Conducting focus groups for a website redesign

Whitepaper 2007 Focus groups are a valuable tool for gaining qualitative insight and

feedback from your website audiences. They can be conducted

throughout a redesign project as needed, whether at the beginning

to identify major issues and gain a better understanding of user

needs or later in the process to refine language and gauge

reaction to visual designs, imagery and messages.

CONDUCTING

FOCUS GROUPS

FOR A WEBSITE

REDESIGN

Copyright 2007 J. Todd Bennett

1 Whitepaper: Conducting Focus Groups

hy focus groups?

We believe in designing user-centric websites. A key to the success of any

website redesign project is to understand why people visit your website and

what they’re trying to do once they get there.

In short, a focus group is a group interview with 10-12

members of a target audience (students, faculty, alumni,

etc.), conducted by a moderator. Its advantages are

relatively low cost, the opportunity to probe deeper into

important issues that arise, and results that are almost

immediate. However, you should remember that what

you hear in a focus group may only apply to the people in

that group and should not be generalized to the greater

population. Such generalizations should be made

following a survey of a representative sample of the

population you are trying to measure.

Selecting your groups

When recruiting people to join your focus groups, there are a few helpful tips to follow:

Participants should represent your target audience and the group should be as

homogenous as possible. Remember, you are looking to speak with the “typical”

visitor to your website—not the person who has the most expertise in building it.

Try to avoid recruiting participants with expertise in market research or marketing,

unless these people are representative of your target audience.

Turnout for focus groups, particularly with students, can be very low. You may

need to invite 20-25 people per group to get your desired size of 8-12

participants.

W

A great way to

explore the minds of

your website users is

to conduct focus

groups.



Provide an incentive to attend. For many of your stakeholders, simply having

input into the design of the new website is incentive enough. For students, an

evening session with free food may result in better attendance.

While it’s not preferred, existing campus groups such as committees, department

staff meetings, and student organizations could also serve as focus groups.

Location

Many people think that to conduct a focus group, they need a special facility. This is not true.

While special observation rooms with sound and video recording equipment are nice, what

you’re after is quick and dirty feedback to move forward on a project. In choosing a location,

consider the following:

Choose a room that can comfortably seat 10-12 people, a moderator and a

note-taker/ observer.

The room should be free from distractions and private. Participants should feel

that they can speak freely, so public spaces should be avoided.

The room should not be so large or noisy that you are not able to make a clear

audio recording of the session. Be certain to test you audio equipment in the

room before the session to ensure there are no distracting sounds, such as a loud

fan.

Participants should be seated in a circle or around a conference table.

Remember, this is a conversation, not a lecture.

Be sure the room has good lighting and the temperature is comfortable. Rooms

that are too hot or too cold can be a distraction.



Getting started

Your group will be facilitated by a moderator. It’s important your moderator have excellent

communication skills (speaking and listening) and should not be too close to the project at

hand. Your institution’s webmaster or marketing director is not likely to get the same honest

responses as an objective third party moderator.

It is helpful to make an audio or video recording of

each session. If you do, be sure to get the consent

of the participants and excuse anyone who is not

comfortable with being recorded. Note that video

is perceived as much more intrusive and may

inhibit responses. Assure everyone that what they

say is confidential and their names will never be

linked to their comments. The benefit of an audio

recording is that it can be transcribed and later

used in the content analysis of the sessions.

Additionally, whether you record the session or not, you should have another observer in the

room to take notes. The observer can make note of non-verbal cues as well as the feelings and

emotions surrounding an issue. These notes can also serve as a back-up in the event the audio

recording equipment malfunctions.

Before the formal focus group begins, it’s a good idea to plan for 10-15 minutes of informal

conversation with refreshments. This will allow the participants a chance to become more

comfortable in the environment and with the other group members. It will also give the

moderator an opportunity to look for any participants who might try to monopolize the

conversation or not speak at all during the focus group.

Once you are ready to begin, have everyone take a seat around the table. You may choose to

have each person introduce themselves by first name before you begin. After the introductions,

it is important that you lay the ground rules for the discussion and ensure participants that their

“It’s important your

moderator have excellent

communication skills,

both speaking and

listening”



responses are confidential. If you are recording the session, you should obtain consent from

everyone in the room to do so and excuse those who prefer not to be recorded.

