Appropriate ground improvement is required to stabilize soil under shallow foundations when there is a high groundwater table or weak soil. In such situations, a granular material like sand or quarry dust is widely used in the construction industry as a filling material to achieve higher bearing strength and to minimize settlement underneath foundations. Quarry dust, which is a waste product of the crushing process, is more economical and environmentally friendly. According to existing studies, quarry dust can be easily compacted by providing a vibration effect and a poker vibrator is a practical approach that can be used to achieve high degrees of compaction in quarry dust. However, as this technique is still quite novel to the industry, the expected results, in terms of degree of compaction, cannot be guaranteed. This is basically due to inappropriate practice and lack of guidance in the application of poker vibration. It is therefore essential to eliminate inappropriate practice by carrying out laboratory experiments on optimum poker vibration application techniques. The aim of this study was to optimize the effectiveness of poker vibrator in shallow foundation design by studying various factors affecting it, including time of application, shape of the foundation, preferable layer thicknesses and patterns of application of poker vibrators. This was done by conducting a series of poker vibration compaction experiments in circular and square containers and then by assessing the variation of degree of compaction in each trial. According to the test results, the most effective period of compaction for poker vibration comes at around 30 s after the compaction commences and lasts up to around 10 s. Degrees of compaction (DOC) in both circular and square containers increase with increasing application points, because the higher the number of vibration points, the more the compaction process is enhanced. The application of vibrator at the middle gives a relatively higher DOC than application at corners, because the vibration of middle area affects a greater area in the quarry dust fill compared to vibrating from a corner. DOC reduces with increasing initial layer thickness, regardless of pattern, because reduction of the layer thickness causes the vibration applying dust thickness to be reduced, which causes more vibration to the dust in the entire layer. The best poker vibration application pattern was also investigated.