theIdeaStudio (Customer Crossroads)

Electronic gift giving: the challenge of the e-reader

My husband is an avid reader, and always likes getting a book as a gift. Selecting said book can be a challenge at times, but at least I always have a fall-back category.

I gave him a Kobo e-reader last year for Christmas, after watching him lug around the 1,300 page doorstop that is A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth.

I was delighted to find that Kobo has ffigured out how I can give a specific book as a gift.

 

My only gripe is that I need to be logged in to an account to figure out how to do this. Except I do not have a Kobo account, because I don't (yet) have my own e-reader. And GIFT is not on the top menu, which of course it should be... I had to actually choose a book to figure out I could give it as a gift. These are minor problems, however.

This is still not quite as nice as being able to give the physical thing, like a card that looks like the book, but it's an excellent start.

I would prefer to pass a physical object as the gift, and then get the excited look, hug and kiss I deserve. Instead, I will have to say, "Sweetie have you checked your e-mail yet today?", which is not nearly as much fun.

 

 

Confirmation messages: a nice touch and a good example

There is a local retailer of housewares and small home appliances that works very hard to set themselves apart from the national chains, called Cayne's.

We recently bought some soda chargers (for making your own soda water) via their web site. Here's the nice confirmation e-mail they sent. First time I can ever remember getting anything like this.

If you combined this with Dell's order status updates, you'd have something really spiffy.

These folks do a nice thing with pets as well, which I have written about here.

Innovation in Government: Calgary raises the bar

On a recent visit to Calgary, I was impressed to learn about their parking meters. [Okay, I'm weird, but hear me out.]

Excited about parking. Really.

My business colleague input his license plate, then paid, but didn't have to march over to put a piece of paper in his car. This definitely got my attention. Then he told me he could add more money using his cell-phone!  I asked how the system was controlled, and he told me that cars with automated cameras drive around checking the lots. [So even that part is pretty automated!]

This was cool enough, but here are a few more things I learned about ParkPlus later:

• You can find out real time availability of parking spaces in city lots, and even get an RSS feed if you need it.
• You get a discount for a small car, because it takes up less room in places that are flexible, like on-street parking. Now that is seriously cool.
• Because the system is ticketless, they can collect parking fees from scooters and motorcycles. [As a scooterist myself, i kind of like the free parking I get in my home city Toronto, but governments need the bucks, so this is still a cool idea.]
• You can actually set up an account with them, and fund it, which you can then use your cell-phone to access

It's a pretty cool web-site, with well organized information, very clear, and looks pretty user-friendly.

Then I found out about their main web site.

It's not just their parking meters -- they are doing things with their web site that are even cooler. Here's the City of Calgary home page. Pretty, isn't it? So clean, so simple looking.

The image background revolves through a series, but the Bing-like search page, powered by Google, has the one search box.  It's not stuffed up in the corner, saying, in effect, "if you can't find what you need, you can try this". It says "how can i help you?" A bold step for a government institution.

There's an interactive map, a news feed streaming at the top of the main page, a calendar, and numerous other cool things. Every search I tried loaded with blinding speed. Who would suspect a municipal government showing leadership in web site design?

As Ivor Tossel said in a recent Globe + Mail article (how I learned of the web site),

"In the age of Google, most government sites still work like Yahoo did a decade ago."

To find anything in most city web sites, you need to know how the city is organized, so you know what department to look in.

My own city's site tries, but doesn't make it. See the screenshot below:

 

I did three searches on the site, and each one took me to a different landing page with different navigation structures. It would be much easier to just use Google, and not even try navigating through the city's structure.

I loved Ivor Tossell's conclusing remarks:

"The solution that Calgary adopted may be most remarkable as an act of institutional humility. Governments are big, complicated machines, and their instinct will always be to make a show of all the things they do. But Calgary’s site advertises nothing except its interest in what the citizen is looking for. Usefulness is the best municipal service of all."

My take

It's nice to see innovation that benefits taxpayers, isn't it. Have you seen any lately?  I love to have your comments, and publish anything that isn't outright spam.

