“Regular” Interviews and

Field Interviews
CS 569
 Interview types for this course
• Open-ended/unstructured, structured, semi-
structured.
• General guidelines:
– Have goals set.
– Avoid long/complex questions.
– Avoid jargon.
– Avoid leading questions, think abt unconscious
bias.
– LISTEN. And note body language, etc.
• Silence after a short answer: sometimes they’ll add on.2
 Four key issues
• 1. You need goals (Research questions)!
– Where do these come from in PRICPS?
• 2. Consider relationship w participants.
– Comfort, trust, IRB, are you a participant...
– Examples?
• 3. Triangulate!!
– Independent ways of getting to same conclusion.
– Examples? (data, investigator)
• 4. Pilot!
– ...your PROCEDURE and everything in it. 3
 Interview Sequence
• 1. Introduce yourself.
– who are you exactly, and why are you here?
– reassurances about confidentiality, IRB procs,
– IMPORTANT: ask their permission,
– set up data collection (quickly/efficiently).
• 2. Warm-up:
– Ask non-threatening, easy questions, eg:
background things.

4
 Interview sequence (cont.)
• 3. Main interview:
– In logical sequence, save hardest for the end.
• 4. Cool down
– Easy questions, to defuse tension if arose.
• 5. Closing
– Thank them!!
– Put stuff away, signaling that the interview is
over, any further conversation is not part of it.

5
 Unstructured interviews
• No list of questions.
– But you still need an agenda, checklist, to
ensure everything covered.
• Both you and interviewee can steer a
conversation.
• Advantage: lots of rich data, unanticipated,
affords emergence of surprises.
• Disadvantage: hard to analyze, can’t
replicate.
6
 Structured interviews
• Opposite of unstructured.
• Fixed list of questions.
• Only you can steer the conversation.
• Disadvantage: no rich data, all anticipated.
• Advantage: easy to analyze, easy to
replicate.

7
 Semi-Structured interviews
• Combines aspects of each.
• Fixed list of questions, each of which is
followed by conversation and follow-ups
as appropriate.
• Advantages: some rich data, some
unanticipated, surprises possible, yet
some of the data is easy to analyze to
replicate.

8
Semi-structured interview example
• What websites do you visit frequently?
– A: ........
– Why?
• A: ...mentions several but says she likes <w> best.
– And why do you like <w>?
• A: ...... <x> .......
– Tell me more about <x>?
• A: ......
– Anything else about <x>?
• A: ........
9
– Thanks. Any other reasons you like <w>?
 Example
• 1-2 minutes Steve Krug’s demo interview.
– “Getting the user talking” (segment #2, min
3:13-5:00).
– To discuss:
• What kind of interview is this segment?
• What part of the interview sequence was this?
• Did you notice anything he did that violated the
guidelines?

10
 In-Class Interviewing Activity
(20-25 minutes)
• Split up into pairs.
• You have 15 minutes to do a semi-structured interview to
research people’s lunch-going behaviors.
• How:
– 1. 5 minutes individually design the goals, questions, according
to the guidelines/issues here.
– 2. 5 minutes for A to interview B. (think of it as a pilot)
– 3. 5 minutes for B to interview A. (think of it as a pilot)
– Goal: hands-on practice with the interviewing process.
• We’ll discuss your results in class (5-10 minutes)

11
 Field Interviews
• A special type of interview
• Also known as “contextual” interview
• Especially suitable for case studies
– But not required; for some case studies a
“regular” interview (or no interview) might make
more sense.
 Top mistakes in
field interviewing
1. Thinking you’re in the field when you’re
not.
What is NOT “the field”:
Usability lab.
Conference room.
A place in “the field” where the work is NOT actually
being done.
Solution:
Be prepared to move the interview to wherever the
work really gets done.

13
2. Accepting a “representative”
user.
• You DON’T want to interview:
– Someone who used to do the job.
– Someone who tells others how to do the job
but doesn’t actually participate in it.
– Solutions:
• You can interview other stakeholders, but don’t
confuse them with users.
• But ultimately, you want the users who really do
the work.

14
 3. Using “I can’t see the work
live” as an excuse not to field-
interview.
Sometimes the work you need to see:
Is infrequent.
Takes place over long periods of time.
Is confidential.
So you assume you can’t see it.
Solution:
Conduct a retrospective interview.
Re-create the work done (RECENTLY).
Include the real artifacts.
Be careful not to let user skip things. 15
 4. Not getting low-level details.
Omitting details, one-word answers, filtering
out everything except what you expected.
(Many of you probably did this in your practice.)
Accepting vague generalities.
“We usually buy fresh produce”
“You can tell it’s fresh from the date”
Solutions:
Make them describe a real instance.
Use past tense!!!
“Last time you shopped, what exactly did you buy?”
(“Fritos and canned green beans.”) 16
 5. Not being honest about
user’s reactions.
• Users follow social conversational norms
to be polite.
• So remember that hesitantly appearing to
agree/disagree sometimes means the
opposite.
– Do you think this dress makes me look fat?
– Did you think the test was too hard to be fair?

17
 6. Establishing the wrong
relationship
• Examples:
– I’m busy. Give me what I need fast.
– I’m smart. So cater to my vantage point.
– I’m important. So give all the data I seek.
– I’m unimportant: talk about whatever you want.
• Solution:
– Apprenticeship model. Your job is to learn how to
do that task.
• Listen, learn, be humble, don’t judge.
• People usually do things for a reason. 18
 Field interview summary
• Interviews in a real-world setting.
• Combines interview with the observation
of the “context”.

19