Qualitative research

Focus Groups
focus group is a small, but demographically
diverse group of people whose reactions are
studied especially in market research or political
analysis in guided or open discussions about a
new product or something else to determine the
reactions that can be expected from a larger
population. It is a form of qualitative research
consisting of interviews in which a group of
people are asked about their perceptions,
opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a
product, service, concept, advertisement, idea,
or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free
to talk with other group members. During this process, the researcher either takes notes or
records the vital points he or she is getting from the group. Researchers should select
members of the focus group carefully for effective and authoritative responses.
In the world of marketing, focus groups are seen as an important tool for acquiring feedback
regarding new products, as well as various other topics. In marketing, focus groups are
usually used in the early stages of product or concept development, when organizations are
trying to create an overall direction for marketing initiative. In particular, focus groups allow
companies wishing to develop, package, name, or test market a new product, to discuss,
view, and/or test the new product before it is made available to the public. This can provide
valuable information about the potential market acceptance of the product.
A focus group is an interview, conducted by a trained moderator among a small group of
respondents. The interview is conducted in an informal and natural way where respondents
are free to give views from any aspect. Focus groups are similar to, but should not be
confused with in-depth interviews. The moderator uses a discussion guide that has been
prepared in advance of the focus group to guide the discussion. Generally the discussion
goes from overall impressions of a brand or product category and becomes more specific as
the discussion progresses.
Participants are recruited based on similar demographics, psychographics, buying attitudes,
or behaviours. So within my game, a focus group will take place to organise how the game
will work and take place, with all the setting and features. A focus group will help structure
the game, whilst the other teams will go and create the game.
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other
prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often
designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The
questionnaire was invented by the Statistical Society of London in 1838. A copy of the
instrument is published in the Journal of the Statistical Society, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1838,
pages 513.

Questionnaires have advantages over some other

types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require
as much effort from the questioner as verbal or
telephone surveys, and often have standardized
answers that make it simple to compile data.
However, such standardized answers may frustrate
users. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the
fact that respondents must be able to read the
questions and respond to them. Thus, for some
demographic groups conducting a survey by questionnaire may not be concrete.
Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to
answer in a set format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended
questions. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer,
whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of
options. The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and
mutually exclusive. Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are
distinguished:
Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options
Nominal-polychromous, where the respondent has more than two unordered options
Ordinal-polychromous, where the respondent has more than two ordered options
(Bounded)Continuous, where the respondent is presented with a continuous scale
A respondent's answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterwards.
An example of an open-ended question is a question where the teste has to complete a
sentence (sentence completion item).
A questionnaire could be used to determine the success of a game, or what game customers
would like to see. They could use the answers to help them decide what to do next for their
audience. This is all about audience participation.
Interviews
An interview is a conversation where questions are asked
and answers are given. In common parlance, the word
"interview" refers to a one-on-one conversation with one
person acting in the role of the interviewer and the other
in the role of the interviewee. The interviewer asks
questions, the interviewee responds, with participants
taking turns talking. Interviews usually involve a transfer
of information from interviewee to interviewer, which is usually the primary purpose of the
interview, although information transfers can happen in both directions simultaneously. One
can contrast an interview, which involves bi-directional communication with a one-way flow
of information, such as a speech or oration.
Interviews usually take place face to face and in person, although modern communications
technologies such as the Internet have enabled conversations to happen in which parties are
separated geographically, such as with videoconferencing software, and of course telephone
interviews can happen without visual contact. Interviews almost always involve spoken
conversation between two or more parties, although in some instances a "conversation" can
happen between two persons who type questions and answers back and forth. Interviews
can range from unstructured or free-wheeling and open-ended conversations in which there
is no predetermined plan with prearranged questions, to highly structured conversations in
which specific questions occur in a specified order. They can follow diverse formats; for
example, in a ladder interview, a respondent's answers typically guide subsequent
interviews, with the object being to explore a respondent's subconscious motives. Typically
the interviewer has some way of recording the information that is gleaned from the
interviewee, often by writing with a pencil and paper, sometimes transcribing with a video or
audio recorder, depending on the context and extent of information and the length of the
interview. Interviews have a duration in time, in the sense that the interview has a beginning
and an ending.
You could interview the developers behind the game, as they would have some great
answers once interviewed. Most interviews like this are recorded and then put online to get
the audience and fans excited.