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Observing How the City Wakes
An early morning session spent observing Kampala and its citizens wake.
The boda-bodas take us into the city center which is followed by wandering streets and street markets. At one point we were seated at a breakfast stall sipping spiced black tea. As visitors we were given two cups - one, metal which is filled to the brim with tea, and the other plastic that is empty (photo above). Drinking first requires pouring from one receptical to another - as guests we have the priviledge of not having to scald our lips on the metal.
Incidentally, the men in our party are offered an extra dash of spice which are supposed to act as libido enhancers
Yesterday's one of our local guides described how you get 11+ people into a Toyota Corolla - the vehicle of choice for many Ugandan rural taxi drivers. Start by locking one rear passenger door, then squeeze 7 people on two layers into the back seat. Shut the other rear door (presumably to the sound of exhaled air). Two people can set on the front passenger seat, then squeeze another passenger into the left side of the driver's seat before, finally, the driver joins the throng. Gear changing is apparently a non-trivial affair.
Writing from Kampala | June 30, 2006 | Permalink
Contexts of Consumption
As media such as movies and TV increasingly shifts to mobile devices the range of contexts where media is consumed changes compared to what has gone before. The user experience of watching a movie in a multiplex or independent cinema (video club in the village of Kansensero in the photo, above) is very different compared to being curled up in bed at home or during snatches of down time in cigarette breaks at work. To what extent does context of use effect the perceived value of media? To what extent is it possible to charge differently according to the context of consumption?
A long time ago I had the pleasure of watching an Argentinean movie at Egypt's International Alexandria film festival. The film was billed as having the first legal kiss in Egyptian public cinema, and all the seats in the venue were filled
with robed punters. I recall looking around that there were two women in the whole audience - one of which was sitting with me. Being a subtitlted film the audience didn't need to concentrate on the sound track and they chatted the whole way through, until the moment of that kiss when the place went silent, which was soon followed by cheering. The memories of the experience as a whole remain vivid despite it being 10 years ago. Why do we pay for (media) experiences at the time of consumption, rather than at the time of reflection?
Writing from Kansensero | | Permalink
Hazard Leaves, Hazard Lights
Spotted on the return journey from Kansensero - a car that had run off the road, flipped and come to a rest on an embankment. Foliage laid on the road to warn approaching cars of an accident.
Note the spacing of the piles.
Writing from Kansensero, road from | June 28, 2006 | Permalink
Double Grip, Speed of Use
The bike rider grips the handlebars and Kalashnikov in one hand as he cycles, the weapon's strap is wrapped around the other bar to complete the balancing act. But why not slung around his shoulder?
"I keep the strap loose in case I need to use it in a hurry"
Writing from Kansensero | | Permalink
Rural Connectivity
Drive due south out of Kampala and in 70 kilometers or so you'll arrive at the town of Kyotera, our research base for the next few days. Continue straight on from there and you'll soon hit the Uganda - Tanzania border, head east and you're in rural backwaters, head west and you'll need a boat to take you across Lake Victoria. Kyotera is in a good location to research, well, whatever it is that we're here researching and the bonus is that our hotel can offer cold beer despite frequent power cuts.
This morning the research team rose sufficiently early to drive onto Kansensero - a fishing village on the edge of Lake Victoria. We time our departure to arrive with the boats ashore and the last of the catches being weighed and sold. The journey was pretty uneventful save for a herd of long horned bulls (yes they do have exceptionally long horns) and a quick stop at a village phone operator. Grameen Foundation USA is working in partnership with local micro-finance organisations, the regional carrier MTN and my employer to provide Village Phone kits - essentially an adapted mobile phone, an antenna with a long cable and a car battery to keep it charged. (Car batteries are a common source of power in rural Uganda). Through micro-finance lending the village phone operator can borrow enough money to buy the operator kit and for many it becomes a profitable business.
Driving along the back country roads of Rakai district there are two obvious ways to tell that Village Phone operator is offering connectivity: from a distance you can spot the antenna topped pole rising up to 4 times the height of other structures in the village (glimpsed through the tree foliage in the photo above); and on entering a village the yellow MTN sign advertising call rates looms into view. The affect of easier access to affordable connectivity on the prosperity of the village inhabitants is an worthy topic of research, but requires more time than we have today.
