As the project is coming to a close, one of the last steps our group had to do was conduct a focus group for our prototype. We ended up gathering a group of eight people, including roommates/housemates, friends, teammates, or peers. While we did not choose people in order to gather a specific sample group, we ended up getting individuals with a variety of different housing backgrounds and experiences. In the end, this made the different insights they gave later on helpful to us in creating a full picture of how our prototype functioned across our entire target market. Although this step in the process went fairly smoothly for our team and helped us modify and refine our product, there were a few problems we ran into.
First of all, and probably most importantly, we had an issue getting all participants to speak up. While they all gave good insights on the feedback grid we had them write on in the beginning, only about two or three of the participants we actually voluntarily speaking when the discussion was opened up to the room. Caroline (the moderator) adjusted her approach, however, and asked the participants to go in a circle and give their answer to the question. Caroline’s quick thinking required everyone to give their opinion and feedback. As a result, even if some of the participants agreed with what others were saying, they could build on the previous comment to provide us with well-rounded and comprehensive feedback on what worked well and what needed to be improved.
The other issue we faced involved certain small details or bits of information that participants were either confused about or suggested we should include. However, it seemed like participants did not peruse the website enough to find the details or information, because they were actually on the website. While this was frustrating, it made it clear to our group that we needed to make that information more accessible or noticeable on the website.
Overall, while there were minor issues we faced during the focus group, the other aspects of the evaluation phase really helped us move toward refining our product for the final presentation next Thursday!