at $0.10 for targeted and $0.50 for targeted (age , gender, etc) responses this seems like a great way for getting feedback quick. Has anyone got any experience doing them ? Does anyone know how these people answer surveys, is there a web portal for people to sign up to do them ?
I can't say what is is about your comment or the article, but something about the combination gives off the vibe that this is an astroturfing effort to promote Google Comsumer Surveys.
I've seen them smack dab in the middle of boston.com "The Big Picture". You basically can't look at more than a few of the photos without answering a google survey question. For me, looking at this page now asks me who my auto insurance provider is with: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/10/broken_lives_of_fuk...
I'm a co-founder of Survata (YC S12) which also runs consumer surveys. We're lower cost than Google Consumer Surveys and give professional survey design advice for free. Email us at contact at survata and we'll hook you up with a Hacker News discount. :)
I spilled some coffee on some light coloured trousers on the way to the London office. The stain was centered right in my lap and I couldn't really go around like that all day, so I stopped and bought some cheap trousers at Gap to sort me out.
Pro-tip: Telling your local UK colleagues that you were running late because you stained your pants and needed to get new pants, and then offering to show people the stained pants is going to lead to some awkward moments.
I made this mistake once when I spent a summer in Ireland in high school. (I should add here that the people at this summer program were noticeably more homophobic than I was used to back home[0]) I had borrowed a pair of "trousers" from a friend for a costume for some event.
When asking permission from the RA later that night to go to a different dorm after lights-out, I told him, 'I need to give <friend> his pants back'.
I will never forget the look of horror that he gave me.
[0] Not sure if it's a cultural thing or just the program I happened to be at, but either way, it's relevant.
Psh, that's not even as big a logo botch as the Brits committed to themselves: the UK Office of Government Commerce unveiled -- to much tittering and whispering -- a new "OGC" logo back in 2008 which, when rotated ninety degrees clockwise, looked like a stick figure standing and, er, "'aving a wank" in the local slang.
OGC quickly reverted to its old logo, correcting the er, boner, but nevertheless in some circles (particularly Reddit), "OGC" remained for some months a sort of shorthand indicating sexual arousal.
What is wrong with people thinking the logo looks like underwear? I am willing to bet people are more likely to remember the logo and company. I remember when everyone was making fun of the name "Wii", but I would be surprised if that name, which generated free publicity, did not help Nintendo.
If the logo reminded people of genocide, okay change it. But underwear? Seems like a good thing to me since they might remember it better.
From a UK perspective, the problem is that "pants" can be used to say something is rubbish, or similar. We might say "that new Yahoo Mail design is a load of pants". With the Wii example, there is not the same sort of common use in any country I know of. (Maybe there is, but I don't know)
So, OK, it is amusing and probably memorable, but as I Brit I would have tell them that they don't want a bunch of Brits saying their product is a load of pants.
So, anything else, and it might be slightly clever marketing, but in this specific, I'd put my sensible head on and say they should avoid it.
Valid question - "any press is good press" and all that. I think it makes sense to change it if 25% of users think that way but 2.6%? "Oh, how cute. Those Brits..." would've been just as valid of a response.
It's odd that no one has mentioned this, but part of the reason no American thought they looked like "Y-fronts" is because American briefs don't have a Y-front. I have never seen underwear that looks like the first and third example on the rjmetrics site. If you do a comparative images search for "briefs" and "y-front" I think it'll be pretty obvious.
Jockey (and only Jockey, as far as I know) used to have a Y-front, which is one of the reasons they never sold well in Canada. I still completely ignore the brand even though they changed to a more typical fly a couple of decades ago.
I still don't really see the pants, but have in the past been guilty of designing, and using for two months in production, a logo that a focus group decided was "swastika-esque."
The first logo is not a dodecahedron; the geometry is wrong. In reality it would be impossible to see all the three faces drawn at the edge of the logo from the same perspective.
Perhaps people subtly pick up on this geometric imprecision and more easily associate it with something else?
Wouldn't an association with pants be better than a mere geometric shape? If it stays in ones memory for longer, then why the hell not? It's all about being recognized by the customer!
That reminds of that commercial for the Universal Technical Institute. It's funny hearing that guy tell me all the great things about "UTI". I probably wouldn't remember the commercial if they had some other boring acronym.
Microsoft Office 2007 came with a new feature, instead of going to the new ribbon at the top you could now highlight a chunk of text and a floating mini-toolbar would appear in which you could access the most-used commands: bold, underline, etc.
I remember the program manager demonstrating this to the closed group and announcing proudly that Office now had a `floater`.
At which point all of the Brits and South Africans either sniggered or plain exploded with laughter.
It took a while for things to settle before it emerged that the Americans in the room didn't see what was so funny, and the Brits and South Africans interpretation of a `floater` was a turd floating in a swimming pool.
The name was changed by the next time we saw the feature, if I recall correctly they went for the far less ambiguous "mini toolbar".
Why does a language have a word for such a thing? Is it common? I haven't even thought about the possibility of the existence of such a thing till now.
The logo keeps on making me giggle. It looks like underwear to me. I don't know if I'd have seen it without reading this article, but now that it's in my head, it's hard to get out.
I don't see any underwear, but the thing definitely looks better with thinner lines. It brings out the 3d shading more. Presumably that's why more people recognise the geometry after the change.
I had the same issue, couldn't see the underwear at all. And finally after seeing the people in pictures, I can see. Internalization requires a lot of effort.