Kansensero has irregular GSM coverage and no mains electricity - power comes in the form of a generator or more commonly car batteries. It's interesting to understand the strategies residents adopt to make the most of what is available, but I'm also aware there are broader issues at play such as access to water (mostly it is delivered on bicycle in jerry cans) and basic healthcare. In many respects the frontier of the future perfect is not what's possible in Tokyo, Paris or London but in villages such as this - in providing access to base necessities. Time and again interview subjects bring up the topic of calling hosptials, midwives and sick relatives, or to report the death of a family member.
Despite the availability of fresh fish our local guide advises us to avoid the local menu - cholera is a factor and he can't vouch for the cooking conditions. So we pile in the car and drive up to a loading bay on the Kagera River and munch our way through a packet of digestives and segments of processed cheese. Our driver requests a photo of himself to show his family he has indeed been here on Uganda's southern border, and as I snap away one of our team conducts an ad-hoc interview. The interviewee, a policeman is chatty and his positive demeanour is set off by some pristine white rubber boots - more commonly found on the feet of local fishermen than on the police. He stands on a pile of wood, Kalashnikov in hand overseeing the unloading of a consignment of coffee beans from Tanzania and as the interview progresses we watch labourers lugging 60kg sacks to a nearby truck. This isn't an official border crossing and if tax is normally charged it's not being levied here.
Its hard to turn away from a border without crossing, but that's a journey for another day.
Writing from Kansensero, road to | | Permalink
Digital Fireflies
The entrance fee for Ghana vs. Brazil is 500 Ugandan Shillings (0.3 Euro), a sum that buys us squeezing space in a village hall that's packed to the rafters. The game has already started when we enter, and contrary to what you might have read in the European press the hall includes a local contingent rooting for Brazil rather than their West African neighbours. The heat in the hall is stifling - the windows are boarded up and taped over and there are a lot of bodies generating heat. The video projector cuts off half way through the second half, not as you might expect due to a power cut (the proceedings are running on a back-up generator) but because of a lost satellite signal. For a couple of minutes the audience watches a man with a controller navigate menus and channels, his efforts projected for all to see before he eventually locates another channel showing the game. With all the talk of niche programming what is the potential of usability studies as spectator sports? Thoughts a stadium full of people watching a cognitive walkthrough on a JumboTron before giving their verdict to the designer sitting in the center circle. Public adoration or shaming.
It was dusk when we walked in and by the time the game is finished its dark outside save for the stars and a few candle lit market stalls. This part of town does not appear to be on the mains. At the final whistle the inside of the hall turns pitch black - the organisers simply cut the power. For a few truly wonderful moments we sit watching human fireflies navigating and feeling their way out of the hall using only their mobile phone displays to guide their way.
The photo above? An overlay of repeated 2 second exposures.
Writing from Kyotera | June 27, 2006 | Permalink
Heroes of The (Local) Modern Man
Photos and dreams for sale on a Kampala street.
In order of popularity by volume: Manchester United, political leaders then pop stars. Of course the reverse could also be true - it could be popularity by order of those left unsold.
What do the idols and heroes say about the values of a society?
Writing from Kampala | June 25, 2006 | Permalink
How You Top Up
Top up minutes for sale in Kampala.
Consumers here are highly sophisticated when it comes to optimising their use of communication channels - anything that drives down the cost of communication has a good chance of success.
The degree of sophistication is a double edged sword. On the one hand it implies user effort to stay abreast of the alternatives and introduces additional steps to the communication process - you don't just call but factor in the cost of calling permutations before you decide to call. On the other hand it reminds me how disinterested/lazy consumers are in less price sensitive markets.
Writing from Kampala | | Permalink
Something To Use, Whilst Yours Is In Repair
What do you use when you need to have your mobile phone repaired? Or your car? Or your shoes?
Customers of this shoe stand in Kampala are given temporary footwear (made from re-cycled tyres) that can be worn whilst their shoes are repaired. What are the factors that make this replacement-whilst-you-wait feasible?
Widespread ownership of one pair of shoes (or one pair of appropriate shoes) may spur demand for this kind of service. What other factors will create user pull? What factors make it feasible for the service provider to offer alternatives?
