Hi Shima
The quality of insight that you can get from one on one interviews is almost
always better than focus groups. I think is point of view is pretty standard
in and you'll find it in most research textbooks. A lot of UX specialists
sneer at focus groups as a method - some consultancies refuse to use them,
period.
Why?
- opinions are easily influenced in group situations
- it's hard to build rapport (which is necessary if you want to ask really
probing questions)
- it's easy for attendees to just ride the wave and go along with the
conversation
- in any conversation, only one person can speak at a time, which means you
only end up with a small proportion of spoken words from each person.
- it's tempting for moderators to ask what if? or If then? questions (e.g.
if you used the product I just web demoed, would you find it easy /
enjoyable?). These questions, though tempting, are well known to be
unreliable.
- as a result, critics claim that instead of gathering useful insights from
all of the attendees, you end up with a collection of relatively trivial /
shallow comments
Focus groups seem like attractive things because they appear to deliver so
much - qualitative depth research with impressive numbers of people in short
periods of time. But for the reasons I've outlined above, many UX
specialists see them as a false economy.
A really skilled focus group moderator can reduce the impact of these
problems (like Sarah - who's given you some great advice in the previous
message) but they never completely go away.
I wonder if this view is shared by everyone on IXDA - if anyone disagrees,
it would be a welcome discussion!
Harry
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 4:22 AM, Shima Kazerooni shkazero...@yahoo.comwrote:
Hi Harry
We would like to get pre-screened participants' feedback on something. The
participants are all over the place and the format of the session will be a
focus group remotely instead of a 1-1 interview.
Shima
--
*From:* Harry harr...@gmail.com
*To:* Shima Kazerooni shkazero...@yahoo.com
*Sent:* Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:32:35 AM
*Subject:* Re: [IxDA Discuss] Testing- Remote Focus Group
Shima,
When you say remote - do you mean a group of strangers calling in to a
conference call service? I can imagine that might be problematic. Have you
considered doing one-on-one telephone interviews instead of a remote focus
group?
Harry
--
Dr. Harry Brignull
User Experience Consultant
http://www.90percentofeverything.com
+ 44 (0)7920 474784
--
Dr. Harry Brignull
User Experience Consultant
http://www.90percentofeverything.com
+ 44 (0)7920 474784
--
Dr. Harry Brignull
User Experience Consultant
http://www.90percentofeverything.com
+ 44 (0)7920 474784
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