ENGL 2105 : Workplace-Based Writing and Research

Interviews

Interviews can be an important part of data collection. If you can follow-up a questionnaire with an interview, you can gain greater insights than a questionnaire alone can provide. Your questionnaire may (by accident or design) raise questions it can't answer and interviewing might provide those answers. An interview can also provide a whole new avenue of data, picking up where the questionnaire left off or going in an unanticipated direction the questionnaire uncovered. Interviews can be even more valuable if combined with on-site observation. Being in the place where users typically use your product gives you a chance to learn from their environment. It also gives you a chance to see if what they do aligns with what they say. It is of course possible to conduct interviews over the phone or via video conference, without any direct observation. And it is possible to observe without interviewing, via remote screen capture software and or server data. There is, however, nothing like spending time in a co-present conversation with people to develop a thick description and better understanding of their experience. While interviewing requires some screening, typically performed via questionnaire, you can conduct interviews that are not follow-ups to a questionnaire per se.

Although interviews can be valuable, recruiting and scheduling interviewees can be very time-consuming. There is something called Guerrilla usability, where you just take your laptop to the Starbucks and sit down next to random people, The Starbucks next to GATech probably won't have the same people as the one on the first floor of Georgia's Own. The people who habituate a local independent are probably different from both. In any of those three places you are likely to make inferences about which person is most approachable before you approach. So not exactly random. and that can work, but it has limitations. See also "What is guerrilla usability testing?" Nevertheless, if the product requires little learning to use and pretty much everyone who uses it will use it in the same way, Guerrilla testing may be preferable.

Before you start looking for interviewees, you need to know why you are conducting interviews, what questions you need to ask, and what kinds of people you need to ask them of. Consider where the interview falls in your research process. Is it a follow up to a questionnaire? Is it in lieu of one? Is it a separate line of inquiry? The next step is to identify a specific goal. You might formulate this as a hypothesis. What do you need to prove or disprove? If your goals are less pointed, like you just want to get a feel for who your users are, then you might take a more searchlight rather than laser approach, open-ended questions designed to encourage monologues. The more they say, the more you have to learn from. Always keep in mind, however, that a specific individual's experience is their's. You can't just generalize from a single point of view.

Once you know why you want to interview, and you have identified and recruited interviewees, you should write a conversation guide (not quite a script) and ask a colleague to help you vet and practice it. Are you asking the right questions? Are you asking them in the right order? While you can't control the order in an interview the way you can with a questionnaire, you still need to make sure that you aren't leading the interviewee to say specific things. You also want to see if the questions allow for as natural a conversation as an interview can be.

You might even consider role playing with a colleague to see where a conversation might go under various scenarios. You don't want to go in with the goal of obtaining a specific data set, but you don't want to waste anyone's time either.

You have to let the interviewee talk and so you may have to adjust and accommodate, be prepared to improvise. However, if each interview is a unique conversation, you won't be able to generalize. You may be able to create narrative arguments out of what you learned from a unique encounter, but recurring themes will give you a stronger place to argue from. So you will likely want to ask the same questions in much the same way.

Even after you've found and managed to schedule a plausible interviewee, they have to be in the right frame of mind, neither wary nor eager to please. It helps if you can meet them in their own environment because people are most themselves in familiar surroundings. But then again, they've invited a stranger in so it's not entirely familiar.

If they are visiting you, they may be different from who they are at home. They will likely be a bit distracted by the new surroundings and be in an atypical frame of mind. If you are paying them to be there, they may be trying to please or impress you with their answers. On the other hand, you don't have to travel and you don't have to leave your own world.

Regardless of where you do it, interviewing people effectively is a talent that requires both training and experience. It also requires a specific set of social skills. You don't have to be an extrovert. You don't even have to like people. But you do need to know how to listen, how to ask for clarification and elaboration when necessary, how to encourage candid responses, how to empathize with the interviewee, to keep them focused, but also to let them wander or rant a bit when they seem to want to while being able reign them back in before you lose too much time. You want the interview to feel like a natural but mostly one-sided conversation.

Listening skills can be developed. The techniques are:

• Be open -- be encouraging and respectful, especially if you are in their space
• Pay attention -- don't think about what to say next or get distracted by anything going on around you. Most people can't take notes and listen, so record. If possible, bring an observer with you. They can observe while you engage.
  Listen to the music and the words -- their tone and attitude will help you understand what they are saying. Frame of mind is an important frame of reference. If they are frustrated, for example, you need to take that into account when parsing what they say, but you also need to acknowledge their feelings and make sure they know you hear them. Never claim to know what they are feeling. This is not about you.
• Be comfortable with silence -- don't overlap or anticipate or fill in gaps. Just sit there looking attentive.
• Show you are paying attention -- lean in, nod, say yes and uh-huh. If you can find recordings of interviews like the kind you need to conduct, pay close attention to how the interviewer behaves. Accompany a more seasoned interviewer as their observer and learn from what they do.
• Give feedback -- don't interrupt but when they stop talking, ask for clarification, summarize what they just said and request confirmation, ask for elaboration (tell me more)
• Don't judge or comment -- what you think about what you are hearing doesn't matter. Analysis should happen later.
• Stay in the moment -- be present but remember that this is about what they have to say. You are a conduit.