 

Computer tinkering is dead: The new digital divide

In the previous post I confirmed that personal computing isn't really dead, it's just a popular headline.  However, something else is changing. Computing is so pervasive, that a new digital divide is becoming more apparent. It's the divide between users and experts, which is getting bigger all the time.

Computer tinkering may be dying.

Let me put forth a couple of observations, and see if I can pull them together.

Nugget #1: Parents of anyone under 18 often assert that their children know a great deal about computers and how to "program" them. They say this because their kids showed them how to use basic features on a device.

Nugget #2: In research projects with teens and young adults, I have often found that teens are not actually better at "programming", they are just more comfortable. They are equally, if not more, frustrated by web sites that are badly organized, for example.

Nugget #3: Devices with poor user interfaces continue to baffle most. My favorite example is the portable projector, (now that nobody seems to have VCRs anymore.) Before a meeting where there will be slides projected, there is always a tense moment when we learn a) how to turn on the projector, and b) whether it will project what is on the laptop.

In the last century, when I got my first PC, you had to develop some facility with DOS to use the device. I had an early version of Windows (3.0 I think), which I hoped would remove DOS from my life, but didn't.

It's very complicated, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Software executive Ray Ozzie said in Dawn of a New Day, that the personal computing environment has become hugely complicated for all of us:

as the PC client and PC-based server have grown from their simple roots over the past 25 years, the PC-centric / server-centric model has accreted simply immense complexity.  This is a direct by-product of the PC’s success: how broad and diverse the PC’s ecosystem has become; how complex it’s become to manage the acquisition & lifecycle of our hardware, software, and data artifacts.  It’s undeniable that some form of this complexity is readily apparent to most all our customers:  your neighbors; any small business owner; the ‘tech’ head of household; enterprise IT.

Pinnacle of complexity reached

Things have reached something of a pinnacle of complexity, to the point where even backing up your data (a modern moral imperative) has become a major challenge, far from the point and click simplicity promised.  And that's just one example. I recently tried to move my iTunes from one desktop to another, and was astonished at the difficulty of this task. We could come up with hundreds more examples easily.

We can no longer hope to resolve any significant computing issue ourselves unless we happen to have advanced training.

Young people are no different. They do not know how to "program" their devices, they are just more comfortable using them. They are willing to poke at things until they work, rather like kicking a vending machine. Their parents may believe this is "programming" because the parents are unable to figure out how to use basic functions of devices, such as texting, especially when models change.

Cloud computing to the rescue

There was time you could tinker with your car -- that is long gone, because cars are far too complex, and are stuffed with computers.But driving, actually using the car, is getting easier. And the cars are getting smarter, so they look after us better -- they help us manage braking in slippery conditions, for example.

I think the time where us normal folk could do much tinkering with our computers is fast disappearing, and this is likely to be a great relief to many. Cloud computing options have shifted the complexity to someone else, which is as it should be.

The net result is this, however -- actual ability to "program" things -- to tinker and such -- is going to become even more of a geeky specialty than it is now.

Implications not clear - what's your take?

I'm not sure what the implications of this are, actually. But would love to hear your take.

Personal computing isn't dead, it's just gone pervasive

I've been seeing a flurry of articles on the future of personal computing -- they bubble up on a regular basis -- that say something like "The PC is dead." You have to admit it's a great headline.

The latest to catch my attention was this one: Engineer of original IBM PC declares end of PC era, in TechRepublic. Mark Dean, the engineer in question, is quoted thus:

PCs are being replaced at the center of computing not by another type of device — though there’s plenty of excitement about smartphones and tablets — but by new ideas about the role that computing can play in progress.

Author Jason Hiner's take is that:

computing is no longer about a box but is being absorbed into everything and is now about creating experiences that connect people and enable them to do work wherever

Fox News already reported the death of the PC in early 2011 from the Consumer Electronics show. Others had reported it earlier, and still others (such as Steve Ballmer) argued that it's not really dead.

So is it really dead or what?

