Comparing Market Research and Usability Research Methods

							drive

Comparing Market Research and Usability Research Methods
A Brief Presentation and Interactive Group Discussion Led by Sharon V. Harap and Mike Skrapits

Austin UPA Meeting
August 14, 2003

www.tns-i.com

What is Market or Marketing Research?
For purposes of today’s discussion, it’s any custom-designed research, where new or primary data is collected based on personal interviews
• • • • It includes quantitative and qualitative data collection methods It includes Web, phone or in-person interviewing It includes business and consumer interviewing It may include qualitative, in-lab testing like usability interviews

August 14, 2003
2

Austin UPA

When is market research used?

›

Market research is used at many stages to get feedback from customers and/or prospective customers
 We evaluate new product and service concepts through feedback
 We get feedback of product features and functions to aid product development  Much of our focus is on understanding the customer experience and needs

 We regularly get feedback on a sample of people’s attitudes, usage, satisfaction and commitment to products, services and brands
 We test the effectiveness of advertising and how brands are perceived  Often we conduct evaluations of computer software, hardware and Web sites using study respondents

August 14, 2003
3

Austin UPA

How are market and usability research related?
›
Fundamentally, most market research gets at what customers want and need, while usability testing is more about whether something has successfully met customer requirements What both market and usability research have in common is that both get feedback from respondents or participants who represent the population from which they come
 They are either actual or prospective customers or users of a product or service  e.g. usability testing for a mainframe environment should not be primarily conducted with people who work in Windows, unless the specific goal is to make the product attractive to those people as prospective users.  The sample may be small in order to gain qualitative feedback or may be quantitative in nature
August 14, 2003
4

›

Austin UPA

How are market and usability research related?

Chart created by Whitney Interactive Design

August 14, 2003
5

Austin UPA

How are they the same and different? (Qualitative)
›
Market research is often qualitative in nature
 We interview individuals using in-depth interviews (IDIs) or groups of people (e.g. focus groups or mini groups) using open-ended questions to gain deep insight  We seek to get feedback from a smaller sample of individuals (in total) and not to quantify the results  Market researchers screen and recruit target audience(s) of individuals via the phone or e-mail to participate in a study with specific criteria  Respondents may come to a central location or facility or participate remotely from their home or office depending on the study’s design

›

Usability interviewing tends to focus on computer-human interaction: software, Web sites or hardware during the product development lifecycle
 Usability interviewing can be done with a similar recruitment approach and format
August 14, 2003
6

Austin UPA

How are they the same and different? (Quantitative)
›
Market research is often used for quantitative data collection
 We interview a representative sample of hundreds or thousands of individuals using surveys  In market research, the focus is on asking questions of respondents  We seek to get feedback from a larger sample of individuals (in total), and to quantify the results and insure they are statistically significant  Market researchers screen and recruit individuals via phone or e-mail to participate in a study with specific criteria  Most of the questions we ask respondents are closed-ended (e.g. single or multiple response in structure)  Often we ask a few open-ended questions to drill down on key topics  Respondents may come to a central location or participate remotely depending on the study’s design

›

Usability interviewing can be done quantitatively using online usability testing tools or by spending numerous weeks interviewing in the lab
 Here the focus is on observation of product usage (and may include task-based exercises). The narrative or open-ended responses may also play an important role in providing detailed feedback
August 14, 2003
7

Austin UPA

Web site research to support business decisions
Providing customer intelligence at all key development stages
PreEnvisioning

Envisioning

Plan

Develop Deploy

Measure awareness and trial
•Usability •Web surveys •Phone surveys •Mystery shopping

Measure use and satisfaction
•Usability

Launch

Monitor

•Competitive reviews •Web surveys • Mystery shopping

Making data driven decisions

Pre-launch
Test reaction
•Usability •Heuristic evaluations Chart created by TNSI August 14, 2003
8

Concept
Determine unmet needs

Early Development
Understand market
•Web surveys •Focus groups Austin UPA

•Focus groups •Online discussion boards •Usability •Web surveys

Topics for our group discussion
Group Exercise: describe a question you need answered in your work
 Mike and Sharon will suggest possible ways to get the feedback through market research

Group Discussion:
 How do we work together to provide feedback to the business decision-makers?  Do we collaborate with one another? When?

 What are some of the pain-points associated with working together (market and
usability researchers)?  How do we measure our success?  Are we all accountable for return on investment (ROI) for the research we provide?  Other issues? (open forum)

August 14, 2003
9

Austin UPA

Contacting us
Please contact us with any further questions you may have:

Sharon Harap sharon.harap@tns-i.com 512.346.3075

Mike Skrapits mike_skrapits@bmc.com 512.340.6881

August 14, 2003
10

Austin UPA