Approach
By using focus groups, we explore the experiences of visitors to the consumer facing and B2B website and highlights areas for development and improvement.
Respondents are invited to take part in a session that involves both a group discussion and ‘accompanied surf’ where they undertake a number of tasks on the site. Whilst undertaking these tasks, respondents provide a running commentary on what they are doing, such as why they are selecting certain links, their reaction to design etc.
Groups normally consist of about four respondents, who start the session as a group exploring current usage, behaviour and expectations of the site and the brand.
Respondents ‘brake out’ with individual moderators to complete the tasks. Moderators observe the user's journey and probe into their choice of path, reaction to individual elements and overall user experience.
Respondents reconvene as a group to discuss their experiences of the site, and look to discuss areas for development and improvement.
Specialist software is used to record the screen activity and audio during the ‘accompanied surf’ element of the session. These recordings are then re-visited during analysis and prove invaluable in demonstrating actual user experiences to clients and stakeholders.
Benefits
All research is based on actual, not perceived experiences and does not rely on users' anecdotal accounts of their experience with a website. The use of ‘accompanied surfs’ allows the research team to asses the user's journey giving 100% accurate results.
As specialist software is used to record the screen activity and audio during the ‘accompanied surf’, all research can be re-visited at a later date proving invaluable in demonstrating actual user experiences to clients and stakeholders.
The group element of this process allows for a more creative and discursive environment, resulting in some very intriguing results.