Focus Groups
News Broadcasting Company
UK & US | 20 Participants | Focus Groups | Interviews
Research Goals
The client was interested in developing a better understanding of the behaviours, beliefs, experiences, and needs of people when they are consuming political news, with a particular focus around elections.
To do this, the 2022 US midterm elections provided a live context to deploy a number of changes to the news site, including updated graphics, pages, and user journeys.
Project Context
4 x 90 minute focus groups (2 UK, 2 US) were conducted with 20 participants.
12 x 60 minute follow-up interviews were conducted with 12 participants to further evaluate.
Research Objectives
Research Process
UK & US | 20 Participants |Focus Groups | Interviews
To ensure a well rounded overview of participants’ needs, focus groups were conducted prior to the US midterm elections and the interviews were carried out after.
This pre/post structure was deliberate, focus groups before the election surfaced expectations and existing behaviours, while post-election interviews captured how those expectations held up against reality, providing a richer and more complete picture of user needs.
Focus Groups
US & UK | 20 Participants | 90 Minutes.
Icebreaker.15 min.
To put the participants at ease as well as build upon common ground and shared experiences.
Midterms Experience. 45min.
Participants were asked to share their experiences of taking in the news during the midterms. Which stories they look for, overall impressions of the design, layout, and navigation of the news websites they regularly visit.
Needs Prioritisation. 20 min.
Initially participants privately recorded their top three needs, they then posted them onto a Miro board for a group discussion.
To conclude the activity, participants voted for their top three needs.
Interviews
US & UK | 12 Participants | 60 Minutes.
Intro. 10 mins.
To ease participants into the session.
Usability Testing. 40 mins.
Participants were asked to explored prototypes and the live news website.
Recap Priorities. 10 mins.
Participant’s revisited and discussed the priorities they reported during the focus group.
Analysis
The analysis process consisted of thematic analysis. Whereby activities and transcripts were closely examined to identify common themes and patterns.
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Once the data has been coded the themes are then reviewed to explore potential ideas for recommended solutions.
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Using Miro an affinity map was created to assist with organising the data and recommendations.
An insights report was then presented to the client, accompanied by a highlight reel to bring the insights to life.
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Insights
Here are a few of the insights that were presented to the client.
Overwhelmed
Most participants felt overwhelmed by the amount of news they needed to sift through. To be accurately informed about the US midterm elections.
This made taking in the news time-consuming and emotionally draining.
Implication:
News content should be concise, factual and solely informative to reduce the cognitive load during high-intensity news cycles.
Informed Decision-Making
Participants prioritised staying informed as their key motivation.
Staying informed helped them to solidify their voting decision and disseminate information to their friends and family.
Implication:
Opportunity to better support informed decision-making through clearly objective summaries and explainer content.
Post Election Clarity
After election day, many participants struggled to find the results in a centralised location.
This created frustration and highlighted a missed opportunity for the platform to support users at a critical moment.
Implication:
The post-election experience needed to be incorporated into the user journey. The implementation of a centralised results hub, with real-time updates and clear visualisation of results was required.
Outcome
The findings reshaped how the client approached election coverage entirely, shifting from reactive content publishing to a structured, user-centred experience built around clarity, content hierarchy, and a dedicated post-election results hub.
Reflections & Challenges
The main challenge to hand was facilitating a focused and productive conversation amongst people who hold diametrically opposed ideologies, this required careful design and moderation. Sessions were structured to balance perspectives, using facilitation techniques that ensured all voices were heard without conversations becoming polarised or unproductive.
Lucky for you, I wrote a blog post outlining the steps we followed to achieve this.