Exploratory Interview
“Formative research, or research conducted prior to the implementation of a project, is now considered a key step in the intervention development process because it allows investigators to explore potential barriers and facilitators to intervention adoption.”
Maman et al (2009). Using Participatory Mapping to Inform a Community-randomized Trial of HIV Counseling and Testing. Field Methods. 21 (4), 368-387.
Definition
An exploratory or open-ended interview is intended to provide initial reactions at the early stages of a design project or idea.
Type
User research
Context
Co-design
I ask a student a question about our behavioral prototype (photo by Ya-ching Tsao).
Procedure
The goal of an exploratory interview is to learn from people by letting them control the interview. It does help to give people something to react to, but it can also be as simple as asking a friend about a design idea. To me, this method is largely improvised and should be considered more like an informal conversation.
Use Case
I used an exploratory interview to understand people’s reactions to a behavioral prototype. My teammate Andi created a prototype we wanted to explore. The idea is that homeless people could use a wearable band to send notification messages or emergency alerts to people’s phones within a close proximity. Together with my teammates, I asked people in the public what they felt about the concept. A lot of these involved short, open-ended interviews. We ended up learning a lot of takeaways we hadn’t thought about before.
Data Analysis
The data we received from the exploratory interviews was unfocused and chaotic, but that’s why it was so helpful in giving us a direction to pursue. From our interviews, we realized people had a variety of concerns for our prototype: skepticism over trust, ethical issues, and public safety were a few problems that were mentioned. As a result, we changed our idea to focus on providing resources to serve the homeless instead of providing a means for public communication. By keeping our interviews broad, we kept our options open for new opportunities to improve our design.