Interviews

Having worked out who will be using your web site (personas, questionnaires etc), you may want to interview selected representatives In traditional requirements gathering, interviews are used heavily Questions can be open-ended: "What do you think the web site needs?"...or closed: "Does the site need a schedule of events?"

Structure Interviews can be: Structured: fixed list of closed questions. Useful to get feedback about a specific design feature Unstructured: General goals for the interview, open-ended, flexible, sets of topics and prompts, more exploratory, less specific. Useful when exploring new ideas, eg: first impressions of a new system or ideas for a redesign

Structure Semi-structured: somewhere in between structured and non-structured. There are questions to be asked and topics to be discussed, but the interviewer is free to explore interesting avenues as they open up. Most interviews are semi-structured The data from structured interviews (surveys) is very amenable to data processing

Advantages of Interviewing If the team has very little information and needs a foundation before continuing requirements gathering. Can be used to clarify answers from surveys which were interesting but unclear The next question can be based on the last response Interviewer can explore different directions

Advantages of Interviewing Interviewer can "drill down" to explore an interesting topic opened up by the interviewee Your assumptions about users may be wrong. It is important to find out as early as possible. You may be targeting the wrong market

Disadvantages of Interviewing Time consuming for interviewer and interviewee The quality of the information depends on the interviewer's skill and experience. In some cases, the interviewee may not feel comfortable revealing information face-to- face but prefers anonymity in, eg, a survey. The interviewee is more likely to give the approved answer than the truthful one f2f.

Planning Check whether tape recording the interview is permissible (if not then take detailed notes – use a scribe). If taping the interview, check that the machine works and that the batteries will last. Outline of the topics to be covered Interviewer must know what information is required

Planning A list of questions to ask Tell interviewee topic of meeting and how long it will take After the interview, interviewee should be thanked for her time. (I sometimes give flowers or chocolates)

Now you!! You have been given the task of interviewing five people about their habits when browsing the internet for fun. The interview will be semi-structured, so you will want to go armed with a skeleton set of questions Write down the questions. (plenary)

During the interview Use an agenda – know what information you want and have some questions prepared Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the interview Reassure the interviewee about ethical issues (eg anonymity of answers) Get consent to use the information (preferably on tape)

During the interview Ask the interviewee if they mind being recorded Be prepared to follow your curiosity if interesting areas are revealed Be prepared to steer the interviewee back onto the topic if they digress Put the interviewee at ease Keep questions simple and avoid jargon

During the interview Allow time for thinking about a question Start with easy questions and later progress to deeper ones Avoid leading questions, eg: "Why is the current system so difficult to use?" Indicate when the interview is at an end & thank the interviewee Analyse data as soon as possible after interview while you still remember the context

Typical Questions Tell me about your typical day Tell me three good things about Tell me three bad things about ---- What if you had three wishes to make the web site better? Did you have any difficulties in finding what you wanted, and how did you cope? What else should we have asked you about?

Whom do you interview? Interview at least one representative of each stakeholder group and one representative of each persona Preferably interview two or three representatives of each group Ideally, stop when no new insights are appearing (but resource limitations may stop you before that).

When do you interview? Whenever you want in-depth feedback, eg: When trying to find out the needs of a user group When debriefing after a user test of a prototype or newly released site

Interviewing on User Needs Ask what people want from the web site Why would you go to the site? How does it fit your lifestyle? When would you use it? How would you use it? What features would you like? How would you use the features?

Interviewing about prototypes Ask people to look at the designs and say what they think Compare with alternatives (competitors'?) Comment on layout, colour, ease of use and appeal Ask them to describe the feel of the site. Was that the feel you were trying to design for?

Interviewing about prototypes Try interviewing while user is doing a walkthrough of the site This doesn't work if they are doing a task, because they become absorbed by the task Expect comments on: privacy, text or layouts they don't like, inefficient tasks, their own design tastes.

Interviewing after a user test What is the best thing about the web site What is the worst thing about the web site What needs changing most ? How easy were the tasks? How realistic were the tasks Were you distracted by having to give a commentary?

Phone interviews If the respondent is asked a list of standardised questions, it is called a "phone survey". Used if it is impractical to talk face-to-face Used if you have specific interviewees in mind Ringing people up at home is unpopular. Therefore this only works with people who are keen to cooperate.

A thought The best interviews are those in which the interviewer is silent for most of the time.

Video (show the stroke victim mobile texting video) (the interviewer is very skilful. Watch how she runs the interview and learn) (plenary on what learned about interviewing)

Suggest an exam question This module has no exam. If this module did have an exam, suggest an exam question on this week's lecture (collect in plenary, work through each with class)

Sources Benyon, D., Turner, P., and Turner, S. (2005) Designing Interactive Systems, Addison Wesley, Harlow, UK. Brinck, T., Gergle, D., and Wood, S. T. (2002) Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, USA Lazar, J., (2001) User Centred Web Development, Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, USA