Data collection is fun - and not just for you

Here is a somewhat dated evaluation done at the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum, but I thought their qualitative methods were interested.

http://www.hfrp.org/out-of-school-time/ost-database-bibliography/database/discovery-youth

In the first evaluation, they did focus groups with youth were they divided the youth into teams of 2-3 and had them fill the in the answers to 4 open-ended questions. Then they brought all the teams together (about 4 total) and had them discuss.

In the second evaluation, they did a group activity with program participants. Participants broke out into groups of 4-5. Then they circulated around the room to large pieces of paper with a different question written on each. Each group wrote answers on the large sheet of paper for each question, so they were able to react to a previous group's comments.

These techniques hit on 2 principles that I think are key to focus groups and interviews. First, make it fun. Vary the questions, get people up and moving, use the 5 senses, present extremes with humor.

Second, give them something to react to. I find I get much more detailed and colorful responses from people if I present something to them first and get their feedback on it. A list, a board full of written-on sticky notes, a photo, a written description. In both of the examples above, participants were responding to what other participants said. A key to that, I believe, is to have people commit to an opinion on paper first. If you jump into reactions right away, then less vocal opinions get lost.