Re: Group usability activity?

In one hour you can run an Innovation Game. activity.  www.innovationgames.com 
  (or click through and buy the book).

Look for the activities that scale well, since you're uncertain of the  
size of the group.
  - Product Box is a good one, because people can work in teams or  
solo (during the same game event), and the question posed by the game  
is a "product concept" one. There are 2 phases to this activity,  
building the Box and selling the Box.

  - Speed Boat is another easy one for brainstorming in a group of  
undetermined size. Since it focuses people on the negative aspects of  
a product or service ("What [anchors] prevent this speedboat from  
going as fast as possible?"), you don't want it to be the last  
activity of a full day.

And several of the games can work in a small groups, which then scale  
okay as long as you allow time to review small group results in the  
large group, so everyone gets heard.

This is also a great way for your internal team to listen to customers  
respond to a common prompt, in surprisingly different ways, while  
listening for the commonality.

And, if you have a few minutes at the end, everyone will be happy to  
have the discussion.  Innovation Games are great in part because they  
give energy to a group.

  -- Nancy

On Oct 19, 2010, at 11:48 AM, Andrew Simchik wrote:

> I'm trying to come up with a fun yet somewhat informative usability  
> activity I
> can do with a large group of customers in an hour.
>
> Why fun? Because this will be a large group, fried after a long  
> conference
> day, and we'll be providing beer and snacks. The conditions are far  
> from ideal
> for holding their attention and accomplishing anything serious, so I  
> want to
> make sure it's light and enjoyable.
>
> Why somewhat informative? Because otherwise why bother? I do want to  
> get some
> contact info and buy-in on doing usability tests in future, but I'd  
> like to
> get a _little_ more out of it if I can.
>
> I'm guessing we'll have at least 10 folks, but if fewer people bail  
> than I
> expect it could be up to 60 at the most. I was thinking maybe of  
> some kind of
> cardsort, perhaps in teams, or something designed to gauge attitudes  
> and
> perceptions rather than gather any hard data to speak of. It's  
> possible I can
> get people to focus and take it seriously, but I'm going on the  
> assumption
> that I probably can't.
>
> Any ideas or advice? I hate to waste any opportunity to talk  
> directly with
> users. Even if it's just some kind of facilitated discussion, that  
> might be
> good.
>
> Thanks!
> Drew Simchik
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Nancy Frishberg +1 650 804 5800 mobile
[email protected]
Twitter: @nancyf
Blog: www.fishbird.com
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