The 'tyre' shoes function well enough as (temporary) footwear but are certainly different from the originals. How different can they be? In what circumstances is it feasible for service provider to offer a temporary replacement that is better than what they are used to? Your Jaguar is in for repair? Try this Lexus for a week.
And Uganda? From what I've seen so far a very postive place to conduct research - all credit goes to our local collaborators.
Writing from Kampala | | Permalink
Registering
Theft of car parts? Wing mirror marked (on both sides) with registration number of vehicle.
Writing from Kampala, somewhere near | June 23, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Transparency
Vending machine for coffee in a Soweto petrol station. Simply select an appropriate amount of coffee, lactose and non-dairy-milk-substitute. Despite what it's selling I like the transparency and frankness of this device - you get what you get. Compare it to coffee machines covered in photos of frothy cappucinos and french waiters.
Most the petrol stations here served a decent fresh brew.
Writing from Soweto | June 22, 2006 | Permalink
Security & Telephony
Despite the sign (above) this location did not offer connectivity. When are signs (merely) advertisements?
And for the marketeers amongst you, when are advertisements merely signs?
Writing from Soweto | | Permalink
Minimising Space for Interaction
Defensive infrastructure designed to channel interaction into a narrow space. Notice the step designed to support smaller customers, and the effect the step has on residents who are tall enough not to have to use it.
Writing from Soweto | June 21, 2006 | Permalink
Access to Power, Phone Charging Services
Car batteries are the default power supply for squatter settlements around Soweto - newly charged batteries being delivered (photo above).
Below, a local shop keeper offers phone charging services to local Kliptown residents. For 5 Rand (0.1 Euro) you can leave your phone for the day, but with no guarentees. For people without reliable access to power, the risk of theft or damage vs. a flat battery.
Writing from Soweto | | Permalink
The Scale of the Issue
Advertisement discouraging the hacking of local electricity.
Writing from Soweto | | Permalink
Risk of Suffocation
Writing from Pretoria, somewhere near | | Permalink
Easing In, Easing Out, Easing In Again
Todays' office is a bit of everywhere and a bit of no-where.
Arriving at Johannesburg International on the tail end of a 24 hour journey requires the strategic wearing of headphones and the music that comes with it. The music is simply about fooling my body into thinking I have enough energy to clear the airport. The headphones make it easier to socially disengage, stare into the middle distance and push the hustle of the semi-serious taxi drivers. The thing is, with new airports you don't really know how bad the hustle is going to be and with the plan for today I want to be prepared for the worst. It is however, pretty tame.
Rule number one when clearing customs is to ignore everyone and to get a sense of the place before the place focuses its senses on you. Rule number two is to always pick the driver; do not let the driver pick you. I pick Mervin, as choice which, as it turns out is rather fortunate since he is a Merc-driving local encyclopedia and a gent to boot.
Todays' schedule is going to be busy. What would you do with 24 hours in South Africa? I know that in 3 hours I need to check into a hotel that's 20 minutes away (it turns out to be 50 minutes in this traffic), then head directly to the Mareka Institute to give a presentation, and that I have an afternoon to rest up. But I can't be here and not make the most of it - so with only a few hours spare what to do? Mervin kicks into laid back guide mode - a road map is hauled out and he explains the various areas that surround Johannesburg, Pretoria and out-of-the-way location of my hotel. Places I've never been to stand out from the page - a result of one too many news stories during the apartheid era. What is the location equivalent to familiar strangers? Places so familiar that your first visit gives a sense of deja vu? The last time I had this feeling was on my first trip to LA - cruising the city with a local friend captured and bumping up against locations captured by popular and unpopular culture.
As you might appreciate after the journey I'm in need of a shower but the hotel pool tempts me in. The receptionist warns me that its use might lead to hypothermia, something I shrug off as hyperbole until that point when I'm entering the water head first and looking for a way out. The ambient temperature at this time of the day is 5 degrees, and I don't last long. The ducks can have the pool to themselves.
The presentations go well enough, and it's a chance to get a sense of a place and its people.
The rest of the day is spent in the company of Mervin and a visit to the townships and squatter settlements. My knowledge of Soweto didn't extend to it having a Country Club (it does), and if I'm honest - it didn't extend too much of anything really. 24 hours in a location is way too little but I want to come back and have a chance to learn first hand.
