learnability matters

In usability testing, focus group session and contextual enquiry we often spend a lot of time with persons or group of persons. There is a lot of literature on the net on how to conduct usability testing, focus group or contextual enquiry.

What I’ve never come across is how to conduct oneself as an interviewer. What is the message one needs to explicitly and implicitly send off to the interviewee? So I started off on devising a protocol. I put in everything I’ve learned while studying psychological counseling and my experiences in previous research undertakings. So I came up with this:

Good Morning/Afternoon/evening I’m _______. I work for Kern Communications. It’s a user research company. I work as a Usability Analyst. I’m here to understand your experience of ________. Observations we make and responses we get from here will help us design ____ better.

The purpose of observing you is to understand your experiences. It is not to test you in anyway. So there is no right or wrong answer, just your answer. We assure you that all your responses would be kept in strict confidence. We will use it purely for research purposes and your name will not be used to cite anything without your explicit permission.

This entire inquiry should take about __ time. At any point you feel the questions are inappropriate or you are uncomfortable responding, please point it out to us and we shall discontinue. Your responses are invaluable and we respect and appreciate the time that you have given us.

I sent this to Ripul and he said: what’s new about this? Imagine a person sitting in front of you, and has to go through this. Well, he will gladly sleep if he wasn’t worried about coming off as rude. In all probability, he isn’t listening to you. So his advice to me was to make something that would convey all of this briefly and explain the purpose succinctly. I agreed with him.

So, I came up with this:

Good Morning/Afternoon/evening I’m_______. I work for Kern Communications. It’s a user research company and I’m here on an interesting project: to understand your experience of ____. You were chosen because of your passion for ___. Your inputs will help us enhance _____experience around the world. What you say will translate into the design of ___. Your responses are invaluable and we respect and appreciate the time given to us, this wouldn’t take more than ___. If you have any questions or doubts, do not hesitate to ask me at any time. Shall we begin?

There are some things that should be reflected in every introduction.

1. Clear reasons of why you are there. By being transparent about your purpose, interviewees are likely to trust you. Sometimes you may not be able to be completely honest. Be clear about what you aren’t telling them and why. This will still ensure honest answers. People hate to feel (as would you) that they are tricked into something.

2. What the information will help you accomplish. People like to know the impact of their efforts. Often times this is a motivator in itself.

3. Let participants know whether their opinions, experiences and suggestions are taken in confidence or are you going to quote them. At Kern, we’ve come across participants who feel disappointed for not being quoted and others who relax when they know the interview is conducted under anonymity. Nonetheless, it is better to be very clear about your intensions.

4. Respect and appreciate the interviewee’s time. Telling them how long it will take and sticking to it (This is the hardest part by the way!). Ensuring this is a reflection that you are true to your word.

When we say respect, it should be reflected in our attitude towards the participants. We should listen to them attentively. Since the interviewee is giving us his valuable time, we should return it by valuing him. All this has to be done implicitly. [Practice respectfulness as a policy in lifeJ ]

5. Compensate adequately. Let the participant return with a feeling that he/she has done something worthwhile and he/she has earned something of value in that time. Chances are, you might need him/her for some future research. In our experience at Kern, people volunteer to have us call them for our future researches.

Can you see how a simple introduction impacts your research?

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