I'm not sure anyone cares. The real debate seems to be about the form of a computer, which is probably not something that consumers think about much.

What we are really experiencing is such a pervasive presence of computing ability that we don't even think about it as computing ability. Cars that lock their doors on their own, and keep their lights on while you go in the house, for example. Information accessible from so many devices, that when we see a screen of some sort, we kind of assume it is connected to the web.When it isn't, invariably you see someone pushing the screen looking for a reaction that isn't forthcoming.

Form factors (fancy term for the way stuff looks and works, what components it has to use) are changing, definitely. I don't think things like keyboards are disappearing though. I don't think big screens are disappearing. What is disappearing are the limitations of devices -- we're going to be able to go all mix and match.

What is likely changing is that the divide between users and engineers is becoming more entrenched, and more permanent. More on that in the next post.

Resources:

Early computing in pictures - Royal Pingdom, kind of an interesting technology site

The PC is dead - Fox News - January 2011

The PC (as we know it) is Dead - MSNBC - June 2011

Dawn of a New Day, Ray Ozzie's blog - Chief Software Engineer at Microsoft from 2008 to 2010 -- this is a more nuanced article. Long, but interesting. October 2010

 

 

New Qualitative 101

Greenbook, in conjunction with my buddies at QRCA, have just come out with a directory of New Qualitative providers.

Quite apart from the fact that I am listed in it... you would find it useful for a few other reasons:

• Great basic articles telling you what you need to know about various methodologies. Well written by experts Betsy Leichliter and Jay Zaltzman
• Details and contact information for the major platform providers
• Listings for researchers experience in these methods

You can get a hardcopy for $29, but check out the digital version for free, here.

There's also a blog (I'm writing there too), which has some fantastic contributors, all people who've done a fair bit of heavy lifting in new methodologies, and will be sharing best practices, new ideas, and whatnot.

It's good news to finally have a resource in one place, and I'm sure it will grow as providers seem to be expanding continually. Many of these providers were simply lost in the giant directory that has everything from survey sample to focus group facilities listed.

So now we have resources in one place, plus information too. And that's just great news for practitioners and clients!

 

Trust in the digital era: Epsilon e-mail breach triggers notices from big brands

We've received four notices so far this week about Epsilon's e-mail security breakdown -- everyone from Abe Books to Best Buy has been saying sorry. The notices are a good idea, and probably necessary for them to limit / mitigate liability (in certain litigious market areas).

But I found these e-mails fairly alarming, especially when they kept coming.

But wait... there's more

Turns out that only 2% of total clients were compromised, and it was just e-mail addresses, according to Epsilon's press release. Initially, this felt reassuring, but then I started wondering... what does 2% really mean, when you are operating on this scale?

Elsewhere in the Epsilon website, I learned that they can send "15 million dynamic messages in one hour, or more than 40 billion emails a year."

Turns out that 2% of their clients amounts to about 50 companies, many of them of significant size -- according to this list. (I guess they used the 2% of clients number because the e-mails number was just too big and scary?)

So, finally I know why I am getting so many heartfelt notes from celebrities offering to help me improve my body parts, and have better date nights.

Resources

PC magazine posts more information here about the topic, and offers the suggestion of using a specific e-mail address for online shopping purposes.

But this solution means... if i actually want value-added e-mails and offers from a trusted business I deal with (e.g. Best Buy, for example, or perhaps a hotel or airline), I then have to wade through a ton of spam to get it.

mobile qualitative - ready for your phone today

This week I am participating in a demonstration of mobile phone texting as a method of gathering insights.

Not a new methodology, incidentally -- people have been using mobile methods for a few years now, but it's really starting to come into its own with the proliferation of smart phones.

In fact, I recall a large-ish student project of a few years ago, (bulletin board methodology), where i gave up using e-mail to communicate with students because they responded so much better to texts!

Back to the demo. Mobile methods for qualitative now come in many flavors, from simple Q+A gathered up into a spreadsheet at the end, to fully integrated texting in a discussion forum platform. 