Its 6am and Mervin is waiting outside the hotel to take me to the airport. The journey is notable for two things - the sun rising over the passing townships is a sight to behold. And conversations about car-jacking and murders. Yesterday night a local businessman was hit at an off ramp, six bullets pumped into his body. 52 security guards have been murdered as part of a strike for better pay. 52. Every culture has their own sense of scale whether its temperature, income, rent, mobile phone penetration or incidence of HIV or strike-related murders. 52 is way off my scale.
So as you can see, todays' office started the day before yesterday and ends here, 5am in Kampala. In a hour's time the next working day begins.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Trains, Planes, Automobiles
Applying for entry visas hasn't recently been a problem (not since an, ahem, unscheduled exit from Vietnam a few years back), but during a busy work week a trip to an embassy can eat into the hours. It doesn't help that a certain residential home that used to function as an embassy has now been converted back into a home. (The Ugandan Embassy in Tokyo has now moved to Daikanyama).
On an unrelated topic - wrote to an embassy of a certain Middle Eastern country inquiring whether permits were required to conduct what would essentially amount to guerilla street research. They asked my partner to make the application on my behalf. Mental note to self - add gender to email signature.
Off to another field study tomorrow - new experiences and new challenges lie ahead.
Writing from Tokyo | June 19, 2006 | Permalink
It Is, I know, Thank-you
The photo shows a fairly typical scene - a motorbike parted under the bushy canopy of a small tree - positioned to protect it from some of this week's continious Tokyo rain. Except that, despite the apparent shielding properties of the tree the rain has still soaked the motorbike.
With vehicle mounted (weather) sensors and positioning tools its possible to collect highly localised weather information - trucks, cars, motorbikes and bicyles recording and sharing in real time as they drive around the city. As you are looking where to park you know not to leave it there in that exact position because despite appearances you know the statistical likelyhood of it geting wet. For such as system to exist, who would be motivated by what reasons to share real time weather data? Who would seek to manipulate this data and in what contexts?
The challenge with all this is not to gather or even to share the data, but to sufficiently understand the user's context to present the data in an appropriate format and time. All non-trivial tasks.
CS - thanks for the invite tonight. Safe travels.
Writing from Daikanyama | | Permalink
Mind Games
The extent to which milk poured from a bottle is preferred to milk poured from a carton, the extent to which it affects taste.
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | June 18, 2006 | Permalink
Ujano Has No Posse
Local appropriation, though far from original.
Writing from Shinjuku | | Permalink
The Little Exras
Cushions on a train station waiting room bench.
For public infrastructure who is motivated to provide extras that enhance the experience? Who benefits from the extras?
Writing from Yatsugadake | June 17, 2006 | Permalink
Unusual Properties
Musical instrument leveraging the accoustic properties of an armadillo shell.
Belonging to and played by Seigen Ono.
Writing from Yatsugadake | June 16, 2006 | Permalink
(Support for) Hacker Cultures (Require Support)
A manual for unlocking mobile phones just one publication widely available from Delhi's Karol Bagh Market. A few things of note for what is essentially a grey market publication: documents how to unlock all major phone models; has taken advertising for the different unlock kits and the Indira Technology Institute; printed in high quality colour; and even includes a help desk number. In a world where so much is online, why is this printed at all?
Last few days I've been pulling together material for a presentation on informal cultures of repair and innovation drawing on recent research in China, India, Mongolia and Vietnam. If anyone is in proximity of South Africa's Meraka Institute on the 20th June - the presentation is open to the public. I'll post the slides on ResearchDotNokiaDotCom when they're done.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Food Delivery, Definition of Food
Xiamen above. Photo of a McDonalds Tokyo below (but ultimately it could be anywhere, including Xiamen).
Writing from Tokyo | June 15, 2006 | Permalink
Repair
This counter is located in Chengdu's Tai Shen Lan Lu Market which specialises in new and used mobile phones and has a well developed mobile phone repair culture. The sales assistant is filling a receipt for equipment to make a basic mobile phone repair kit.
