Good experience: An article on customer experience research seems to echo my ealier statement about using simple methods to test and analyze the customer experience. The example given is that of Hallmark founder Joyce C. Hall conducting research in 1915, which was obviously successful. From the text…

bq.. Here’s what Joyce didn’t do:

• Create tasks for customers. “You want to find a ‘Happy 20th

Anniversary’ card that isn’t too sentimental. Ready? Go.”

• Ask abstract, focus group-style questions: “If you could design

any sort of greeting card, what would it be?”

• Rely on surveys or a statistical sample. “In surveys of 500 card

buyers, they rated ‘funny’ second out of five criteria.

• Use a complicated framework. “The analysis of the customers’

mental model yields a semi-continuous persona in this ontological

ethnographic visualization.”