Here's what I'm noticing, two days into the study:

- Far from being an irritant, I am finding the quick text messages a welcome interruption to my work a couple of times a day.

- I'm curious to see what the researcher is asking next. (Yes, it seems that a good and engaging question is as crucial here as it is anywhere, perhaps even more so!)

- I got a "great idea" response from the researcher that made me smile (the usual pats on the back we give to reinforce participation worked just fine on me too!)

I'll be interested to see the aggregated results of this demo study in a webinar later this week (put on by the Online SIG of QRCA.)

I love the idea of using this approach for a warm-up or follow-up to a more in-depth method. It's in the moment, very unscripted from the standpoint of the respondent, and reaches me where i am right now. The possibilities suggested are really wonderful!

If you have experience with this method -- either as a participant, or as a researcher / client, I'd love to hear your thoughts here in the comments.

Improved local search is coming soon to a smart phone near you

 
I was looking for maps of local meeting places (aka Starbucks) one day recently, and found this great little tool called FindbyClick. It looked like something I could really use, and I was excited to see it had mobile download availability. Just not for my Blackberry. Darn.

This prompted a quick e-mail to the company, which resulted in a delightful conversation with Kevin MacDonald, head of the location-based product group at developer Pentura.

FindbyClick was a media darling for a brief period when it was first introduced, but is not the main line of business for this IT development company. Nevertheless, it has a place in the hearts of the team, and is still in line for some development.

"My dream is to tap into the community, to help take content that would be of interest to others, and to use this content to create a social network on a map," Mr. MacDonald says.

He observed that a challenge for all mapping services, whether Google Maps, MapQuest or TomTom, is that "they have a lot of stale data."  He had hoped to build enough of a community that people would go in and correct incorrect data. This did indeed happen in some instances. "We had one guy who had a Wal-Mart obsession," who did considerable work tagging and moving points around to their correct locations. Another individual provided many of the locations and tags for Starbucks in Hong Kong.

Mr. MacDonald believes that the launch of FindbyClick was "a little ahead of the curve." IPhone had not yet been released, and mobile device capability was constrained. At the time this service was built, only Nokia had the capacity to put such an application on their phones.

Subsequently the firm has worked with a number of major organizations on location-based applications, including Google.

Maps as information sources

You can learn a lot from mapping. For example, Mr. MacDonald notes that Manhatten is covered with Starbucks, but New Jersey has almost none. We speculated that perhaps New Jerseyites were more of a Dunkin Donuts crowd. Or perhaps they get their Starbucks at work, not in their home neighborhood. You can tell alot about the people in an area by the stores and services in the area.

The future of mapping is definitely bright

Mr. MacDonald agreed with me that push marketing to your mobile device is not likely to be appealing to many people -- the "turn around now for a great deal" kinds of applications that were forecast a decade ago.

Instead, what he sees is the potential for predictive functionality based on an individual's own tags. So my phone might tell me about things that are similar to what I have already expressed interest in. If I have tagged a lot of delicatessens on my maps, my phone might find additional delis for me from the lists of things others have tagged. This feels something like Del.icio.us functionality brought to a map, and that would be excellent.

Another limitation has been the lexicon of descriptions available to tag a given location, which Mr. MacDonald likens to working with a limited vocabulary. In the future we will have more free-form searching, instead of being limited to a specific set of tags.

FindbyClick will launch a new version in 2009, "with more data, more content, and content more personalized to you."

Experience design implications

So many of the things we want are local. And the web has not been very good at local search. When we are looking for a hair salon, we want one that's convenient. Even more for a drycleaner. Same thing for a daycare, a dentist, or a framing shop. Sometimes it's urgently local, as is the case with a gas station or a bank machine.

With local search and mapping getting better, and with smart mobile devices ready to help, we will all be able to get out from behind our desks more and find the places we need. If your company has any kind of physical presence, you will want to be considering how you will take your place in these interactive maps.