For the companies that make the products that are repaired, what are the implications of what you see in this photo?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Mixed Media
Writing from Sangenjaya, back of | June 14, 2006 | Comments (7) | Permalink
By Pedestrian's, For Pedestrians
Writing from Tokyo | June 13, 2006 | Permalink
Learning (Not) To Trust Mirrors
Mirrors are a common feature of Tokyo's narrow streets, a way of spotting not only oncoming vehicles but more often than not to avoid hitting cyclists coming the wrong way up a one-way street. Bicycles have it pretty easy here in Japan compared to, well, pretty much everywhere I've traveled and it's fairly common for example, that police ignore cyclists running a red light. As a newcomer here it took a while to learn what you could see in the mirror and what was missing, but now a back-street ride to the office is not complete without using street mirrors to see what lies ahead. And there in lies a potential conundrum.
There are a myriad of strategies and technologies that can help us avoid collisions in our daily travels, and with an increasing number of (GPS enabled) location aware mobile phones these options will only increase. What are the consequences of not looking at the road ahead, but instead relying on a filtered view of the road ahead?
Now think about what information could be overlaid on your journey. Would you drive differently if you were made aware that an oncoming car had a 'baby on board'? Or driving through a neighbourhood's narrow street your vehicle sensed youngsters playing nearby? Or that your feed of insurance company data highlights an accident trouble spot on the route ahead?
And given all this, who is motivated and by what reasons to manipulate your driving and navigating behaviours by re-filtering the data on which you base your decisions?
Pottering with K around Sangenjaya today, leaving the station we walked behind a PSP playing kid who negotiated the entire route from his seat on the train, through the crowded platform, up the stairs, through ticket barriers, up to ground level all without interrupting his two-handed game play. What is already achievable indeed.
Writing from Omotesando, back of | June 11, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Knowing Which Is Which
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Story Behind The
A feature of the more hi-end bars in Tokyo is watching the bar tender carve a pefect chuck of ice for your laphroaig rocku. It might look like a lump of ice in a gutter, but somewhere nearby there's a classy bar.
Writing from Daikanyama, back of | | Permalink
Copycat Behaviours
Futons aired on only one floor of a housing estate in Higashi Yama, below.
For the Tokyophiles amongst you Higashi Yama is an interesting mix of Japanese social, company and private apartment blocks in area that is somewhat of a no-mans-land. Distinctly and pleasantly different.
Writing from Higashi Yama | June 10, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Your Warrantee Became Void at 17:32:42
My translator negotiates a 3 month warrantee for used phone in Ulan Bataar's mobile phone market. Batteries came with a one week guarantee.
Products can store their own histories - from where they were bought to where they've been, how they interacted with what kind of objects, related behaviours such as 'I see you've been downloading from the darknet, weighting risk assessment', and even your little mishaps. That time you dropped the phone from balcony? Logged. Tried to squeeze your iPod into the back pocket of a pair of low riders? Logged. In the future perfect products are in essence their own warrantee. On the one hand no more looking for where the documentation is stored so you can take it to the store and argue it out with the sales rep, on the other hand no pretending that it wasn't dropped.
Lets start with a basic question - why do companies offer warrantees for their products? Why do people pay extra for 'extended warrantees'? And how does this landscape shift if much of the negotiating to and fro that happens today is logged, automatically? How will people's behaviour change to manipulate the log? How will companies change the conditions of the warrantee in response to these behaviours?
And in a world where bits of data are increasingly communicated in real time why do we have fixed and not relative warrantees?
Writing from Tokyo | June 9, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tokyo Queues
Anyone who has spent time in central Tokyo on a weekend will pretty soon come across a long queue of people waiting for a store to open. It's not that queues are necessarily rare elsewhere in the world, after all scarcity or creating the perception of scarcity is, um, scarcely novel. But here queues stretching 100 meters or more are not uncommon, with especially hired security to ensure its all done in an orderly manner and without annoying the neighbours.
Observing queues also provides insights into how people relate to and interact with one another, highlighting things like the acceptable social space between people and it is after all a chance to see what people do when they wait. Everyone lined up with with shared yet conflicting goals.
I often pass the weekend Daikanyama Supreme store queue on my way to the Daikanyama pool. The queue starts three hours before the store opens, and can reach a couple of hundred meters long. Everyone politely waiting, everyone decked out in very similar gear, everyone looking up with the same level of expectation. Everyone queueing politely for a store that prides itself on being associated with street and skate? What's that about?
And from the perspective of a researcher if you're trying to find people who meet a particular profile, let's face it, they've already formed an orderly queue.
