Interviews Stephanie Smale

Overview o Introduction o Interviews and their pros and cons o Preparing for an interview o Interview Elements: o Questions types and pitfalls o 3 types of Interviews o Structure o Rapport o Pitfalls & Response Bias o Contextual interviews o Example

Interviews o A directed conversation between people o Conducted one-on-one o Good way to measure the subjective qualities of a system o Well suited to exploratory studies o Important for influence on design and development

Pros and Cons o Interviewer may require expert domain knowledge o More costly than questionnaires o Response rate is higher o Allows rephrasing of misunderstood questions o Challenging with sensitive issues o Subject to response bias o Subjectivity

Interview Preparation o Establish interview objectives o Become familiar with end users o Choose interviewees with care o Make plans in advance o Decide on question types and interview structure o Prepare questions and interview script o Test any recording equipment, prepare any consent forms

Interview Elements: Questions o Open or Closed o Probes o General or Specific o Factual or Hypothetical o Judgmental o Comparative o Neutral o Requests (Hackos and Redish, 1998)

Question Pitfalls o Leading questions o Double-barrelled questions o Blaming questions o Jargon and specialized language o Bias and ambiguity

Leading Question (Courtesy of Edward Tse, 2003)

Interview Elements: Types o Three main types of interviews: o Structured o Unstructured o Semi-structured

Structured Interviews o Goal oriented – a preset agenda o Very well planned and controlled o Questions are predetermined o Tend to be standardized o No exploration of individual attitudes o Useful when study’s goals are clearly understood

Structured Interviews o Advantages: o Efficient o Easier to evaluate o Can compare results and analyze using stats o Interviewer training is less o Disadvantages: o Can get boring o May miss details o Difficult to build rapport

Unstructured Interviews o Conversation that focuses on one topic o Can be very in depth o Still planned, but flexible o Contains mostly open-ended questions o Acquisition of unanticipated information o Can generate rich data o Used for early requirements gathering

Unstructured Interviews o Advantages: o Provides more detailed answers o Allows for spontaneity o A skilled interviewer can build rapport more easily o Allows interviewer to adopt vocabulary of user o Disadvantages: o More time consuming o Possibility of losing control of interview o Generates a LOT of information o More difficult to analyze o Impossible to replicate o Requires a skilled interviewer

Semi-Structured Interviews o A focused interview with flexibility o Combines features of structured and unstructured interview types o Basic script used to guide interviews and maintain consistency o Starts with predetermined questions and then probes for details o Used when system requirements are understood, but opinions are not

The Interview Structure o An interview process can be divided into six phases: 1.Introduction 2.Warm Up 3.General Issues 4.Deep Focus 5.Retrospective 6.Wrap Up (Kuniavsky, 2003 b; Preece, 2002)

Rapport o Importance o Especially with unstructured formats o Encourages honesty and openness o Does not mean you are sacrificing neutrality o Respect, professionalism o Treating the user as a partner o Listening more than talking (Hackos and Redish, 1998; Kuniavsky, 2003 b)

Interview Pitfalls o Extending the interview beyond time o Missing key points o Explaining a system’s behaviour o Asking for predictions on actions o Watch for: o Perceived threat to interviewee’s self or job image o Emotional reactions o Lying or embellishments

Response Bias o Giving replies they think are desired o Socially acceptable answers o User’s vs. the system’s fault o Opinions of no importance

Contextual Interview o Part of the Contextual Inquiry technique o Helps to understand real environment o Uncovers o what people really do o how they define what is actually valuable o Based in anthropology and ethnography o Basic method involves visiting & observing o Best done at the beginning of the development cycle. (Kuniavsky, 2003 b)

Contextual Interview (

Exercise o The Bad Interview o From Newman and Lamming (1995) o Find the poor techniques used o Change the element from bad to good o Reconstruct the example to have an effective interview strategy