Resources:

Pentura Solutions Inc.-- an IT consulting firm that developed FindbyClick

Google Maps Mania --  a blog about Google Maps. Here's their story about FindbyClick

FindbyClick the blog -- Kevin MacDonald's blog

Throw out your well-worn assumptions - study customer adaptations

"We're throwing out the well-worn assumptions about how applications are
supposed to work, and are instead paying attention to the clever ways in
which people have adapted software to fit their needs. These workarounds
usually contain the seeds of a better solution."

- Rael Dornfest, Valuesofn.com and I Want Sandy

This is great advice for anyone designing a customer experience -- forget your assumptions and find out what people are up to.

I Want Sandy was suggested by reader James Shewmaker in a comment. Unfortunately, this charming little service is packing it up. But Twitter has purchased their IP. So I'm guessing Twitter is planning on being much more than they are today. 

My year of gadgeting: Bamboo, Livescribe, and now BlackBerry

This has been my year of gadgets.

First it was the Wacom Bamboo tablet, which I use to customize graphics for presentations, and occasionally for this blog. It made the great arrows above. And Leonard Cohen uses one of these to make his drawings. I recently met an editorial cartoonist, and I think he's using a Wacom product to make his drawings as well. It's a beautiful device, and I love it. I haven't really shifted from my mouse for basic navigation, however, as you can see on my messy desktop above.

Then the Livescribe SmartPen, which I wrote about not long ago here. Also a terrific thing, and has been a great tool for research work. It records what you write, and can match digital audio to it too.

The latest addition to the family is the Blackberry Bold, which took this picture. I want to tell you more about this purchase, but that's for another day.

While each of these purchases seemed completely justified -- in fact, I've been something of an outlier, and not in a good way, to resist the always-on-always-accessible lifestyle accorded by the BlackBerry for so long -- I still now feel overwhelmed by this orgy of gadget consumption. Has it really improved my life, or just given me a bunch of new stuff to learn and process? [To say nothing of the dusting.]

Oddly enough, one of the favorite things on my desktop is one of my set of mugs from Lucky Rabbit. Old technology, to be sure. The mug is one of a set we commissioned -- each mug is different, each having a whimsical animal: a cat with a squirrel on its back, a fox, a fish, a wild boar, etc. Wonderful stuff, and individual in a way that a BlackBerry can't easily achieve.

Sending messages to yourself: linking your online calendar to your phone, your kids, etc.

While writing a previous post on paper planners and customization, I came across even more planning solutions. Check out My Text/SMS Planner, an online service that sends text messages to your cell phone to remind you of meetings, deadlines, etc. Very cool idea.

The system will let you send messages to any phone number, not just your own phone. So a mom could program in reminders for a kid's doctor appointment or music lesson, for example. You could send your spouse a reminder for your birthday.

This is not a free service, and I had a few problems just figuring out exactly how much it would cost. In fact, there is no price information available until you have signed up and logged in. Kind of ambush marketing, IMHO, and made me a bit suspicious about the whole service.  You can buy credits in small packages (e.g. 5 for $1.49), but it's not clear what a message costs. 1 credit?

Their visuals position them as a business service, but I would guess the natural market is more likely to be students, young adults, and busy families. But who knows?

Cool new tools that enable feedback

I went looking for one thing online, and found a bunch of other stuff. Don't you love doing that on a Friday morning? So of course I wanted to share...

There are just such a variety of interesting online applications for assisting collaboration now. If you can add some others to the list, please do. If you have used any of these tools and have comments about them, please add your thoughts as well.

Mapanno Markup

This markup tool lets you invite comments from others on an image or a project. It feels a lot like Google Maps, where you can add an icon and comments, and stick it to a specific place on the document. Here's a screen shot that gives an idea...

Review Basics

I have actually tried out this tool on a demo basis at least a year ago, and it looks even better now. like Mapanno, it is currently free. But it has a broader range of functionality, and was designed more specifically with marketing folk in mind.

Here's a screen shot of what the markup environment looks like. There are bubbles that you can use to enter text and a variety of marking tools as well.

 

Review Basics also supports common video formats, as well as Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files.
I'm itching to try this out with a research project, but I think it could be really useful on a team internal basis as well. Right now, it's free, just like Mapanno.

