Nice article about people that lie in order to qualify for market research studies

Researchers call these truth-stretchers focus groupies, a sneaky cadre that adopt multiple identities in order to secure paid seats on the dozens of focus groups that meet every week in the Bay Area.

Firms pay $50 to $100 cash for an hour or two of work that usually involves a moderated discussion about a new product or service with up to a dozen people gathered in a room equipped with a two-way mirror.

The allure of easy money leads hundreds of people every year to treat focus groups as a source of nearly work-free income. Get-rich-quick schemers even advertise focus groups as a source of cash.

And if it means telling a few lies along the way about your favorite brand of frozen pizza or the number of times you have already participated in a focus group, well, it’s no crime to fib to a marketing company.

Researchers go to great lengths to weed out groupies, including the use of exhaustive database cross-checks to ferret out the ‘cheaters’ and ‘repeaters,’ along with detailed screening interviews. Competing firms even share groupies’ names in the reverse form of a ‘do not call’ list.

‘It’s bad for the whole industry so we cooperate with each other,’ said Nichols Research Group Vice President Jane Rosen, whose Bay Area firm purges several hundred groupies a year from its database.

How far will people go?

They sign up with aliases, usually derivatives of their real names with different initials and middle names, Rosen said.

They may use a post office box address under one application and then a home address for the second response.

‘We had a woman sign up for two focus groups on the same day and after she finished the first session, she went out to her car and changed into a new set of clothes and put on a wig,’ Rosen said. ‘Fortunately, one of our people thought something looked wrong about her.’

Q&A Research in Walnut Creek recently foiled a woman who claimed to own a particular brand of luxury car, but the name on the automobile registration she provided did not match her own.

‘We had another man who used his first name for one group, then his middle name for a second group the next day and then a third one the following week,’ said Eric Tavizon, Q&A’s focus group project manager. ‘One of the clients caught him because he mistakenly signed up for events by the same sponsor and they recognized him.’

Of course I’ve encountered this on a much smaller scale; so much of what I do is predicated on a basic foundation of trust (and trust goes in two directions, of course) and it’s lurid and disturbing to consider how that trust can be violated (when do we read the piece about the rapist who posed as an ethnographer to gain access? yikes).

I’ve started a discussion thread on Discovery about this; we’ll see if anything develops.

Tags: ethnographic research, ethnography, focus groupies, focus groups, market research, participants, recruiting, research, respondents, usability, user research, users

The local Macy’s store has modified all their card reading boxes so that the card swiping slot is blocked. That t-shaped blob of plastic along the right side is where the slot used to be.

The software hasn’t changed, however, and while your purchases are being run up you are asked (as always) to swipe the card. I looked for quite a while, feeling stupid, trying to to figure out where the heck to put my card.

There was no place.

They also have not changed their staff training, so there was no mention of what to do or not do with the card.

Eventually, they take the card from you and swipe it themselves, and you return to the device to “sign” the purchase.

Tags: card reader, credit card, design, experience design, interaction, interaction design, interface, macy’s, post-design, post-hoc, retail, retrofit, swipe, transaction

We’ll be doing a Meet-and-Greet with the Usability Professionals’ Association Hong Kong on January 16. If you’re reading this, and you’ll be in Hong Kong in a couple of weeks maybe you can join us!

Tags: hong kong, meet and greet, upa, usability

The sign reads

Please order by number “only”, specifing which listed bread you would like, and specifying which condiment you do not want

A bit too complex. Fortunately, the staff at Norms Market in Pescadero pretty much ignore these ordering rules.

Tags: algorithm, condiment, deli, food, information architecture, information design, interaction design, ordering, pescadero, retail, store

World’s second GPS system set to start working in 2008

Officials of the European Space Agency said the Galileo system — scheduled to begin operation in 2008 — will double the world’s satellite coverage, now provided by the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System.
…
The launch comes at a time when Russia is moving forward with a positioning system known as GLONASS. On Sunday it put into orbit three new satellites for the network, which is scheduled to be operational in 2010.

