Services & Methods
User and Market Evaluation
Investigating the needs, attitudes and behaviour of a potential or current audience or market is often conducted to inform initial strategy and planning and can also be repeated at regular intervals after launch to ensure ongoing planning is as effective as possible. For example:
- Quantifying the potential market for a service
- Identifying the segment of most potential within a population
- Investigating how an audience uses a platform (for example, interactive TV)
- Understanding specific applications within it (for example, gaming) to help inform service planning
Market evaluation is best conducted as a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. A detailed understanding of market behaviour gained from an initial quantitative wave followed by a qualitative wave to fully understand why – looking at the 'softer' issues such as motivations, attitudes and feelings.
Concept and Content Testing
From initial concept through to pre-launch content testing, all stages of concept and content development research uses consumer testing to help inform the development process so as to tailor the service to best meet user and business needs. For example:
- Initial concept development
- Content structure and development research (wireframes)
- Content design, tone and layout research
- Content evaluation – to investigate most effective content to maximise usage and loyalty
A wide range of formats can be used in research from traditional concept boards of mock-ups and designs, through all stages of development using software authoring tools to fully functional services.
Usability testing can be incorporated into the later stages of content testing to provide an indepth thorough analysis of all aspects of user experience (see usability testing below).
Website Usability
Usability testing requires a detailed investigation of the usability barriers which impact on usage, purchasing and loyalty to an interactive service. Usability barriers are identified and logged – with specific reference to their severity in hampering usability. This information can then be used to help inform service development to maximise effectiveness.
Usability problems are detected through a series of user-testing depth interviews – where potential users work through a series of tasks designed to test all aspects of an interface.
Recommendations for development are provided, along with a comprehensive log and explanation of all usability barriers.
User Profiling
Understanding all aspects of a user or audience base in terms of demographics (age, gender etc), usage frequency, usage behaviour, attitude towards the service, competitor usage and any other useful metric is essential to help service planning.
The sample can be gathered by accessing the population through traditional methods (telephone or street interviews) or through the use of web or email based surveys. Simple and advanced analytical methods can then be applied to thoroughly investigate patterns of behaviour, sub-groups, trends and so on and also predict techniques used to help anticipate consumer needs, behaviour and trends.
Brand Evaluation
Whether investigating the most effective interactive brand strategy or exploring the best way to develop a brand on a new platform, brand evaluation can ensure that it will not alienate the potential audience and will communiate the key values most effectively.
Qualitative methods such as focus groups are most useful for investigating peoples’ feelings and attitudes and truly understanding the subconscious level of perception – essential to understanding brands and branding.
Ad and Sponsorship Tracking
The effectiveness of advertising and sponsorship can be evaluated to provide an understanding of return on investment and track the impact of the activity on the users’ perception of and behaviour relating to the brand.
As a combination of quantitative methods (tracking the level of awareness, usage, impact of brand message / communication and purchasing behaviour) is best evaluated alongside qualitative research (investigating the reasons for change of perception, attitude, behaviour and purchasing).
Over time, ad and sponsorship tracking can provide a valuable ongoing tool to evaluate the ROI of the activity quarter on quarter.
