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Previous: Columbia University trash at library | Main | Next: Business Week's internationalization
April 25, 2005 12:01 AM
Broken: Neutrogena online survey
Dennis Marks writes:
Even through I entered that I am male on the first screen, it wants to know what color lipstick I wear.
You are required to answer "natural" or "dramatic" to continue and then it recommends a lipstick color to use at the end.
The survey is clearly stated, at the top of the page, to be for the purpose of recommending products.
http://www.neutrogena.com/PersonalEvaluation.asp
To do so, it needs to know what color lipstick you prefer. If you prefer not to wear lipstick, or indeed any make-up at all, why did you ask Neutrogena to recommend cosmetic products for you?
Maybe you meant to take the survey about facial skincare, but were confused about which link to click, since they both say "go", and you have to figure out where they go from context?
Clearly the best solution is for them to include a "none" option. Assuming no men wear lipstick is as bad as assuming all women do. Dennis's assumption about cosmetics usage is what's broken.
What I find broken is the technical functionality of the site, and may indeed be related to this entry.
Clicking 'go' on the 'facial skincare' option reloads the EXACT SAME PAGE, except passing a variable argument to a server side script that is supposed to pop up a window with the survey.
Unfortunately, this is precisely the same behavior that pop-up blockers block. It is quite possible that when the user clicks the first 'go' and it doesn't work because the pop-up is blocked the natural reaction is to try the second 'go' to see if it works.
The second 'go' uses a different method. It links to a javascript to open a new window and pass the link to it. This way of doing it does not trigger pop-up blockers, and will work for almost everyone. Almost, because you must have javascript activated for it to work, but most folks do.
So yes, this site is indeed broken as it would tend to funnel people away from what they want and to something not appropriate for them.
The real question for me is why do they ask for your gender? Does it affect your results or do they simply collect demographics to determine just how many men they are selling lipstick to? If it doesn't do either then why require an unnecessary user interaction? For that matter, is it important enough to collect demographic gender data to set up an unfulfilled expectation on the part of the user?
I would have to agree that it is broken. As a woman who rarely wears make-up, no one should have to fill in this category. Why is it assumed that anyone wears make-up all the time, male or female?
OK, it is broken to ask a male customer what color lipstick he would wear, when 99% of males don't wear lipstick. Even though there might be another and better link, it is still broken.
It makes sense that the only options for lipstick are dramatic or natural.. I wear natural every day. It just happens to my my natural lip colour, with a bit of Labello UV Care smeared on. Choose "natural". Makes sense to me. ;)
(for what it's worth, I think the site/survey is broken for other reasons)
Was that Denmark comment for real? If so - interesting! I know some cosmetics firms and even some male-market magazines have tentatively, almost subliminally started recommending cosmetic products for men, other than skincare products.
Can't really picture guys sporting make-up, though. I know some artsy students like the occasional eye-liner or mascara, but has not taken off at all, main-stream, that is, in South Africa.
It never say any where in the question about wearing lip stick, just what you prefer. So if you are a guy, who does not wear lip stick, do you prefer a girl who wears dramatic or natural lip stick.
Wow, Mikael is an idiot. It clearly asks "When *YOU* wear lip color..." [emphasis mine, obviously]. It means when the taker of the quiz wears lip color. It can't be interpreted any other way. It doesn't say "When you see someone wearing lip color who may or may not be you yourself..."
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Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Columbia University trash at library | Main | Next: Business Week's internationalization
You're assuming that males don't wear lip colour. That's an invalid assumption; I'm pretty sure about 5 seconds with Google would find a plethora of examples.
Now the survey does ask 'When', rather than 'If and when'. But I think that, in the context of a Neutrogena survey, poor wording is less 'broken' than assuming absolute knowledge about the actions of half the world's population.
Posted by: scotfl at April 25, 2005 01:00 AM