Focus Group Research

A focus group is a moderated discussion among six to ten users or potential users of your site. The discussion gives you an indication as to the thoughts, feelings and viewpoints of the group. A typical focus group research session lasts about one hour and covers a range of topics that you decide on beforehand.

Benefits of this service

Focus groups are good at discovering how the system being tested differs from the user's current expectations, which can feed into the design process. As we see it, focus groups provide several major benefits:

Advantages

• Focus groups are relatively inexpensive (assuming that participants are from the same geographical area) and can be arranged quickly
• They rely on group interaction to trigger memories that may not come up during interviews
• Focus group interviews are typically more interesting to the respondent than individual interviews. As a result, answers are likely to be longer and more revealing
• A "snowballing" effect can occur, causing the ideas of individual members of the group to be passed around the group, gathering both momentum and detail

Disadvantages

• The moderator can introduce significant biases into the proceedings, should she/he fail to ask certain questions or delve deeply into specific areas
• The researcher has less control over a group than a one-on-one interview
• Skilled moderators are difficult to find, and when their services are available, they are often expensive

The approach

The success of a focus group is heavily dependent on the skill of the moderator. The moderator must generate interest in the topic, involve all the participants, keep the discussion on track, keep dominant personalities from overwhelming other participants, and not give away the sponsor's beliefs or expectations.

The process

We recruit a representative sample of your audience and will moderate the session and obtain the maximum information that we can from the group.

The deliverables

We would typically look to deliver the following to your organisation as part of a focus group that we run.

Report - an oral presentation communicating the most important findings and recommendations.

Presentation - an oral presentation communicating the most important findings and recommendations.

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