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Studies are conducted in many different forms:
- Online surveys where a pre-programmed questionnaire is answered entirely online;
- Online focus groups or bulletin boards where questions and answers flow in an online discussion that may take an hour or span a two or three day period;
- In-person focus groups held at a facility in your city or at an event you’re attending;
- Telephone surveys where you answer questions read to you by an interviewer;
- A diary or camera journal that records interaction with a particular product or service;
- In-home new product tests (e.g., window coverings, salad crispers, electric toothbrushes, etc. – you almost always get to keep the product);
- Taste tests where you go to a facility in your city, eat and/or drink and give your opinion;
- Product tests (e.g., new acne product, new inline skate brake, new Blackberry, new home thermometer, etc.) – you try the product for a specified period of time and give your opinions (you often get to keep these too);
- Website usability, where you log online and report the user-friendliness of the website;
- Advertising tests (e.g., hear, read, or watch ads and provide input – some are conducted over the phone, online, or in a focus group setting);
- Mock jury (observe the arguments of a case that’s going to trial and give your verdict);
- Shadow jury (actually attend a real jury trial in the observer seats at the courthouse and provide feedback daily);
- Mystery shopping (e.g., get paid to dine out and rate the food and service; visit a business, buy a product and measure whether the agent did his/her job properly);
- Medical or psychological trials/tests (test topics range widely – e.g., memory, exercise, arthritis, diabetics, persons 65+ on heart medication, twins, bi-polar, women with breast cancer, etc., oftentimes held at a local university);
- Clinical trials (e.g., generally longer term blind or double-blind studies testing the safety and efficacy of new drugs or devices)
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