Photos taken from two original panormas of 30+ photos available here and here [1MB download].
And the queue above? A worthy object from a far flung corner of this earth sent to the first person who can say what these people are queueing for.
Writing from Daikanyama, back of | June 7, 2006 | Comments (25) | Permalink
Visual Clues For Knowing the Age
How do you tell the age of a palm tree?
What clues do we rely on to understand the age of a product? Why is understanding the age important? What happens when the clues we use no longer apply to products? I may be used the rings of an oak tree, but haven't spent much time understanding the innards of a palm. And to apply this (lack of) reasoning to software - are software version numbers still relevant in a fully networked world?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Do You Aspire To This?
Advertising for dental services in Lhasa (above) and Ho Chi Minh City (below). There are strong cultural differences for what makes a perfect body, but what about for teeth? What do the viewers of these advertisements aspire to? Do the aspirations differ? How?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Who Values Your Data?
What is the value in knowing what is going on in each these Shanghai apartments?
Who would pay to know what the inhabitants use; their personal preferences; family preferences; what they look for; what they are planning; their secrets; what they buy; what they sell; who they communicate with; and what they communicate about; the emotional or practical value of that communication.
Which company will be the first to offer a we-pay-you-to-store-your-dataTM service? How many consumers would give up their pseudo privacy for a little cash?
Writing from Tokyo | June 5, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Inelegant Failure
Why does it take a call to a help desk to change this lightbulb? There is nothing quite like bad design to make one feel small.
Writing from Tokyo | June 4, 2006 | Permalink
Elegant Failure
These waste bins are close to Shibuya Station. What do you see?
It may look like piles of discarded manga but it is in fact an example of recycling, market efficiency plus elegant failure. At 4am on Saturday morning the bins are overflowing from last night's revellers. Normally the manga is placed in the bins along with the other rubbish. But with the bins full the manga is more easily set aside for recycling and resale.
A couple of threads come out of this. What actions or objects trigger copycat behaviours? In what contexts? And for digital services that provide storage space, what steps are taken to find temporary alternatives?
Writing from Tokyo | | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tangible Reminders, Shortening The Path
Spent a few days this week working on a service concept with design team colleagues. This photo reminds me that having a compelling service is just the starting point. How long is the path to get to your service? How can you shorten the path by even one step? QR barcode from a shop around the back of Daikanyama.
Writing from Daikanyama, back of | | Permalink
Fixed Wheel, Foldable, Customisation
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Unwelcome Mat
"Be Quiet." Really.
Related research here.
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | | Permalink
The Origins of Tangible Digital Species
For goods and services that start out in the digital domain, if and when they are made tangible what shape or form should they take? The origins of tangible digital species indeed.
And what tenuous link to the certificate and luggage tag, above? Make a donation to Carbon Neutral, and the company promises to balance out your carbon emissions by investing in forestry and climate friendly energy projects. Donations are made electronically and a tangible receipt and/or certificate is optional. Given the goals of the organisation, the tangible representation of the digital certificate is somewhat crass. A digital certificate could take many forms, but why one so unimaginative?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Traces of Activities Associated With Wait Moments
How much time is required to complete simple tasks such as checking incoming mail or Mobile TV listings?
Writing from Naka Meguro | June 3, 2006 | Permalink
Feedback Loop
When you walk into a bank how do you know which teller will offer the best service?
Device for obtaining feedback from customers spotted in the Gulangyu branch of the Bank of China. Once the transaction is complete the customer selects satisfactory, average or dissatisfied, and the number of stars updates to reflect the service level.
Putting aside the issue of how the number of stars is calculated, how does a high or low number of stars affect how the quality of service is perceived? If the only option when you walk in the bank is a teller with 2 stars what are your service expectations? And armed with this knowledge how does it affect how the bank calculates the number of stars?
Whilst this system is crude, in situations where service is poor it provides a simple mechanism to let customers voice their anger (the customers in this branch were however, pleasantly vocal in providing negative feedback). I'd expect to find this kind of up-front feedback mechanism in a culture where people are less likely to want to be seen to be angry or losing face. Japan could be such a culture but in five years its almost impossible to think of an example of bad service in five years of being here.
Writing from Tokyo | June 1, 2006 | Permalink
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