國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
easily. Also, our questions should stay away from technical language, be brief and specific (Krueger, 1998; Krueger & Casey, 2000).
There are five types of focus group questions including opening questions, introductory questions, transition questions, key questions, and concluding questions (Krueger & Casey, 2000). The purpose of these questions is not obtaining deep information, however, we want to make participants willing to share their opinion to each other and feel comfortable. Introductory questions focus on discussing the subject simply, making participants to recall their relative knowledge and experiences.
Transition question is a logic connection between introductory and key questions.
Under this discussion, participants can notice different viewpoints from others. By doing so, it will provide the foundation for the success of discussing key questions.
Key questions are the most important procedure in the whole focus group. They should be developed and prepared as soon as possible, and will cost a lot of time to summarize and analyze. Concluding questions can let us finish the focus group perfectly and rethink all the suggestions. Three types of concluding questions are valuable, and they are all-things-considered, summary, and ending questions.
The objective in each sessions/round of focus group
As mentioned in previous sections, the study will focus on four steps of scenario-based design, including requirement analysis, activity design, information
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
design, and interaction design. However, because presentation and execution frequently happen simultaneously, information design and interaction design will be conducted in the same session. Therefore, as each step has its specific objective, our study will conduct three rounds of focus group to obtain detailed information corresponding to four steps of scenario-based design. Table 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 shows the detailed questions in each session of focus group, respectively.
In the first session of focus group, the focus is requirements analysis. In this phase, we first construct the root concepts including high-level vision, basic rationale, stakeholders, and starting assumption. Our vision and rationale are to design a comfortable environment for surfing m-commerce websites and to improve the current problems by using innovative solutions or information technologies.
Stakeholders are our participants who are highly interested in and familiar with the project.
Then, the study will conduct the focus group to ask all participants questions, to observe their reactions and even to draw diagrams which can help to generate problem scenarios and claims. Problem scenarios refer to the detail descriptions of current activities, while claims are the advantages and disadvantages. Questions in the round of requirement analysis were shown in Table 3.1.
‧
Table 3.1 Questions in round one - Requirements analysis Round 1
Opening questions 1. Today, the purpose of the meeting is to exchange opinions about how to design an appropriate mobile interface. First, could you please introduce yourself?
2. How long have you used smart phone?
Introductory questions 1. Could you please browse the m-commerce website right away?
Transition questions 1. Can you talk about your experience of browsing e- or m-commerce website?
Key questions 1. Can you describe the procedure? Can you show me?
How to achieve the goal of your task?
2. Which part of the interface do you appreciate?
3. Which part of the interface are you unhappy with?
4. Have you encountered any problem? Please talk about it.
Concluding questions 1. What is the most important point during our discussion?
2. Are all the questions clearly stated and discussions correctly clarified?
3. Are there any confusion? Anything you would like to add on?
The following two sessions of focus groups start to focus on the design process, including activity, information and interaction design. The major objective of the whole design process is to emphasize the positive point, and minimize the negative consequences (Carroll & Rosson, 1992). In the second round of focus group, the study intends to conduct activity design which includes functional and non-functional features. The goal of activity is effective, comprehensible, and satisfying. By referencing problem scenarios and claims, participants can specify their design ideas
‧
deliberately with appropriate information technologies. Metaphors and useful information technologies will be identified in this step. The output of this session is activity scenarios, which are new ways to improve stakeholder’s current activities and problems. Besides, while constructing activity scenarios, pros and cons claims should be considered carefully and treated as another output in this session. Questions in the round of activity design were shown in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2 Questions in round two - Activity design Round 2
Opening questions 1. Today we intend to discuss the activity design in scenario-based design. Which function do you mostly use when surfing the Internet?
Introductory questions 1. Are there any inappropriate functions?
2. How to improve these functions?
Transition questions 1. What can be replaced with these inappropriate functions?
Key questions 1. Which feature of the interface can prevent consumers from getting lost while so many links are provided on a space-limited screen?
2. Which feature of the interface can help you to accurately achieve your goal in each step?
3. Can you use any metaphor to describe it furthermore?
What can this metaphor do? Can you show me? Any advantage or disadvantage of this metaphor?
4. What kind of technology can you apply in each step?
What can this technology do? Can you show me? Any advantage or disadvantage of this technology?
5. Are there any different execution or process can be further proposed?
6. What kind of payment method can be applied with
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
minor efforts?
Concluding questions 1. What is the most important point during our discussion?
2. Are all the questions clearly stated and discussions correctly clarified?
3. Are there any confusion? Anything you would like to add on?
Because of the interdependency, information design and interaction design will be combined and conducted in the third session of focus group. The purpose of information design is to arrange appropriate elements on the screen for enhancing user’s perception, interpretation, and making sense of what they see. On the other
hand, the goal of interaction design is to construct a list of user interaction and system response step by step. Interaction design will focus on how to use and operate the system. In this session, metaphors and information technologies were used to generate design ideas regarding how to present the information and how to interact with the system interface. By using activity scenarios and claims, participants can combine these design ideas to construct both information scenarios and interaction scenarios.
Besides, claims will be improved synchronously in order to help the study to retain advantages and remove disadvantages. Questions in the round of information design and interaction design were shown in Table 3.3.
‧
Table 3.3 Questions in round three - Information and interaction design Round 3
Opening questions 1. Today, we intend to discuss information and interaction design in scenario-based design. What kind of
elements/objects on the interface do you appreciate when browsing or operating the website?
Introductory questions
1. Is there any new presentation and operation of the elements/objects?
2. Do you have any idea to improve these presentation and operation of these elements/objects ?
Transition questions 1. Is there any better way to present or operate these elements/objects?
Key questions 1. What kind of representation do you appreciate or not?
2. Can these related elements/objects be re-structured or re-organized in each step? Is there any practical example? Does any technology be there to support these presentations? Can you show me how to present?
Can you show me how to operate? Any advantages or disadvantages of these representations?
3. Is there any new execution or process which can be further considered and applied?
Concluding questions 1. What is the most important point during our discussion?
2. Are all the questions clearly stated and discussions correctly clarified?
3. Are there any confusion? Anything you would like to add on?
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Measurement
System Usability Scale, developed by Brooke (1996), was applied to measure subjects’ perceived system usability of the proposed m-commerce website after
demonstrating two information and interaction scenarios. The scale has been confirmed to have a high level of flexibility, reliability and generalizability in a number of studies. There are totally ten items in system usability scale, of which four are with negative statements. All items were modified to fit the context of the study,
as shown in table 3.4. We used Likert scale of 1-5, where 5 represented “strongly agree,” and 1 represented “strongly disagree.”
In order to enhance the reliability of the measurement, we asked all of our subjects to read the information and interaction scenario carefully. Furthermore, serveral pictures of the website interface were inserted properly while they were reading the scenarios. After being familiar with our scenarios and website interface, they were asked to answer the questionnaires. By using SPSS 17, the collected data were tested with reliability and ANOVA. The results were reported in chapter four and five, respectively.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Table 3.4 Items of system usability scale
No. Items
1 I think that I would like to use the m-commerce website frequently.
2 I found the m-commerce website unnecessarily complex.
3 I thought the m-commerce website was easy to use.
4 I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use the m-commerce website.
5 I found that the various functions in the m-commerce website were well integrated.
6 I thought that there was too much inconsistency in the m-commerce website.
7 I would image that most people would learn to use the m-commerce website very quickly.
8 I found the m-commerce website very cumbersome to use.
9 I felt very confident using the m-commerce website.
10 I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with the m-commerce website.