A small group of eight to 10 target customers engage in a structured roundtable discussion of selected topics of interest in an informal setting.
The two-hour interviews are directed by a seasoned MPI product development/design moderator who guides the discussion to obtain the group’s habits and practices, product use behavior, opinions about or reactions to specific products, marketing-oriented issues and test concepts.
Advantages
- Flexibility. Interviews allow you to adapt during the discussion.
- Engaging. Personalized interviews allow you to dig for clarification.
A typical study involves collecting information by means of a brief questionnaire, followed by observation and formal, non-structured interviews.
The individual study of 20 to 25 target consumers lasts approximately two hours each and includes a task analysis based on the professional observation/investigation of consumers’ habits.
A task analysis is an investigation among end users of the specific steps they follow to successfully use the product. It’s critical to fully understand user task analysis perception at this stage in the design. Knowing user logic links design to consumer behavior.
Advantages
Participatory Design sessions allow designers and users to work together — in the same environment — to design a solution. Besides providing a forum for identifying issues, it gives users a voice in the design process, thus increasing the probability of a usable design.
A typical study asks three groups of five to eight target-segment consumers to react to each component of a proposed product’s design. Drawings, design options and prototypes are produced to stimulate new ideas. The team works through the components, negotiating solutions and agreeing on the outcomes. Each of these group sessions can last up to four hours.
Advantages
The product “show and tell” methodology is a hybrid of the group interview, usability and observation methodologies.
Group interviews are first used to gather qualitative data from target groups of consumers. Consumer habits and practices are uncovered to help give context to the observational data that is collected.
Reactions to new product physical concepts and prototypes are gathered from study participants via observational techniques. Although consumers often do not have the opportunity to actually use the product at the test facility, they are asked to simulate typical tasks and give feedback on how well they think the product fills their needs.
Advantages
- Comprehensive. Gathers both numeric and open-ended data.
- Intimate. Respondents touch and feel the product.
Larger scale surveys are conducted with quantitative web surveys to evaluate prototypes or final product designs. Surveys allow statistical analysis of results which increases a study’s credibility through its scientific basis. It’s critical and expected the questionnaire must be well-designed with no primed or loaded questions.
The Internet and online services are used to conduct a full range of research from focus groups to formal quantitative surveys. Questionnaires are programmed and put on a web page. Respondents fill them out and submit data for analysis. Or, a group of respondents log into a chat room for an online focus group. Respondents are recruited over the phone, by
e-mail or by embedding a link on a relevant home page.
Advantages
- Moderate cost. Data collection costs are reduced.
- Speed. Allows for quick collection of large numbers of interviews.
- Non-intrusive. Respondents can answer at their convenience.
- Access. Unique or hard-to-find respondents can be accessed.
Observing users work with your products and competitive products eliminates the issue of participants saying one thing and doing another. In the end, usability testing gives insight into how and how not to design the product.
During a usability metrics evaluation, users are asked to complete a representative set of tasks interacting with a product and are measured by the following definition. It reads: the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Therefore, data is collected on:
- How effective users are at completing tasks (Could they do a task or did they give up?);
- How efficient they are at completing those tasks (How long did it take them?); and
- How satisfied they are with the experience of completing the tasks (Was it a positive or frustrating experience?).
A typical study asks 10 to 15 target-segment consumers to complete tasks using the product, each individual session taking up to two hours. These tasks are timed and scored. This data is then analyzed to determine a usability “score” for each product. These scores can then be compared to other products from the competitive set.
Advantages
- Benchmarking. Establish a product design database to measure products, competitors and even categories, against each other.