google-site-verification=Bi5tI8WZLmgLQCt3p-aIw8z5CkJAHeD9rrURuZtohHM Focus Groups - Human Factors Minute

Episode 14

Focus Groups

...and now for another Human Factors Minute!

Focus groups are a type of qualitative research method that can be a powerful tool in system development, but they should not be the only source of information about user behavior.

the proper role of focus groups is not to assess interaction styles or design usability, but to discover what users want from the system.


These can be on a one-to-one interview basis, or in a group session. Can be used to gain a large quantity of deep qualitative data, though due to the small sample size, can be subject to a higher degree of individual bias. Can be used at any point in the design process, as it is largely dependent on the exact questions to be pursued, and the structure of the group.


Focus groups are a somewhat informal technique that can help you assess user needs and feelings both before interface design and long after implementation. In a focus group, you bring together 6–9 users to discuss issues and concerns about the features of a user interface.


They can only assess what customers say they do and not the way customers actually operate the product. Since there are often major differences between what people say and what they do, direct observation of one user at a time always needs to be done to supplement focus groups.


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Nick Roome

Nick is currently a Senior UX Researcher at Turvo in the Pacific Northwest, focused on developing innovative solutions and optimizing human performance for SaaS based supply chain logistics programs. Alongside colleague and friends, Blake Arnsdorff and Barry Kirby, Nick hosts and produces Human Factors Cast, a weekly podcast that investigates the sciences of human factors, psychology, engineering, biomechanics, industrial design, physiology and anthropometry and how it affects our interaction with technology. Nick’s other areas of interest include, but are not limited to virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, systems engineering, and artificially intelligent systems.

Nick Started Human Factors Cast in early 2016 as a side-project. He believed that the way Human Factors concepts were being communicated is broken and saw a way to fix it. After getting initial traction, Nick moved to work on the Human Factors Cast Digital Media Lab and began assembling a multi-disciplinary team to test out new concepts in Human Factors communication.