Wrong Controls for Rank Ordering

Below is the first step in a trip finder wizard for cycling trips.  The system is asking me to rank the factors about a trip in order of importance. 

From: Bicyclingworld.com

This in and of itself is a complicated first step: I know from asking users do rank-order exercises in testing, this can trip people up – it is hard for them to evaluate the trade-offs.  It is much easier for people to rate factors ( for example, on a scale of 1 to 7).

But the method required to perform the ranking makes it even more complicated. I must use a system of sliders to indicate my ranking and the items are not re-ordered to reflect my selections.

 There is also a conflict between the slider display (low to high) and the rank. Note the slider position of the item I ranked as "6" - it's in the far left position. Since we read left to right, we would expect the far left position to represent "1".

 

Compare how Netflix handles reording items in a queue - the same basic task. I can enter a ranking directly or use a quick "move to top" button. In either case, the items are listed in the order specified.

From: Netflix