA weights are from the first group. This means that when selecting the specific crowdfunding campaign to invest in, investors use common factors rather than those specific to blockchain-based crowdfunding. Only investor preferences were chosen and analyzed for successful blockchain-based crowdfunding campaign investment in this research. The VASMA-L methodology might help compare several criteria groups and select the most important ones. In addition, this weighting methodology might help investors to choose the most thrilling blockchain-based crowdfunding campaigns to fund.