Moderating the group

As a moderator, it is your role to promote open discussion and to draw out people’s differences.

You may need to probe for details or move things forward when the conversation is drifting. You

must keep the session focused, which sometimes requires steering the conversation back on

course. Moderators also have to ensure everyone participates and gets a chance to speak. You

should avoid favoring particular participants and should try to control those who attempt to

monopolize the discussion. If someone is not participating, you may choose to ask him/her a

question directly.

Sample Introduction Script

Welcome to our session on [PROJECT]. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and to discuss

[PROJECT]. My name is [NAME] from PLACE that has been chosen by [CLIENT] to [PROJECT].

Assisting me is [NAME].

You were selected because you [AUDIENCE]. We are particularly interested in your views because

[REASON]. I’ll start by asking some questions and would like you to respond to them. There are no right

or wrong answers. Please feel free to share your point of view even if it differs from what others have

said. We do ask that you are all respectful of others’ opinions and give everyone a chance to share their

views. We also ask that only one person speak at a time. Because we have a number of issues to discuss, I

may have to cut you short and ask to move on. Please don’t be offended. We just need to keep things

moving so we can finish on-time.

We want you to be as open and honest as possible, so we guarantee that everything you say will be kept

confidential in the sense that your name will never be linked to your comments shared with [CLIENT].

However, we would like to record our conversation because it is difficult to write and follow the

discussion at the same time and it’s important we don’t miss any of your comments. Do I have everyone’s

consent to record the session? If so, let’s begin with the first question.

Our session will last about [TIME]. Are there any questions before we begin?



It is also very important that the moderator and observer do not take over the conversation

themselves. Your personal opinions can influence participants towards a particular position or

opinion. You are there to LISTEN to what the participants have to say.

Asking Questions

What questions do you ask? The answer depends on what you want to know. If the redesign of

your website includes the reorganization of your navigation and content, understanding what

people are looking for at your website (including the

words they use to describe it) is important and questions

should attempt to discover this. You should have about

8-12 broad questions prepared ahead of time. For each

of these, you may choose to prepare a series of

“prompts” or more probing questions that can be used

to get more detailed responses.

When asking questions, start with the broadest questions

first. To elicit responses, it may be necessary to call on

individuals. You may experience several seconds of

silence before someone speaks up to answer your

question. This is okay and eventually the silence will draw

people out. In this case, you should avoid the temptation to answer the question for the group

or give examples that may influence their responses.

You may also use your prompts to get to deeper responses. These, however are optional. If

you’re getting responses that meet your objectives, don’t feel obligated to ask every probing

question you have prepared. These are designed simply to stimulate a deeper conversation. If

participants respond with short answers, ask them to elaborate. You may encounter

unanticipated responses that are valuable to pursue, but be certain doing so does not disrupt

the timeline and keep you from getting to other questions that might be central to your project.

As the moderator,

your role is to ask

questions and

LISTEN…

Avoid the temptation

to answer the question

or provide examples.



Reporting the results

How you choose to report your results will depend on several factors, including the amount of

time you have and what you plan to do with the results. In most cases, a summary of your notes

or transcripts of the audio sessions will suffice. If you’re very ambitious and have plenty of time,

you could conduct a content analysis of transcripts of each session. This would allow you to

identify key themes that emerged and quantify your results. Whichever method you choose,

remember that you cannot make generalizations about the entire population (“all students

feel…”).

If your focus groups are a precursor to the kick-off of a project, be alert to any “hot-button”

issues that may emerge. You can prevent having your project derailed by internal politics later

on by paying attention to issues raised at the start. You may also find that topics are discussed

that warrant further investigation. Oftentimes, focus groups identify questions that need to be

asked of a sample of the larger population on a survey.

Conclusion

Focus groups are a valuable tool for gaining qualitative insight and feedback from your website

audiences. They can be conducted throughout a redesign project as needed, whether at the

beginning to identify major issues and gain a better understanding of user needs or later in the

process to refine language and gauge reaction to visual designs, imagery and messages. Focus

groups should not be used to generalize to all users and are not a substitute for usability testing.

However, when paired with other research methods, well moderated focus groups can help

ensure the success of any project.

Conducting focus groups for a website redesign

Internet

Transcript of Conducting focus groups for a website redesign