Three Strategies for Effective Communication with Users in In-depth Interviews
In a recent joint home screen research project with the Research Institute of China Mobile (CMRI), we employed the method of in-depth interview to gather needed user information. The purpose of the project was to develop a thorough understanding of the targeted audience(s), including their knowledge of the flaws and strengths of the homescreens of existing Smartphones, their operating habits in terms of diverse age groups and occupation backgrounds, their expectations and new needs, to elicit information from the Smartphone users, to inform and support the CMRI development team in improving their mobile homescreens for better user services.
To accomplish the project, we soon built our research team, and identified the research subjects and method(s). We decided the sample should drawn from representative user populations of Android, Apple, Ophone and Xiaomi, internally differentiated in terms of age groups and occupational backgrounds. And the most effective method for the project, as all team members agreed, should be “in-depth interview”, an important form of interview for user research, typically conducted by experienced interviewers in an unstructured, one-to-one mode for first-hand user information, including their potential motives, emotions and responses when faced with some given service or system design.
In preparing interview plans, to develop a thorough understanding of potential user responses and needs for the four specified systems, we first had personal contact with the four homescreens, elicited a list of their shared performances and features and their respective uniqueness in interactive modes, UI designs and other areas.
In order not to leave out anything important about homescreens, we conducted some informal investigation through questionnaires among our relatives and friends to find out the most concerned features of mobile homescreens. And the data gathered have in some way supplemented and expanded our user research plan.
To ensure the success of the project, we conducted a preliminary interview with an actual representative user and developed needed knowledge about the adequate amount of time for each interview and potential questions from users during the interview.
The user research lasted for three days, comprising in-depth interviews with eight representative users. From the elicited user data, we found differences in the testing users’ understanding, responses and expectations for homescreens, and quite some findings were really amazing and enlightening. Experience from prior projects and workshops has proved very useful in the conducting of these in-depth interviews, and the co-coordinated and cohesive effort from everyone involved in the research guarantees the eventual success of the project, too.
As head of the user research project, I have successfully conducted in-depth interviews with a total of nine users and developed a profound understanding of the strategies involved in in-depth interviews. In fact, some have turned out to be very effective in eliciting the needed user information. Here I would like to share them with you.
Strategy 1: Keep Alert for Users’ Body Language.
In one case, the in-depth interview was conducted with an eighteen-year-old, male user, still a senior high 3 student. He was very shy and talked little ever since he entered for the interview. When I asked him, “Do you like X (some feature of homescreens)?” very often he would simply respond with “Yes” /“No”, showing almost no intention for further talk, no matter how I tried to elicit his responses.
Shyness, I believe, may be characteristic of this age group’s responses to the society they are still not prepared to join, but not the gesture of both arms crossed on the chest. This was what the boy did with his arms, and this body language tells something of his psychology at the point— he was closed to the outside world.
According to Ray Birdwhistell, an anthropologist who once studied non-linguistic human interactions, 65% or more of the total amount of information generated in a face-to-face exchange were conveyed by non-linguistic means, or body language, the remaining 35% or less coming from linguistic sources.
Therefore, in the process of interviewing users, a very important and effective way to understand the user better is by probing into his/her body language. Take myself. When I noticed the eighteen-year-old senior high3’s unconscious gesture, I told myself: I have to do something. Something that will put the poor boy at home, so that I can elicit more useful information from him.
Guess what? Later in the interview, I asked him to draw on paper what he thought was some feature of homescreen, or offered him more than one phones to play with and allowed him adequate amount of time to feel and compare. Gradually the boy relaxed: his body was now in an open gesture, and his mind more actively engaged; in a word, he behaved more naturally and contributed far more useful information than he would otherwise have.
If the user is in a closed mind throughout the interview, not much can be expected of him. So successful interviewers will constantly watch for the interviewee’s body language, do whatever is necessary to adjust the user’s behavior, and this will help create changes in the user’s psychology, making it possible for him to voice his/her genuine preferences for the tested product.
Strategy 2. Adapt to the User.
Users as individuals are not the same. The first user may perform well in the interview, but this does not suggest all other interviewees will do well too. According to Jung’s Psychological Types and Myer-Briggs’ Type Indicators, the introverts differ a lot from the extroverts type; the latter tend to voice their opinion as they think along, whereas the former prefer to wait till their thoughts mature. In in-depth interviews, the interviewer should allow the user adequate amount of time to think before he/she responds, and this is particularly true with the introverts. So a good knowledge of the user differences is very important for the success of in-depth interview.
My interaction with a 40-year-old male testing user drives this point home to me. This is a very interesting user: Each time I asked, he would speak slowly, and then paused a while before he continued. When the interview began, I had no knowledge of this interesting habit of his. So the first several times when he paused for better expression of his hidden ideas, I mistook it as a clue for conclusion and started to ask him a second question. Then he would abruptly interrupt me, and continue his unfinished talk with detailed elaboration of the previous question, sometimes followed up by a few vivid examples.
But soon I realized my mistake; I had been misunderstanding his pauses! He did not pause to conclude his answering, but to think hard how to convey more clearly feelings still vague in his mind. With this new knowledge, when I questioned him again, I would adapt myself to his slow tone, always allowing him adequate time to think, waiting patiently for his further explanation after his pause.
From this user we have gathered some of the most insightful opinions and feedback. If I had not adapted to his pace of answering, if I had refused to give him more time for thinking, we may very well have missed those valuable data from that particular user.
Strategy 3. Guide the User to Talk about His/Her Experience.
In in-depth interviewing, I found the majority of the testing users preferred to talk about other people’s feelings. Here are some instances:
“I have no problem with this, but the green hands may find it a bit troublesome …”
“Elderly people of my mother’s age may not feel comfortable with this…”
“Well, this should work out right for those who have had experience with it from the very beginning …”
From these utterances, I found the users were being neutral: they deliberately chose to talk about the possible responses from others, but not their owns. Why did this occur? They did so perhaps in part to guard against potential prejudice from the interviewer, and partly to please the interviewer. But such feedbacks are at best bold guessing of other people’s responses, thus useless. What is truly useful and reliable are the user’s reports of his/her own feelings, opinions and responses.
So, at such moments, do not dwell too much on the interviewee’s report of other users. Instead, guide the user to talk about his/her own feelings and responses. In such case, I will usually ask, “Then, what do YOU think of this?”, “How would you respond in such situations?”, and the like questions to drag the user back into his/her own roles.
Attention: Elicit in a friendly and natural way; Never force the user to talk about himself/herself. Otherwise, the user will withdraw under pressure, reluctant to contribute at all!
These are the three most effective strategies I have observed from this project. Of course, when we conduct user research, make sure we are earnest, sincere, and unprejudiced, always showing due respect for the testing user; make sure the user understands his feedback means a lot to us, and that we are so grateful for his/her generous contribution. Gradually, when the interviewing process becomes a voluntary exchange, and a mutual acceptance, of thoughts and emotions for both parties, the eliciting and gathering of information occurs naturally.
Tiekuaier
User Researcher from Peopeo
http://www.peopeo.de