Vyew
Vyew is one I just learned about, thanks to GeekBlog. I haven't had time to demo it at all, but it positions itself as a competitor to WebEx and GoToMeeting. In addition to those services, however, there is the potential for asynchronous involvement by multiple reviewers who can mark up documents, and view each other's comments.

Here's a comparison chart that may help.

There are some interesting case studies on the site as well, that make it clearer how one might use such a multi-featured application for things other than web conferencing. Like the other tools mentioned, it is currently FREE, and does not require software installation. There's a review by Guy Kawasaki

Concept Share

This service is specifically targeted to graphic designers. I haven't tried it out, but it looks pretty appealing. There is a free-premium model in place which affects the number of projects you can use, and the amount of online storage you get. Huge amounts of storage are available, which is needed for graphic files.

 

Basecamp

I've been using Basecamp for a few months now. Although it's not perfect, it's a very useful and low cost collaboration tool. I haven't figured out a way to use it for research projects yet. But you can store files, there are whiteboards, a really good messaging function that beats running things on e-mail, and some project management tools.

This stuff all just continues the flattening process where little tiny organizations have access to tools and technology as good as the stuff the big organization's have. Sometimes it's even better.

If you want to read about even more of these tools, here's a reference article from GeekBlog. And their handy comparison table.

Subscribing

We now have three ways to read this blog. 

1. You can subscribe to the feed using an RSS reader, such as Bloglines, My Yahoo, Feedburner, Feedster or many others. These services are free of charge, and you will quickly get the hang of it.  Click on any of the cute little graphic boxes to the left to get started.
   
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3. If you want to stay in touch, but don't want that much communication, you can subscribe to our one page Customer Experience Crossroads newsletter.  It's a well crafted one page article that goes out about 8 times a year, with one good idea or insight per issue.  Just click on the big blue "subscribe" button, and sign up. 
   

Just look to the left, and choose your option.  All options are free of charge, and you can unsubscribe any time you want.  Thanks for reading! 

Cell Phones for Paying Bills: What's Taken So Long?

Tom J. Manessis, head of emerging opportunities at VISA says, "For U.S. consumers, it has to be simple to use", in a Businessweek story about paying by cell-phone, Will that be Cash, Credit or Cell?, by Roger O. Crockett.  I don't think it's just US consumers, Tom. 

In fact, excessive complexity is probably what has sunk this development to date, since we've been hearing it touted as "coming soon" for at least five years now. 

Sam Pitroda, CEO of C-SAM,  says he has been focused on ease of use.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So often, exciting developments of this type sink under attempts to take over the world, instead of focusing on improving a few consumer experiences and making them dramatically better. 

We don't need to apply for loans via keypad on our cell, or make mortgage payments this way.  In fact, last time I researched it, not many people wanted to trade stocks this way.  But it would be nice to perhaps pay for a cab, buy mints, buy a newspaper, a subway token, or other small purchases in a simple way. 

I have heard from many consumers that they hate cluttering up their bank statement with a lot of small debit purchases.   

Dexit is supposed to solve this problem by providing a key-fob device that you reload at $1.50 per.  It does mean carrying another device, and it requires it's own infrastructure.  (I pity the poor merchants who have to figure this all out.  Wonder what their customer experience feels like?)

However, things are looking good on the cell-phone payments front these days.  Can your cell-phone provider give you a simple sign-up process?  Stay tuned. 

More on Blogging 101: tell a friend about blogs week

I'm still running into a lot of people who don't know what blogging is.   It's important enough you need to form your own opinion on the topic.  You may decide it's just so much navel-gazing by a bunch of self-important pretenders. 

Or you may decide blogging is the latest evolution of what Gutenberg started way back when. 

If you need the basics, I've updated the Blogging 101 post. 

Seth Godin has announed that this is "tell a friend about blogs" week.    So do it.  Tell someone about blogs.  Even better, start your own blog! 

More on Gutenberg's invention here.  Hint: it was not the printing press. 

