Discover: Interview

In this step, you will conduct field research once again by interviewing a person who will become your target user.

Materials

1. Journal
2. Pencil or pen
3. Access to a communication device (computer or phone)

Instructions guide

Step 1: Interview Setup

You should have been assigned a project partner to interview. The purpose of this interview is to discover opportunities for design intervtions. To help guide the design of the intervention, you will need to learn more about your partner. If you intend to record the interview (not required) you must obtain the permission of the interviewee.

Step 2: Find opportunities for intervention

Start the interview by asking your participant about their daily routine. Try to find something they do or experience every day that they find distracting, challenging, frustrating, stressful, or something they wish they didn't have to do.

Interview Tip: Try to have a natural conversation. Laugh, joke, and don't rely solely on the example questions below. Give your subject plenty of time to respond as awkward pauses may result in valuable responses if you're patient.

Generate questions and document responses

Select one of the interventions from the pair-words step. Use the original 'purpose word' (IE - sleep, safety, comfort, etc. from the examples). Focus on this word for the interview. If the person you are interviewing has trouble answering your questions, consider changing your selected word.

I want you to think about insert the 'purpose word' you have selected.

Example questions:

The purpose word you have to work with will significantly impact the following question structures, but use it as a guide to generate your own interview questions. Please ask a minimum of 8 interview questions.

1. Can you tell me about your relationship with purpose word? What does it mean to you?
2. When is the last time your interacted with; performed; experienced purpose word?
3. Do you find purpose word particularly challenging or elusive?
   1. Do you have any reoccurring frustrations or elations?
4. If you could change something about your relationship with purpose word, what would it be? Why is that? Can you elaborate? ("it" should be a specific thing, see Laddering - Five 'Why?'s)
5. Do you value purpose word? Why do you think that is?
6. Do you think about purpose word in your daily life? If yes/no, do you think you should be considering it more/less often? Why do/don't you?

Original Questions

Prepare two or more original questions that you will ask your subject.

1. _______________________________?
2. _______________________________?

Laddering - Five 'Why?'s

Laddering is a technique developed in the 1960s to help clinical psychologists uncover core values and beliefs. If your participant has many responses from the previous step, focus on one response. Ask your participant why. Asking why helps us to better understand an ambiguous issue and gets to a more emotional aspect of a problem. After they respond, ask why again. Repeat this until you have asked why five times. Asking five times is important because core issues will start to emerge around four or five levels deep. Ask about their responses specifically to avoid horizontal questions. For example, "Why else didn't you get your homework done?" is a horizontal question. "Why didn't you have enough time to complete the assignment?" is a deeper question.

Step 3: Recording responses

• Record the interviewee's responses in your journal. You don't need to write everything they say. Try to capture the key insights.
• Make a note of any responses that led to a deeper understanding of what motivates this person?
• The interview is about better understanding opportunties to build in intervention experiences. Try not to make reference to the project during the questions that may lead the interviewee to attempt to think of ideas rather than giving honest answers.

Instructions

1. Set up the interview
2. Ask questions to find key issue(s)
3. Record the interviewee's responses in your journal

Post work

Use the file format indicated in each step. You must obtain prior approval to deviate from these upload requirements. Please check that your work has uploaded properly.

1. Submit an image of your journal notes in .jpg or .png format.

References

Adapted from: http://www.designkit.org/methods/66