With more satellites circling the globe, civilians almost anywhere on the planet could switch navigation systems as easily as mobile phones shift between service providers, according to European space agency officials.
…
Galileo is designed to provide real-time positioning accuracy to within 1 meter, or about 39 inches, ‘which is unprecedented for a publicly available system,’ according to the European Space Agency’s description. Civilian services available on the U.S. network are accurate to within about 16 feet.

Groovy. Format-wars come to GPS. Why not? Add international politics to the mix, and you’ve got a fun way to increase complexity and create confusion and limit adoption. I keep reading about blu-ray DVD and HD-DVD, but Sony can’t even begin to create the bureacracy of the EU. Much better this way, yikes. I guess one thing this format war has in common with others is a ridiculous focus on specs and less on design or usability. What the hell will we do with accuracy to 16 inches for consumer navigation systems, if we can’t get an accurate map database (scroll down to the thread entitled In-car GPS navigation )?

Update: A blurb in Popular Science suggests the different GPS technologies will be interoperable, which (if true, and depending on how true) renders my outrage obsolete.

Tags: accuracy, competition, complexity, format, gps

Here’s a year’s best gadget list from David Pogue who skips overall gnarylness to consider “small, sweet improvements in our electronic lives” such as a digital camera with automatic bracketing in self-timer mode, downloadable TV episodes, and front-side connectors for everything on TV sets. It’s a bit of a relief to see a best list that deals with features and usability rather than form, finish, technolust, or cool.

Tags: David Pogue, design, features, gadget, ideas, technology, top ten, usability

Interim Thoughts is a reasonably active blog about the changing business culture in India. Recent postings focus on retail, Indian brands, and business publications.

Tags: David Pogue, design, features, gadget, ideas, technology, top ten, usability

Bite Meez is a really strange dog toy. It’s a padded hand-puppet that looks like an animal (in this case, a zebra, but they’ve got all kinds) and I guess the point is to drive your dog nuts by putting this thing in his face and making chewing gestures; the point is to get the dog to bite it/you/your hand?

Saw these on the remainder table at JCPenney’s and they have a really nice disclaimer on them urging you not to use the toy with a dog that is aggressive, or a dog that might be able to bite through the toy. Seems like a product liability case that SNL’s Nathan Therm (“I know that. What makes you think I don’t know that? Is it me or him, it’s him right?”) would be called in to defend.

A story that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago:

BLUE SPRINGS, MO. — A woman who police thought deliberately tried to swallow her cellphone during an argument with her boyfriend was apparently the victim of an assault instead, authorities said.

Police have a suspect in the bizarre incident that sent the 24-year-old woman to the hospital last week, Sgt. Allen Kintz said. Police would not say whether the boyfriend was the suspect and would not explain exactly what they believe happened.

Early Friday, police responded to a call from a man who said his girlfriend was having trouble breathing. Police arrived to find a woman with a cellphone lodged in her throat. Police were initially told the boyfriend wanted the phone and the woman tried to swallow it so that he could not get it.

Tags: attack, cell phone, cellphone, crime, mobile phone, swallow, violence

The laundromat is more than a place to clean clothes, it’s also community center. No, not another example of how products and services have odd meanings in that wacky third world, this story takes place just outside of Chicago.

It was a haven for Hispanic families who cannot afford cable to watch Spanish-language soap operas. It was a Saturday-afternoon carnival with magicians, jugglers, face painters, even a unicyclist. There was Santa Claus posing for pictures at Christmas, the Easter Bunny handing out chocolate in April, cartoon characters on Halloween and, in summer, a read-athon raffle with bicycles for prizes…..
There will be diner-style booths by the vending machines – not just candy and chips but White Castle hamburgers and other microwaveable meals – and the play area, all under a circular dropped ceiling adorned with neon signs blaring “Welcome” in 20 languages. And it will still be open 24 hours, every day of the year.

Tags: community, culture, illinois, laundromat, laundry, services

Indians who immigrated to Silicon Valley to work in hi-tech are finding new demand, and a commensurate lifestyle, back home. New York Times reports on the reverse brain-drain.

Tags: community, culture, illinois, laundromat, laundry, services

In 2002 we drove to Tucson and stayed in a couple of B&Bs – one out in the desert and the other downtown. I didn’t have a digital camera but took my video camera that included a basic digital photo capability. I recently went through all the pics and cleaned up the best ones. Enjoy.

