Focus Group – First-time Visitors to PBGC’s Web site

Discussion Guide

Project: PBGC.gov Website

Job #: 12794

	Subject	Time
Section 1	Warm-up & Intros - ground rules/instructions	5 min.
Section 2	Websites in General	15 min.
Section 3	Introduction of PBGC.gov’s website	40 min.
Section 4	Actual PBGC.gov’s website	45 min.
Section 5	Recommendations	10 min.
Section 6	Wrap-Up	5 min.
	TOTAL	120 min.

Paperwork Reduction Act notice: This session has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under OMB Control No. 1212-0053 (expires 12/31/2009). By obtaining OMB approval and telling you about it, we’re allowed to conduct this session. Your participation is voluntary and should take about two hours.

Confidentiality: Your responses will be used by PBGC solely for customer service improvement and will be treated with the confidentiality provided by the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Section	Subject	Length of Time
One	Warm-up & Self-Introductions Let’s begin by getting acquainted. Please tell me your first name, what you do for a living or did for a living when you worked, and what you like to do in your free time.	10 minutes
Two	Web Sites In General Think about web sites you visit frequently. What makes you like a website? What makes you dislike a website? Why? What are your primary reasons for going to a specific website? What do you expect out of a typical website? What must it contain? Why? Is there anything a website should NOT contain? Why? What should you be able to do on a website? Why?	15 minutes
Three	Introduction of PBGC.gov How many of you have been to pbgc.gov? How often do you visit pbgc.gov? Why do you go there? Why don’t you go (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN) For those of you who have been to pbgc.gov, how did you find it? What prompted you to go to pbgc.gov? What are/were you looking for (what information) when visit the website? Why? Did you find what you were looking for? Why/why not? Was the information you were looking for easy to find? Did you use the search feature? Was it easy to use? Why? Why not? Did the search feature help you find what you were looking for? Why? Why not? What would you/do you expect to be able to do on pbgc.gov? Why? Any issues? What are they? Do you communicate with PBGC through the web site? In what ways and for what reasons? Why? If you communicated with PBGC through the web site, did PBGC respond to you in a timely manner? Were they courteous? How did PBGC respond: via email, telephone call, or other? Did the PBGC provide you with the information, answers your question, or complete the action? Why not? Was it done to your satisfaction? How important is it for you that pbgc.gov remembers where you left off or what you searched for that last time you visited their web site? Why? Why not? (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TO THE WEBSITE) How easy it for you to navigate through pbgc.gov? Why? Why not? Did it take longer than you expected?	40 minutes
Section	Subject	Length of Time
Four	Actual PBGC.gov website Let’s look at the website together as a group. Let’s walk though some areas. Now I would like for you to write down what you like about the website and what you don’t like. Also on a scale of “1” to “5” where a “5” means that you find the website very appealing and “1” means that the website is not at all appealing, please write down where you are on that scale knowing that you can also use any number in between. (LIST ON EASEL) For those who have been on the website before, which parts of the website do you go to the most? Why? What information is most useful to you? Why? Anything on the website you find confusing? Why? Any items that are hard to find? Which ones? Are there areas or items that are missing from the website that should be included in it? Why? (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER VISITED THE WEBSITE) Overall what do you think of the website? Let’s look at specific pages in the pbgc.gov. (GO TO HOME PAGE – HTTP://WWW.PBGC.GOV/INDEX.HTML) What works for you on this page? What doesn’t? Why? Anything you find confusing? Anything hard to find? Anything missing from this page? Why? Now let’s look at the New Visitors Page (http://www.pbgc.gov/about/newvisitor.html) What works for you on this page? What doesn’t? Why? Anything you find confusing? Anything hard to find? Anything missing from this page? Why? Let’s now go the Workers/Retirees page (http://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees/index.html) What works for you on this page? What doesn’t? Why? Anything you find confusing? Anything hard to find? Anything missing from this page? Why? And now thinking about the overall website – functionality, look and feel, content, ability to navigate, ability to search, please write down your overall satisfaction. Again let’s use the scale of “1” to “5” where a “5” means that you are completely satisfied and a “1” means that you not satisfied at all with the pbgc.gov’s website – and of course you can also use any number in between.	45 minutes
Section	Subject	Length of Time
Five	Recommendations For a new user to the pbgc.gov’s website, what areas might be improved from a new user’s perspective? And in general, if you could change/revise the pbgc.gov’s website, what would you change? Why?	10 minutes
Six	Wrap-Up Let’s say that I leave this focus group and get hit by a car. I get amnesia and the only thing I have from our discussion today is this sheet of flipchart paper. I want you to take one minute and write down the ONE thing you would want me to remember about our discussion today. What would that be?	5 minutes

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