You want to avoid interrogation (don't set them up to say what you want to hear); avoid journalism (don't put words in their mouth); avoid HR-like interviewing (you are not hiring anyone). Avoid tech-support responses as well. You are not there to trouble shoot -- if all they have to do is click that button there, your job is to tell the designers to make the button more obvious, not show the struggling user where the button is. Nor are you a career coach. You are also not there to make friends, although of course you want to be cordial and respectful. When you leave (or they do), it should be for them like nothing significant happened. What matters most is the information. All the same, you may want to follow-up and in some cases you may want a longer-term association, so don't leave them cold.

You need a transcript of the interview. Consider using a tool like Otter.ai If you can, you should bring a colleague with you to observe unobtrusively while the machine records. It can be very hard to listen, take notes, and engage. If you don't have a colleague, the voice recorder will probably give you everything you need. You could use a camera, but that requires lighting and the person has to be at home on camera, which is not normal. If you really need screen data, then consider using a screen recorder and a think aloud protocol instead of an interview, or follow-up with an interview after reviewing the video.

As part of the scheduling process, you need to ensure the interviewee knows who you are, what you want, what you will ask, why you want to talk to them, how long it will take, who will be there, the fact you will record, and anything else that's pertinent to them understanding in advance exactly what to expect. After you leave, or they leave, follow up with a thank you card. Remind them why their help is appreciated, how it will be stored and used. Be sure they know how to contact you in case they have questions or think of something they wish they had said.

If UX were a linear process, it would be something like, hypothesis, questionnaire, follow-up interview, conclusions/recommendations. But each research project is a function of the hypothesis, the data required, and the sources of that data. And some projects are ongoing. So thinking of UX research as linear is misleading.

Given our questionnaire was, theoretically at least, designed to help us develop personas for iCollege's gradebook-users, it would make sense to follow-up with an interview to verify a projected persona. For this to work, we would need to know people who are willing to be interviewed who fit one of our projected personas. This may or may not be realistic. So I thought it might be interesting to see how ChatGPT would do a persona follow up interview.

George: Hey ChatGPT, As a user experience researcher, you want to interview a person you think is a good representative of a persona the questionnaire you previously administered has identified. The purpose of the interview is to verify or disprove the accuracy of this person's fit with that persona and to modify the persona if the interviewer's responses suggest modifications. What questions would you ask and why would you put each in the order you did?

ChatGPT: When conducting an interview to verify or potentially modify a persona based on a user's responses, it's important to structure your questions in a way that gradually builds a comprehensive understanding of the user's behaviors, needs, and attitudes. The order of the questions should flow logically, starting from general to more specific, and should be designed to encourage open and detailed responses.

1. Background and Demographic Information

Question: "Can you tell me a bit about yourself, including your profession, hobbies, and daily routine?"
Why: Starting with broad, open-ended questions about the participant's background sets a comfortable tone and provides context for their responses. It helps in understanding if their basic demographic details align with the persona.

2. Technology Usage and Preferences

Question: "What types of technology do you use regularly, and for what purposes?"
Why: This question aims to understand their comfort and familiarity with technology, which is crucial for assessing their fit with a persona that may be defined by certain technological behaviors.

3. Goals and Motivations

Question: "What are some goals or objectives you're currently working towards in your personal or professional life?"
Why: Understanding their goals and motivations can help in determining if these align with the persona's characteristics. This question also delves into what drives their decisions and behaviors.

4. Challenges and Pain Points

Question: "Can you describe any challenges or frustrations you face in your daily activities or work?"
Why: This question helps in identifying pain points and challenges that may or may not align with those outlined in the persona. It can reveal discrepancies or new insights for persona modification.

5. Decision-Making Process

Question: "Can you walk me through how you recently made an important decision, either in your personal life or at work?"
Why: This question aims to understand their decision-making process, which is a critical aspect of a persona. It can reveal how they gather information, weigh options, and what factors influence their decisions.

6. Specific Product/Service Interactions (if applicable)

Question: "How do you typically use [specific product/service]? What do you like or dislike about it?"
Why: If the persona is related to a specific product or service, understanding their direct interactions with it can provide valuable insights into their fit with the persona.

7. Feedback on Persona Representation

Question: "Based on what we've discussed, do you feel that [describe key aspects of the persona] accurately represents you? Why or why not?"
Why: This direct question allows the participant to reflect on the persona's accuracy in representing them. It can lead to specific insights on what aspects of the persona might need adjustment.

8. Open-Ended Feedback

Question: "Is there anything else about your experiences or needs that you think is important for us to know?"
Why: This final, open-ended question gives the participant an opportunity to share any additional thoughts or insights that might not have been covered but could be relevant to refining the persona.

Remember, the key to a successful interview is not just asking the right questions but also actively listening to the responses, being adaptable, and probing deeper when necessary. The goal is to gather rich, qualitative data that can validate or challenge the assumptions built into your persona.