Focus Group vs Usability Testing in Singapore
User research is a crucial part of any website or product development. It can help you identify user needs and understand how your website or app can improve. Focus groupsand usability testing are two very useful but very different user experience research tools.
This focus group approach calls for a group of about 6 to 8 participants, who can represent your target audience and a moderator who can be used to guide the subject about feelings, attitudes and opinions about the subject. This method is designed to collect users’ ideas and opinions about ideas or designs.
Usability testing is a one-on-one (one subject and one mentor) test method that requires a system or website. The instructor should complete the core tasks with the subjects and understand how they operate and how they feel throughout the experience. This approach focuses on the interaction of people with websites or systems (ie, understanding how well people can accomplish their tasks and how designs can improve and where they improve).
Both of these tools can help you get more information about your target market and your users, and get valuable advice on how to improve the user experience on your site. However, because the two tools are focused and used differently, the information you get is different. To better understand when to use which tools, you need to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Focus Group
- Can reach a large number of user groups at a very low cost
- Learn more about the target market and know what they are thinking and what they want
- Only collect ideas from users about concepts and ideas and do not know if they are well used
- Communication between groups is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the ideas will communicate and deepen in the group to stimulate new ideas; on the other hand, these ideas and opinions are not very credible and the more powerful people in the group will influence others to express their opinions.
Usability testing
- Compared with the focus group, the cost is higher so the number of participants will be relatively less
- For each participant and their thoughts or opinions, the feedback you get will be more detailed
- The results are more credible (they will not be disturbed by others)
- Focus on people interacting with the site or system. So you can get the exact information, such as how they use the site or system, where they go wrong and why they go wrong
So, when should you use these two research tools? Of course, it depends on the amount of research you have done.
Focus groups should be used in the following situations:
- If the project started earlier
- If you know almost nothing about your target market
- If you want to deepen new ideas, but not sure what will happen
Usability testing should be used in the following situations:
- If you want to create a new website or system from scratch or make some changes on an existing website or system
- If you need to use this method regularly during the development cycle
- If you want to find out how your website or system is functioning
Focus groups and usability testing all provide a great deal of customer information: who they are, what they feel and what they do. However, in order to ensure that you get the best possible results from your investment, it is critical that you know exactly what you want and use the most appropriate method.
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