Token-Based Feedback Collection System for Anonymous Group Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Collecting opinions from a group of people is challenging due to discomfort in expressing feedback anonymously, influence from prior responses, and the difficulty in quickly summarizing and tabulating qualitative feedback.
Innovation Solution
A feedback collection system with a response collector featuring a display portion and a token collection portion, where tokens are stored vertically and translucently, allowing anonymous feedback collection and quick visual summarization, using a removable screen to conceal tokens from view and an adjustable stand for easy use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If oral feedback is solicited from a group of people, then feedback can be collected quickly, but participants feel uncomfortable voicing opinions and individual responses are influenced by prior responses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces tokens as an intermediary medium between the participant and the feedback system. Participants place tokens in receptacles corresponding to their feedback choices, rather than verbally expressing opinions. This intermediary mechanism preserves anonymity while enabling quick collection, as the token placement is a simple physical action that does not require public declaration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses tokens as physical copies or representations of feedback choices. Each token represents a participant's opinion without requiring the participant to personally present or defend it. This allows feedback to be collected efficiently while maintaining independence from social pressure, as the token itself carries the feedback information anonymously.
2Ease of manufacture
If written feedback is collected through multiple choice questions, then feedback can be categorized, but time must be taken to review each individual submission to tabulate totals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables self-service tabulation through the visual display of tokens in transparent receptacles. As participants place tokens in designated receptacles, the totals for each category are automatically and visually updated. This eliminates the need for manual review and tabulation of individual responses, as the physical arrangement of tokens directly displays the aggregated results in real-time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of reviewing and tabulating written responses with a visual mechanical display system. The transparent receptacles and visible tokens create an automatic visual tally that can be observed without human intervention, substituting the manual tabulation process with a passive visual counting mechanism.
3Productivity
If tokens are visible in the receptacles, then feedback can be quickly tabulated visually, but participants may be influenced by seeing prior feedback before giving their own
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the feedback collection process into distinct phases: a feedback giving phase where receptacles are concealed to ensure independence, and a result tabulation phase where receptacles are revealed for visual counting. The removable screen enables this segmentation by physically separating the two phases, allowing the system to achieve both feedback independence and quick visual tabulation without compromising either requirement.
Data Source
AI summary
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a feedback collection system, method and kit that allows for feedback to be collected from a group of people about an evaluand in a manner where an individual person's feedback may not be attributable to that individual and will not be influenced by the already submitted feedback of others, and also may permit the group's feedback to be quickly and easily summarized and tabulated in a visual graph-like manner.