1. Focus Groups Alfred Kobsa University of California, Irvine

2. Pros and cons of focus groups Good for Generating ideas ( ☛ use brainstorming techniques) Gauging user opinions Collect multiple points of view in a short period of time Cons People may be influenced by the opinions of others People may feel intimidated in group situation Individual participants may dominate ☛ Use a skilled [outside?] moderator

3. Elements of a focus group 6-10 participants (possibly pre-interview them) Good participant mix (demographic, job profile, …) Avoid including supervisors Use preferably more than one focus group (2-3) Make the group size smaller if needed Actors: Moderator Note-taker (collects and posts ideas) Videographer Observers Activity materials White board or flip chart Post-it notes (Computer/video projector, Powerpoint slides, videos)

4. Rules for Brainstorming Process During the session Warm-up exercises Tell participants to imagine an ideal world / ideal product (“nothing is impossible”) Tell participants that no comment is “wrong” Disallow designing Comments get written down (preferably by a trained scribe) Comments are posted to be seen by all (Probe answers to find the “real” need/opinion) During or after the session (and after several different sessions) Duplicates become eliminated Answers become grouped / hierarchically structured / ranked Statistics are made across different sessions

5. Rules for Moderator Be personable Ask questions Have sufficient domain knowledge ( what is important, what not?) Stay focused Avoid behaving like a participant Keep the activity moving Keep the participants motivated/encouraged No critiquing Everyone should participate ( ☛ use“round robin”) No one should dominate

6. Special types of focus groups Assignment of tasks to groups (construction, testing,…) Requires time, several facilitators and usually artifacts Iterative focus groups “Focus troupe”, “Day-in-the-life” Computer-supported focus groups Electronic whiteboard, (anonymous) chat-based conference system Tele-groups (usually phone conference) Problems with loafing; non-verbal communication lacking

7. Wants and Needs Analysis Storming questions: What activities would you like to perform with this product? What information would you like to get from this site? How would you like to accomplish a particular task? Problems: People don’t always know what they really would like/need People often cannot predict how much they would like/use a specific feature. What people say they do or will do is often different from what they actually do or will do. A wants and needs analysis is a special kind of focus group in which participants brainstorm about product features and services they would like to see.