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

Figure 1) Planning A Data Capture Form

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.