Blank = Zero

Can we please just all agree that blank = zero?
Greenfield, unsurprisingly:

Come on, guys. Stop making things hard for respondents. It’s not like you have enough of them to begin with.

Zogby Motorcycle Emptiness

What fresh hell is this? John Zogby has discovered the matrix? And somehow made it uglier than any other matrix in the history of research? All true, and more on that in a moment, but first, this unusual use of the ticky box:

That’s probably illegible unless you click on it, but the gist is I’m [...]

Whoa, Two Months?

Crap, I know I’ve been busy, but this is ridiculous.
Still fighting the good fight, but haven’t had time to write about (or even look at) much research lately. I did catch this grid a couple days ago, and I think it’s worth throwing up and looking at, not because it’s a particularly terrible example (it’s [...]

Also Not About Research: Why Can’t Newspapers Figure The Internet Out?

Looks like I’m adding a couple hundred more words to the millions already written this year about Why The Media is Dying. This screencap from a New York Times article today about famous people hiring people to “ghost twitter” for them:

You’d think those links (or, as I’m sure they call them at the Times, hyperlinks), [...]

THIS IS INTERESTING

I’m not sure what’s more interesting about this: the ALL CAPS FOR NO APPARENT REASON, or the inclusion of every operating system known to man:

Odd they left out CP/M. I wonder how many OS2 users they still get.
They get bonus points for the odd clip art, too.  “Look at this fascinating INTERNET PANEL question I’m [...]

Pssssst: It’s Still a Matrix

Even though I can make cool patterns with it, it’s still a matrix, and in the end, it’s still a bit boring.

I still think this is an innovative approach, and one with promise — but I think it would be much stronger with logos or product images in place of the text. Take advantage of [...]

Really?

Seriously?
Aside from the part where the question is inherently creepy (until you get to the next question and realize you’re about to be asked how much beer you drink each week), was a text field — a text field in which the user has to insert slashes, no less — really the best way to [...]

If you’re going to use the web, USE THE WEB.

Why is everyone still doing this?
Yes, when you report research results to your client, you’re going to want to group the responses into age groupings. Makes sense.
Why, though, are you asking your respondents to enter their answer using those same groupings? Three real issues I have with this approach:
1) When I see groups, I immediately [...]