Tags: arizona, az, cabazon, cactus, dateland, dinosaur, hotel, mannequin, photography, reflection, tucson, wig

Last week we went to get our vaccinations in preparation for January’s trip to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and India. Already a significant frame shift, for now we’re having conversations about horrible ridiculous diseases that we don’t even think about. I got shot up for Hep A, influenza, and polio. Been taking pills for typhus. And we’ve got pills for malaria to be taken en route.

Strange experience at the injection clinic at Kaiser, our HMO. The reception area is a hallway. With a door opening to the cold outside right next to it, and plenty of foot traffic going through. At least 10 signs on the door with a range of contradictory instructions about how to gain access; the door is locked and you can drop your card (for drop-in, I guess) into a Lucite contraption that seems guaranteed to eat your card, or your card and typed-up-form (for those with appointments who went to reception) into a shelf on the back of the door that seems guaranteed to eat your card. Not clear who should do which, or when. A sign indicates the waiting area. Above an empty part of the wall, where the chairs are quite some distance away. It’s a nightmare; we watched a woman and daughter approach, where the woman clearly had little English, and she didn’t even pay attention to the signs and try to problem-solve with them, she just peered through the small window and tried to make eye contact with someone for help. Good solution, I guess, since the instructions/information design was horrific.

Once inside, we are given a form and a clipboard. The form was a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy (reproductio ad absurdum) that could barely be read and of course included all sorts of information (name, address, contact info, member number) that was redundant to what was already captured by the computer form from reception.

And the injection nurse was the nicest, coolest most helpful person you could ever hope to meet in a healthcare situation! The human factor was awesome; the human factors were terrible. She talked to us about her own travels; advised us about injections based on good information re: the types of exposure based on types of activity, side-effects and so on. She had decorated the small injection room with blowups of her own exotic travel pictures. We had a good time with her.

Meanwhile, we also got our visa from the Indian consulate in San Francisco. You show up with all your paperwork between 9am and noon, and then show up at 4:00 to pick up your finished visa (in fact, they hold onto your passport for this time and put a special document into one of the pages). Upon our return we got the horrible customer service question for Anne: “Could it be under another name?” but eventually they found it. Turned out they had held it because she was red-flagged. Based on occupation. Yep, a social worker is required to come in and sign a special form declaring they won’t practice any social work while in India. I bet Indian visitors to the US are scrutinized for possibly taking tech jobs illegally, but when we go over there, we are forbidden from possibly engaging in any social work!

Anyway, the form was signed and the visa was issued shortly. There was something strange and ironic about it all; I suspect that may be the theme for the whole trip.

Tags: design, disease, hepatitis, hmo, india, injection, kaiser, malaria, polio, social work, vaccination, visa

We’ve lived in this area called The Coastside for two years now, and I’m amazed and appalled at the lack of infrastructure. I’m not talking about roads and plumbing (though I’m sure those are issues; I just don’t know enough to complain about them). We don’t have sidewalks and we don’t have home delivery of mail. That may be seen as charming; but it’s getting a bit old for me.

We have no cell coverage. I can’t imagine that will change at any point.

Our Comcast cable television is terrible: image quality is consistently bad (with over-the-air artifacts like ghosting common on some very low channels) and audio is low volume and filled with hiss on higher channels. Recently, channel 3 went out completely. Comcast told many residents who called that they wouldn’t regard it as a real issue until they had reached a minimum number of service complaints that resulted in a scheduled technician visit. In other words, if you called in and told them about the problem, they would treat it as a local-to-you problem that didn’t require any action on their part until someone came and looked at YOUR house and eliminated that as the specific cause. It takes several days to get someone to come out and so it took a few days for Comcast to even acknowledge that they had a problem and to take any action to fix it. We pay the same as everyone else (if not more) for cable, and we get lousy service (both the product itself and the customer service).

