At BionicsForEveryone.com, we are very clear about where our loyalties lie when it comes to bionic devices, and that is with end-users.
We don’t have anything negative to say about bionic companies. On the contrary, we have great respect for them and their employees, most of whom are quite passionate about helping people.
But ask us to choose between supporting users versus companies and you’ll quickly find out that we side with users.
That’s why we write so many articles trying to help those with physical or neurological differences to understand their bionic options.
That’s why we don’t allow bionic companies to advertise, donate, or contribute to us financially in any way.
And that’s why we’ve decided to launch our User Feedback initiative.
The Need for User Feedback
When most people go shopping for a product, they can usually find online consumer reviews to help them make a decision.
This is not the case with many bionic devices. The majority of online information is either marketing material or scientific studies.
Meanwhile, we have articles like this one on every bionic device on the market, so we’ve decided to collect and present user feedback inside those articles, where it is most useful.
Keeping It Simple
What kind of feedback are we talking about? Here is an example for Ottobock’s bebionic hand:
As you can see, we’re keeping it very simple. That’s partly to make it quick and convenient for you to participate, and partly for another reason…
The Need for Verification
You may have noticed our request for an email address at the bottom of the feedback form.
As you are no doubt aware, the big problem with online consumer reviews is that sometimes people with vested interests provide false reviews. That’s not helpful.
On the other hand, companies that collect a lot of personal data have a history of abusing it. That’s not good, either.
So here’s our compromise:
- We’ve kept our feedback survey as simple as possible to avoid asking for information that’s too personal.
- We will email you only to verify that you are a legitimate reviewer. How will you convince us of that? Just point us to any public online activity (your website, social media activity, etc.) that shows us that you are a real person.
Your identity will not be associated with the results in any way, as those results will always be aggregated into group statistics.
Publishing Results
Fortunately, we not only love the subject of human bionics. Our founder also spent more than 30 years working in data analytics. As a result:
- We will only publish results once we have a sufficient number of participants to make sure that the statistics aren’t skewed.
- As devices go through generational changes, we’ll split the results to represent different product eras.
Help Us Shape This Program
We like where we’re headed with this idea. Done properly, we think it will provide valuable information to those shopping for a bionic device.
But we’re not arrogant enough to think that we’ve made it perfect out of the gate. So, before we officially launch it, we’d love to hear any suggestions, ideas, or criticisms that you might have. Just type them in this box and hit the Send Message button, no email required.
In the meantime, if you want to participate, here are all our existing surveys.