S60 Open to new features

A number of methods are currently available to assist in developing and testing applications. Group testing kills two birds with one stone. A mixture including focus groups and usability delivers the best of both worlds and provides an efficient way to gather important data on users and their behaviours.

What method is best for you, focus groups or usability testing?

A focus group can be very effective at gathering opinions, but it has nothing to say about performance. According to usability guru Jakob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com, the proper role of a focus group is not to assess interaction styles or design usability, but to discover what users want from the system. The opposite can be applied to usability testing: It is an excellent technique for evaluation, but inadequate for assessing user needs. Knowing this, imagine what these two techniques could produce together!

You get a better result when practicing both!
A more efficient way to determine user needs and evaluate the product is group testing, a mixture of both focus groups and usability testing. Group testing is a cost-efficient way to get a lot of information in a short amount of time. An experienced researcher with previous knowledge of both usability testing in general and case-specific guidelines, not to mention the underlying technology, is a prerequisite for successful testing. Group testing is best when conducted in application prototyping phase, but it is suitable also when the product needs updating to a newer version or its quality needs to be verified.

Group testing can provide a wealth of usable information. For example, it yields product information about the efficiency and ease-of-use of a product, as well as marketing information about consumer behaviour, pricing, and models of use. Conducted in larger groups, the test also gives insight into whether the product can be adapted to the processes of various groups and communities. In group testing, the real focus group users provide information while using the products and discussing them with their peers. In addition to offering feedback about new product features and qualities, the test reveals issues related to cultural usability and applicability to existing behavioural models.

To sum up:
* Group testing is cost-efficient
* You get a wealth of usable information by the real focus group users in a short amount of time
* The results can be used in several product development phases