Our power goes out many times each winter. For an hour, or for 7 hours. You never know, of course. It’s dangerous, inconvenient, stressful. We aren’t supposed to use the water when the power is out. There’s obviously some non-redundant connection that is very vulnerable to wind, wet soil, trees, or whatever. But PG&E is not investing in any infrastructure to develop a robust solution, so we’re stuck with frequent outages that leave a big section of Montara without power. Our power bills in Montara are ridiculously higher than other places we’ve lived.

Our telephone service is sub-par. Caller-ID information is often not received. A year or so ago I found that I would get a busy signal when calling the voice mail number – and that my own callers would often not be able to leave voice mail; instead having it ring and ring. It took a great deal of effort to get someone at SBC to acknowledge and fix the problem (they were out of circuits or something arcane). Last week we encountered terrible static when calling to Montara from outside of Montara. Calls to either of our home numbers from a cell phone or land line located elsewhere would be at best scratchy and at worst, unlistenable. I have reported this to SBC as have many other local residents. As with the cable, it’s being treated like a problem local to our own service, despite the fact that it’s not, but of course, we can only report our own problem. I was informed by SBC that they’ve checked and everything is fine. It’s not fine; my phone service is only semi-usable (I have to shout at my callers that I’ll return their call), and SBC has decided not to act. Of course, we pay the same fees to SBC that everyone else does.

Can you tell I’m fed up?

Tags: boonies, cable, coastside, comcast, failure, Montara, pg&e, phone, power, sbc, service, telephone, television

More than ever this year I’ve been included on various professional-type holiday greetings, gifts, thank-yous, and the like. Let me make the strongest point upfront that I’m so pleased (nay, thrilled) to have so many connections. Running a small business, my network is colleagues, inspirations, friendships, commiseration, referrals and more. I feel happy and thankful most of the time to have this in my professional life. Growing these connections has been one of the greatest things of my career and being able to step back and see who I like/respect/care about, and who cares about/respects/likes me is a perpetual thrill.

But I am troubled to report that I find most of the seasonal expressions of these connections to be empty gestures. I’ve received mailings and cards that are basically advertising, with nothing speaking to the personal relationship I have with some from that group. Few take the time to write even a few words to me personally. Others are sending digital messages, with a graphic attached to an email. In some cases, the image is simply attached to an email with no text. Some have written earnest and doubtless heartfelt reflections and hopes. I received one logo-emblazoned trinket (so I should advertise for you in exchange for a small piece of technology?) and one gift-basket type of deal that represents the brand of the basket people far more than the brand of the gift-giving people.

This is nothing new; it’s the challenge of so many one-to-many communications. This blog, for example. But at least this blog (or anything that approaches media) doesn’t pretend to be one-to-one. There’s no “Dear Gilles:” prefacing this entry. I’m shouting it “out there” and presumably some will read it. I’m not sending it right to you, dear reader, although I may sometimes picture individuals who I know read this stuff.

And I wouldn’t even have this reaction if it wasn’t for the seasonal pile-on of such missives. I realize I sound incredibly ungrateful and catty for questioning any of this – indeed, it is the thought that counts and in most cases, the thought to include me is quite warming.

I’ve also noticed that we can begin to blur the already terribly fuzzy professional/personal line in these communications – making references to family or religious observations, without any knowledge of my specific situation.

Is this just a decline of business etiquette? Would it have been unthinkable 30 years ago to send a holiday greeting without jotting a personal note above the printed text? Or was business 30 years ago much less creative anyway and so we didn’t have the same level of expectations? Or I am just spoiled to expect a seasonal greeting from Company X to symbolize my relationship with Company X rather than just serve as an indicator that someone at Company X wants to “keep in touch” with me.

And perhaps this is some of the 70s-era Xmas cynicism (at least my point of reference from MAD magazine); that it’s about tipping the newspaper person and employees waiting for their bonus, that it’s advertising and selling of everything (this predates the 70s, of course, Stan Freberg did Green Christmas way before that). Maybe my insane naivete is coming out here; that I’m being asked to the dance, and that’s great, but you didn’t expect to have a nice conversation as well, did you?

I wouldn’t want to be taken off anyone’s list; it’s a great tangible reminder of the connections, in the aggregate. I would love to see simpler less earnest and overwrought and promotional communications. They may be perfectly sincere for the sender, but they don’t find their mark with me. Your mileage may vary!