Do you do customer surveys/focus groups/etc. before designing?

Why OR why not?

[Undead Hunter]

I'm just wondering how many designers out there do this? Or is this something that you expect the company to provide you with, perhaps from their own Marketing people?

[axisoftime]

A few years back (in my consulting days), we did this with all of our clients. I think it is a necessary step in the design process for all companies - the bigger the company, the greater the need.

Now that I'm freelancing on the side, I *hope* (not necessarily *expect*) and encourage the company to do this on their own, then use 1 person to communicate the design ideas to me. Saves time.

However, focus groups/brainstorming sessions, etc. are a good service to provide if the company needs some direction. It eases their decision-making process and can provide you some extra revenue.

[Macguru]

I guess a single focus group session would burn the budget of most commercial sites I see.

[Travoli]

I look at the successful competition and then figure out how I can make their process easier.

You could do the same with a focus group.. have them go through the competition and see where they stumble.

[Undead Hunter]

Hi Macguru:

What kind of price levels are you talking about? What kind of commercial sites are you looking at? What size of client in, say, gross sales per year?

Thanks for your further input,

Hunter

[Undead Hunter]

Hi Travoli:

Very reasonable - but I guess the next question is (and this goes out to everyone - ), once you "figure out how ...[to] make their process easier" - do you follow up with *usability* testing with clients/customers somewhere down the line?

If not, why not? Is it cost-related (you don't think the budget is there and/or don't know if you can justify the expense in the results) or expertise-related (haven't done them before, don't have time or inclination to learn?)

[Macguru]

Hi Undead_Hunter,

Most sites I work on are sub 30 k .ca projects starting the site from scratch.

Only a small minority of sites can afford focus groups during the planning/developpement stage. And the ones using post publishing surveys just cant afford to do the changes.

It is a current process for sites with 100 k budgets. They represent only a hanfull of clients.

Most of the times. Conclusions of such studies are so obvious that I am not sure at all money was well spent...

[Travoli]

Yes, we had a usability study. We hired 12 temps for 2 hours each. They came in, sat down, and complete some processes on our site while we watched and asked what they were thinking. It was very telling and well worth the money. We have changed our entire search interface since.

[Shane]

Travoli hits a good point. I just took a course and the point that stuck was don't just watch them attempt tasks but ask them to say what they are thinking as they attempt a task. You learn much more.

..... Shane