The focus group showcased here was conducted at The Art Institute of Houston. Faculty at AiH participated as focus group members to help us with this project. Its purpose was to gain insights and ideas for a redesign/merge of the Art Institute's current website's.

An excerpt from WebCredible...

Focus groups are most often used as an input to design.

Advantages of focus groups include:

* Quick, cheap and relatively easy to assemble
* Good for getting rich data in participants' own words and developing deeper insights
* People are able to build on one another's responses and come up with ideas they might not have thought of in a 1-on-1 interview
* Good for obtaining data from children and/or people with low levels of literacy
* Provides an opportunity to involve people in data analysis (e.g. "Out of the issues we have talked about, which ones are most important to you?")
* Participants can act as checks and balances on one another - identifying factual errors or extreme views

Limitations of focus groups include:

* The responses of each participant are not independent
* A few dominant focus group members can skew the session
* Focus groups require a skilled and experienced moderator
* The data which results from a focus group requires skill and experience to analyze