1. It’s hard to understand people
How to get and make sense of qualitative insights
Johanna Kollmann - @johannakoll
Imperial College London, 20 November 2012
Photo by NASA JSC Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_jsc_photo/7257865176
2. (Some) research methods (yeah we have a lot)
Quantitative Qualitative
Surveys Contextual inquiry
Generative Interviews Mental models
Interviews
Diary studies
Automated card sort Usability testing
Surveys Moderated card sort
Evaluative Automated studies Wizard of Oz
Analytics
A/B Testing
Multi-variant testing
Adapted from figures by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
4. Plan who to talk to where about what and why
Photo by angelamaphone http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelamaphone/2663422833//
5.
6.
7. What topics shall the interview cover?
Dieting
Buying food
Exercise
Preparing food
Eating out
Busy lifestyle
Struggles
8. Prompts rather than set questions
Day-in-a-life (today, yesterday)
Decide what to eat
Last time on a diet
How active (want vs. do)
Preparing food for oneself
Preparing food for family/friends
9. Have a ‘softball question’ ready
Please tell me a little bit about your
cooking this week.
Could you tell me about the last
dish you prepared yourself?
12. Ask open questions – don’t lead
YAY NAY
• Who • Did
• What • Have
• When • Are
• Where • Were
• Why • Will
• How
Were you trying to do A or B?
What were you trying to do?
13. Some great all-purpose questions
• Has there ever been a time when you had x experience?
• Could you tell me about that?
• What was great about that?
• What was awful about that?
• Why did you do that?
• And then, what happened?
• If you had a magic wand, what would you make the situation be like?
By Janice Fraser
14. Do’s and don’ts
Photo by Hilde Skjølberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/hebe/3004800079/
15. Do
Be the learner, not the expert
Ask naïve questions
Ask for specific stories
Allow people time to think
Listen!
Take notes or record
Take photos or collect artefacts
Photo by Tomas Hellberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhe/35312882/
16. Don’t
Be an interrogator
Ask questions that sound like blame, or argumentative
Ask for solutions
Try to solve problems during the interview
Ask what features people want
Ask people to imagine theoretical situations
Photo by G Meyer http://www.flickr.com/photos/kainet/144703613/
24. Leverage points…
…places within a complex system where a small shift in
one thing can produce big changes in everything.
…are often counterintuitive.
29. Resources
Notes from my Leancamp session on this topic http://johannakoll.posterous.com/ux-research-tips-
for-customer-development-not
Mental Models by Indi Young
Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks
Remote Research by Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte
Undercover User Experience by Cennydd Bowles
Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
LUXr resources and materials by Janice Fraser (http://www.slideshare.net/clevergirl/) and Lane Halley
(http://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/)
Articles on User Interface Engineering (http://www.uie.com/browse/usability_testing/)
30. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the
servant and has forgotten the gift.
We will not solve the problems of the world from the same
level of thinking we were at when we created them. More
than anything else, this new century demands new thinking:
We must change our materially based analyses of the world
around us to include broader, more multidimensional
perspectives.
~Albert Einstein
Hinweis der Redaktion
Non-leading interviews allow you to capture what a person is thinking in their terms, with their structure and vocabulary intact. Indi deliberately writes prompts rather than interview questions. Also easier to parse quickly. if you go for a non-directed interview using prompts, make sure everybody in your team has a shared understanding of the intent behind each topic. Janice calls this topic map.
Non-leading interviews allow you to capture what a person is thinking in their terms, with their structure and vocabulary intact. Indi deliberately writes prompts rather than interview questions. Also easier to parse quickly. if you go for a non-directed interview using prompts, make sure everybody in your team has a shared understanding of the intent behind each topic. Janice calls this topic map.
begin interviews with a 'softball' question - a question that is simple to answer and puts the participant at ease.
Be careful with WHY. ‘How did you know that X?’ ‘What were you thinking at the moment when X?’ This does not interrupt the recounting process. So ‘tell me how it was that you came to be looking for this site that day’ does the work of ‘why were you looking... ?If you’ve made people comfortable, Why should be ok.
Manage expectations
what we saw/heard – what it means – why it matters
BM channels = connections
Map out connections – Rich Picture
examples: eg hard system = thermostat, motherboard. soft system = game of poker, soccer game, meeting, healthcare.
Worldview is a concept for empathyConsider:- roles that people adopt in the situation (which may be formally recognised or quite informal); the norms which govern people’s behaviour; and the values they espouse.- political aspects of the situation, in other words recognition of the different interests that are represented and how these different interests are accommodated.