A focus group is a qualitative research method that assembles a group of 4-12 people to ask them about their ideas, impressions, perceptions, tastes and feelings about concepts, designs, products, packaging or experiences. The term implies a process for turning such conversations into data. The demographics of the focus group is typically carefully designed. Groups may be given case studies, product samples or user interfaces.
Criticism
Focus groups may suffer from social biases such as the abilene paradox. Generally speaking, using focus groups to make design decisions can end with bland designs and products. In many cases, focus groups are over-focused on data. They can be valuable beyond data as design teams may get ideas from seeing real customers playing with prototypes and reacting to design concepts.
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