Keep, lose, change: Prompts for the re-design of product concepts in a focus group setting

Abstract

Focus groups have traditionally been used in market and design research to obtain group reactions to product concepts. In this article we outline a simple methodological extension to this format, involving a further stage of concept re-design in smaller subgroups facilitated by a professional designer. The method was developed in the context of working with groups of older people on concepts addressing memory, identity and social communication. It is illustrated with reference to the re-design of two seeded concepts and feedback from participants themselves on the experience of taking part.

Keywords::

• concept
• design
• re-design
• co-design, focus group
• older people
• ambiguity
• keep
• lose
• change

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our colleagues on the Sus-IT project, Peter Lancaster, Kristina Langhein and Diogo Casa Nova at Digital World Research Centre, and all the groups who took part in the design sessions for their help and insights in this work.

Funding

The original research for this article was carried out on the Sus-IT project: Sustaining IT use by older people to promote autonomy and independence, led by Leela Damodaran and Wendy Olphert. It was funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing programme [grant number RES-353-25-008]. Subsequent analysis, refinement and write-up of the method, now named Focusgroup+, were carried out on the Tailoring Technology project, funded by the Nominet Trust. The second author, Chis Lim, was originally at the University of Surrey but is now based at the University of Dundee.