About a month ago, Dan Rockwell and I finished writing an article for interactions magazine about Casual Data, the term we’ve used to describe rich data propagated or mined via some form of social media. The piece defines Casual Data, talks briefly about why it’s becoming so prevalent, and then proceeds to identify current ways it’s being used and what that means to the fields of design and research. It will be out in a spring 2010 issue of interactions, however, here’s a sneak peek at some of the data nugget goodness:
The problem with too much data
While there are a number of firms analyzing the surface value of casual data, there is a need dig deeper to understand context and higher-level implications. The more connected we become, the more connected our data becomes, and the more we need a structured approach for making sense of it.
Companies having loads of customer data available is not news, however this casual data is not quantitative in nature (demographics, pattern-focused). The emotional meaning behind casual data should not be analyzed statistically, and the methods used to gain this data are as important to understand as the data itself. If customer voice is only harvested through an existing medium (e.g. submitting a query for iPhone-related tweets) the results you get will be brief and will tend to either be of intense glee: “new iPhone copy/paste function, thank GOD” or intense distaste: “Apple sucks!” – leaving little room for understanding context of use, while still providing good touch-points for product improvement. There is the potential of casual data being more dangerous than helpful if not properly understood.
Ok, so what’s our role?
The need to find long-term meaning via any quick casual data-farming medium creates a niche opportunity for research firms to use their proven techniques to analyze and understand this abundance of user input. Professional researchers will be able to understand how casual data is useful, where it is applicable and where there are still unanswered (and often unasked) questions. This will allow research companies to reinforce doing more in-depth research as a result of learnings from this data, rather than allowing clients to use this data (which is often incomplete) as conclusive.Even tools that have built-in analysis capabilities cannot play down the importance of involving a comprehensive research process. Design researchers look at data to understand not only design opportunities but also to come up with high-level emotional themes. If 10 people say that they want a certain feature from pampers.com, what does that mean in terms of their needs, and how will they benefit from that feature? Extrapolating concepts, ideas and feedback into themes can help the design team understand trends and potential meta-themes, and consequently how to design new products and services that weren’t necessarily articulated by their customers. Researchers also have the opportunity to help companies understand how to manage all of this data – does it need to lend itself to searching by future company stakeholders, or will it be regenerated? Having a plan for where the data goes can increase the value attained from it, and help to track trends over time.
1. This Dave Carroll guy wrote a moderately catchy song about a customer service gripe. He made something totally miserable into something entertaining. I guess country musicians are pretty good at this.
2. Millions of people will likely watch this video/hear this song, making the interwebs reign supreme once again as a conduit for communication.
…and my favorite..
3. Dave (as well as many other people who post and share customer service/product/brand problems online) is a great example of how the interaction between a company and the customer is one of the most precious things that company has, and it can make (or break, in this case) customer loyalty. With such competitive airfare available, it isn’t difficult for travelers to opt for a competitive airline (say Delta, Continental or even Southwest) for travel based on hearing about/dancing to this incident.
I know I talk about this magazine ruling all the time, but today I just want to go on the record as saying that GOOD is also, more than often, way ahead of the curve.
Ecosystems is a few votes away from getting enough votes to win a good-sized grant. They’ll use this grant to produce a series of forward-thinking sustainable design lectures and workshops. You have to sign up to vote, but you won’t get spammed, and it’s for a great cause.
Maurice from MotionDrift films was awesome enough to record and edit Columbus’ second Ignite event, which took place in mid-January and was hosted by Lextant. Here’s my 5 minute jam on real life vs. social media, and you can find my slide deck here (I’ll likely be posting on this topic more in-depth soon). All the other Ignite 2 presentations can be found here.
I went into the UPS store today to ship a few things to my brother in Hawaii. The lady working there described to me exactly how she was going to package things so they didn’t break. She then priced out how much it would be to ship this gigantic, fragile box to Honolulu, and upon realizing that it would be a little over $100, proceeded to look up how much it would cost to send the same package via USPS – less than $50. She’s now packaging the stuff for me for about $15, then I’m gonna pick it up and bring it to the post office.
I am super impressed, as I later asked her if the software she was using to price out my shipment via UPS simultaneously priced out my shipment via USPS – and indeed it did. I’m unsure whether or not the UPS Store employees are encouraged to share this information with customers, so for all intents and purposes of maintaining my rosy experience, we’re going to pretend that it is part of their policy to share all information with customers in order for them to make an informed decision (hellooooo idealist).
Despite me taking my business to the post office on this occasion (and slight skepticism that I’d the encounter was based strictly on a super-considerate salesperson), I’d say this is a User Experience win for the United Parcel Service. High five, UPS UX team!
<3 pbs. i also learned that flamingos are pink because they eat brine shrimp, which turn pink when they die. i’m not sure ben believes that part, though.
I’ve just had an extremely fortunate experience with endless.com, Amazon’s shoe and accessory supersite. Initially, I favored the site over Zappos.com because of the beautiful UI, the flexibility of search options (the filters are really top-notch), and the savvy array of manufacturers that they carry. I have become an exclusive endless.com user as a result of experiences with their customer service – one of which I had today. I have posted a link to the email they sent me verbatim, but I will highlight two major accomplishments from a customer service standpoint right here.
1. A quick response that said exactly what I wanted to hear.
I returned shoes long over a month ago and had not yet received a credit to my card. There is a good chance that they have been lost in the mail, and I understood that when contacting endless. They, within 6 hours of getting my email, agreed to credit my account and apologized for the inconvenience, which leads me to their second customer service accomplishment:
2. Empathy and a tone of voice that made me comfortable.
The response I received was written in the singular first person. The email is apologetic, and clearly states that I will be refunded, when I should expect the refund, and that they’ll let me know when it goes through. It closes with “Again, I’m very sorry about the trouble. We hope to see you again soon.” and is signed “Theresa.” I don’t care whether or not there is really a Theresa. I care that I feel listened to, and assured that I’ll get my scrilla back. Also, from a previous email on the same matter, “If you haven’t received notification of a refund by 4 weeks from the date of return, please contact us using the following URL and we’ll make this right for you;” – make it right for me? That makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
This is the second time I’ve had this kind of experience with them. The first consisted of them unquestioningly sending me a new pair of shoes when a pair I’d purchased broke upon the second wear. They sent out the replacement pair the day I called them – and I actually still have the broken pair.
The great thing is that this all happened the same day that I’d been reading reviews on LG’s BD300 blu-ray player (which I’ve since purchased) on Amazon, that consistently bagged on LG’s tech support saying it “was useless and lacked any knowledge of their player.” I understand that tech support and customer service can be different things, especially depending on the sophistication of the product/service, but there should never ever be a distinction of the two from the customer’s perspective. I’ll report back if I have an experience with their tech support.
In conclusion – big ups to endless.com, and consequently to Amazon.
