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Koan #44
I’ve stopped filling out surveys — you know, those ones where they ask you to evaluate your experience with a product. With all the digital (and real) products available today, I seem to get at least one of these each week. I used to feel a duty to complete each and every one that hit my inbox. But in the past few years, I’ve become more selective — to the point that I rarely click the link at all anymore.
It isn’t that I’m too lazy. I am lazy. But not too lazy.
It isn’t that I’m too busy either. Most surveys don’t take too much time to complete.
The reasons are complicated…and I’m conflicted over my own behavior.
The way I figure it, I’m an expert in user experience design. This is not an indisputable fact. But for the moment, let’s gloss over that detail and give me the benefit of the doubt.
This means when I fill out a survey evaluating a product experience, I’m giving what I consider an expert opinion. That is, I would rarely fill out a survey as a customer only. I will almost certainly allow my experience and bias as a designer to creep in. How could I not?
Since these sorts of surveys are based on a convenience sample, I don’t really worry about skewing the sample or biasing the data set. The superficial…
