Newspaper editors often ask what we think of focus groups and their effectiveness in providing answers to the many questions that plague newsrooms. As one who has been involved in more behind-the-mirror focus groups than I care to remember, I always have one standard answer: focus groups are good in that they will keep us from making at least one embarrassing mistake.
To that effect, I am a fan of focus groups. That said, I also review focus groups without taking them too seriously. From each group, some consistent themes appear, and the redesigned product is better because of conclusions reached after a series of focus groups.
Some things are almost universal in focus groups, as outlined here:
1. The quality of the moderator determines the usefulness of the information gathered. It is important that the moderator be an objective, engaging, flexible person who will lead the discussion and drive it according to the conversation taking place in the room — rather than attempting to follow a prescribed set of prepared items that may not be of consequence to the participants.
2. When it comes to testing a prototype for a redesigned product, approach the session with a few well targeted segments to test, as opposed to an impossibly long list. For example: perhaps you wish to know about the look and feel of page one, the legibility of body text, and the navigational system of a certain section(s). That should be enough for an intelligent conversation.
3. For newspapers going from all black and white to color, it never fails that most readers will like the color, but will also try to express how the color “takes away from the serious look” of their newspaper. This is to be expected, just as the same readers will not even remember the black and white former style three weeks after the new color is introduced!
4. Even when one tries to test purely graphic elements, readers are more interested in discussing content. This, I think, is good, even if it frustrates us when we want to know if a certain color screen works behind a column, but the readers concentrate totally on the content of the column.
Finally, all redesigned projects should include a focus group before final changes are made. It informs us about reactions. It guides us to perfect details. Again, it keeps us from making that one embarrassing mistake that nobody in the redesign committee even thought about, but that one smart soccer mom spotted instantly, echoing feelings of perhaps hundreds of other readers.
–All or a portion of this column was originally published in the IFRA newsletter
