Questionnaires (data collection form)
- See figure one below
- State why you are using a questionnaire (link to experiment)
- Consider your questions
- Easy to read
- Use a reading test to prove it
- Can not be misinterpreted
- People have different means for different words
- Consider your population and sample group
- people over 60yrs would say that ‘gay’ was jolly and happy
- people under 25yrs would say that ‘gay’ was a sexual preference
- State what information your question will return and how you will use it to answer your problem
- Collecting gender data will allow for the comparison between gender proving that there is a difference in risk level when driving a car.
- Justify your response mechanism
- Rating scales (likert scales)
- Explain how you will achieve:
- Validation
- Verification
- Indicate how you will display the data
- e.g. in a on-way table or bar chart
- Link the your literature review evidence
- See data collection tool

Interviews
- Typically an interview refers to ‘one researcher to one respondent,’ which collects qualitative data
- The interview is used to:
- Gain more insight about the product or user compared to the focus group
- Explore in detail a person’s opinion about a product, design or interface
- Explore in detail how changes of the product, design or interface may impact on the user
- There are three main types of interviews:
- Structured Interviews
- Uses fixed questions with a limited ranger of answers (research reads from a questionnaire and record answers)
- Semi-structured Interviews
- Interviewer has a list of open end questions which they want to ask and when the interviewee is talking, they make notes against the relevant question.
- Clinical Interviews
- Informal approach to interviewing (laying on the couch) where interviewer rephrases questions or ask follow up questions to ensure they understand the interviewee answer and mean.
The Interview Process
- Create a list of talking points (or design prints) which you want the individual to talk about
- Be clear about what type of data you are looking for (keywords, themes, ideas, feelings)
- Do not interrupt the interviewee when they are talking
- Create a list of probing sentence starters which you can use to focus the interviewee
- What did you feel when …
- How did you find … when …
- If you have to change … what would it look like
- Before moving on to the next talking point confirm the main points which you have identified
- The results are then analysed to find patterns or agreements
- The results are displayed in tables, charts and graphs to help people visualise the results
- It is worth consider the framing your interview using the table provided for the questionnaire. However, be mindful of research and respondent bias.