Blogging 101

Many of the people I talk to about this blog say something to me like: "What's a blog?"  (That kind of thing sure keeps you grounded, doesn't it?) If you are one of those people who is just figuring this out, follow the link below for 

a simple, step by step example of how to dip a toe in the blogging waters

Scroll down to the article How to get into Blogs, 101 at the tecosystems blog.  It's got a lot of interesting and useful stuff, and is relatively free of mystifying technojargon. 

The biggest thing you need to know about to get value from blogs is how to use an aggregator.  I use Bloglines, which is pretty straightforward, and also FREE.  When you see a blog you want to read again, you simply subscribe using Bloglines, and then you can see updates to your whole list in one place, instead of surfing over to each one.  Bloglines makes this subscription process easy for you by giving you a "bookmarklet" that you save in your list of favorites.  When you are on a blog you want to subscribe to, you can click your bookmarklet, and Bloglines does this for you. 

Some blogs put buttons on their sidebars that will also add that blog to your aggregator.  Just like the ones over there on the left of this page.  (It took me a while to figure that part out too)

We all know a few people who are not really part of the digital age -- they don't have a computer, they don't use e-mail.  They're missing a lot of richness and diversity.  Aren't you glad you're not one of them?

Postscript added April 5, 2005

An even better description of how to start a blog kindly provided by Michael Hyatt at WorkingSmart, which provides useful links to various blogging tools and aggregators.  And ongoing, his perspective on corporate blogging.

Postscript May 6, 2005

A great step-by step description of how to use Bloglines to keep up with lots of blogs without a lot of work.   From Betterdays blog.   Has lots of screen shots, step-by-step, and additional tips from other people who have commented.

Google Maps

Finally a good online mapping experience, at least at first blush.  Thanks to Karl Long   for bringing this to our collective attention.

Okay, what is Google doing right here?  Many types of specific search options visible on the right-hand panel.  But you can just put in an address and a city in the top search bar as well.  Fairly predictable and controllable zoom in and zoom out.   And found my address -- accurately -- on the first try.

We are still a ways from having the web respond to how humans think and categorize information, however.  For example, a couple of people have recommended to me a small computer store near a specific intersection, but they can't remember the name of the store.   But we are definitely closer.

It almost makes you want to set your skepticism aside!

Vioxx vs Tylenol

Brilliant direct mail piece arrived at my home yesterday from some smart marketers looking to capitalize on a market opportunity created by the recent Vioxx studies. 

• Told me about an arthritis remedy that has few side effects or drug interactions
• Showed me the logo of The Arthritis Society, who has commended (note the choice of word there) their easy-to-open cap
• Provided me a meaningful coupon to try the product:  $5.00 off (that's practically free)

Of course this was the clever people at Tylenol, who know how to act on a market opportunity when they see it.

Online qualitative grows up

Chat didn't work that well for doing online focus groups.  Fortunately, that wasn't the end of online qualitative.  The Bulletin Board Focus Group has grown up, and is truly a viable option now.  It offers some unique advantages over face-to-face, and the barriers to key insights aren't as big as you might expect.

I set up a demo site for clients a few months ago, with the help of a friendly vendor, and promised them a report if they tried out the demo.  Let's just say that few of them were brave enough to post anything ... or more likely, my topic wasn't really very engaging, i.e. what do you think about this technology?

So I had to wait until I had a real project finished to produce some insights into this methodology. 

Let me tell you a bit about the project.  The project was a coast-to-coast study of financial planners.  So they are entrepreneurial, independent, well read and opinionated, and busy, busy, busy.  We wondered how they would react to the online concept.

To ensure we got the insights needed, we did half the project using telephone interviews, and half the project using bulletin board groups.  I found results were quite comparable overall, but the two techniques together made a great combination. 

Here's what we learned about using a BBFG for a group discussion:

What's a BBFG?

It's not online chat, and it's not instant messaging...

Here's a quick overview of what a Bulletin Board Focus Group is, and links to a couple of the better known facilities that are available for rent on a subscription basis.