It's funny how things like this only look like another object once someone mentions it. For example, when my step kids were little, they used to constantly ask about the "underwear" signs posted all over the place. Couldn't figure out what they were talking about, until I had them point it out sitting at a red light.
The traffic lights have stop signs that are folded down, and get unfolded when there are problems with the signals. So the bottom half of a white octagon does look like a pair of briefs.
The reason most of those images of underwear didn't look like their logo is because most of those pants (as us Brits refer to them as) were not proper Y-fronts.
If you look at this image - bar the colour / pattern of the underwear, it's actually geometrically similar (which the briefs they exampled were not)
Does it really matter what 2-3% of a random sampling of people think in a single country? Could this possibly be too sensitive to trying to please too many people?
I work on translation technology, and have seen some pretty bad examples of companies choosing names that have bad connotations elsewhere.
One of my favorites is Evite, which means "avoid!" in Spanish, not exactly a good name for a party invite service.
The all time winner for badly named tech products was the Commodore Pet Computer, which was launched with great fanfare in France (and elsewhere). The only problem is pet means "fart" in French.
[+] [-] blackdogie|12 years ago|reply
at $0.10 for targeted and $0.50 for targeted (age , gender, etc) responses this seems like a great way for getting feedback quick. Has anyone got any experience doing them ? Does anyone know how these people answer surveys, is there a web portal for people to sign up to do them ?
[+] [-] cninja|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JunkDNA|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prezjordan|12 years ago|reply
I'm not sure, I don't think I've ever seen one.
[+] [-] ckelly|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xux|12 years ago|reply
Why is that "take the tour" button so messed up?
[+] [-] alan_cx|12 years ago|reply
Maybe this is more about the power of suggestion
0. UK, where pants is pants and not trousers. ;)
Edit: Also, pants is a UK way of saying rubbish. So, "that web site is a load of pants", might be said. Might be a sense of humor at work here.
[+] [-] goatforce5|12 years ago|reply
Pro-tip: Telling your local UK colleagues that you were running late because you stained your pants and needed to get new pants, and then offering to show people the stained pants is going to lead to some awkward moments.
[+] [-] chimeracoder|12 years ago|reply
I made this mistake once when I spent a summer in Ireland in high school. (I should add here that the people at this summer program were noticeably more homophobic than I was used to back home[0]) I had borrowed a pair of "trousers" from a friend for a costume for some event.
When asking permission from the RA later that night to go to a different dorm after lights-out, I told him, 'I need to give <friend> his pants back'.
I will never forget the look of horror that he gave me.
[0] Not sure if it's a cultural thing or just the program I happened to be at, but either way, it's relevant.
[+] [-] bitwize|12 years ago|reply
OGC quickly reverted to its old logo, correcting the er, boner, but nevertheless in some circles (particularly Reddit), "OGC" remained for some months a sort of shorthand indicating sexual arousal.
[+] [-] dasil003|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rpedela|12 years ago|reply
If the logo reminded people of genocide, okay change it. But underwear? Seems like a good thing to me since they might remember it better.
[+] [-] alan_cx|12 years ago|reply
So, OK, it is amusing and probably memorable, but as I Brit I would have tell them that they don't want a bunch of Brits saying their product is a load of pants.
So, anything else, and it might be slightly clever marketing, but in this specific, I'd put my sensible head on and say they should avoid it.
[+] [-] pionar|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ScottWhigham|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bjterry|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kamjam|12 years ago|reply
I'm pretty sure I have seen "y-fronts" in US shops and in the movies. The post specifically mentions that people call them jockey briefs in the US.
[+] [-] stan_rogers|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonahx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robbfitzsimmons|12 years ago|reply
So maybe don't listen to me.
[+] [-] molf|12 years ago|reply
Perhaps people subtly pick up on this geometric imprecision and more easily associate it with something else?
[+] [-] moocowduckquack|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] praptak|12 years ago|reply
Heh, heh, heh, he said "laundry list".
[+] [-] Jagat|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polskibus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adam12|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buro9|12 years ago|reply
I remember the program manager demonstrating this to the closed group and announcing proudly that Office now had a `floater`.
At which point all of the Brits and South Africans either sniggered or plain exploded with laughter.
It took a while for things to settle before it emerged that the Americans in the room didn't see what was so funny, and the Brits and South Africans interpretation of a `floater` was a turd floating in a swimming pool.
The name was changed by the next time we saw the feature, if I recall correctly they went for the far less ambiguous "mini toolbar".
[+] [-] fosap|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phpnode|12 years ago|reply
0. in the UK.
[+] [-] harvestmoon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adestefan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pxtl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JonnieCache|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] victoriap|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bernardom|12 years ago|reply
People who thought the logo was underwear now: (How many people read a frontpage HN article?)
[+] [-] agumonkey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] squidi|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kawsper|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derekp7|12 years ago|reply
The traffic lights have stop signs that are folded down, and get unfolded when there are problems with the signals. So the bottom half of a white octagon does look like a pair of briefs.
[+] [-] laumars|12 years ago|reply
If you look at this image - bar the colour / pattern of the underwear, it's actually geometrically similar (which the briefs they exampled were not)
http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/00418/SNF14WOM01C...
[+] [-] steven2012|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madaxe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianmcconnell|12 years ago|reply
One of my favorites is Evite, which means "avoid!" in Spanish, not exactly a good name for a party invite service.
The all time winner for badly named tech products was the Commodore Pet Computer, which was launched with great fanfare in France (and elsewhere). The only problem is pet means "fart" in French.