〰️Interviews

Primary Research with experts, stakeholders and users

Contents

GUIDANCE > To help inform your projects we would like you to speak to either an expert or a potential stakeholder/user. Consider the question you are exploring and who might help to inform the directions potential responses might take.This work can be supported by the Learning Units that are being compiled to support Modules across the course. Importantly when you work with anyone you need to ensure you comply with the Research Ethics process

Stakeholders & User Engagement

Speaking to potential users and stakeholders can help you understand what people want and need. They can help you identify critical factors that you may need to address as well as potential opportunities that you'd not yet considered.

Potential Users - Someone who is likely to interact with the things you are designing.

Potential Stakeholders - Someone who has a stake (interest) in the situation/context that you are designing for.There are lots of tools that you can use to interact with people. The most straightforward is a semi-structured interview. Watch the video below to understand the 3 types of interviews.

To run semi-structured interviews you should.

Explain to your interview subject what it is you are exploring and why.
Identify what you do and don't know at this stage, and what you want the interviews to help you uncover.
Prepare a set of open-ended questions that can be used to start conversations and get people talking about relevant topics.

For instance if you are exploring the future of plant based diets and cooking (what if all cooking in the home in the future was plant based?) you might ask someone what their thoughts are about the question you are asking; you might be speaking to someone who has been vegan for some time and ask them about recent trends and developments they are excited or worried about; you could ask people about the meals they love cooking or the equipment they like using. If you have thoughts about a potential design that could enable or enhance plant based cooking you could ask questions to see if people see a need for such a thing, how they might solve the same problem or opportunity.

Record your Interview with whatever tools you have. A pen and paper work fine. You can also use Teams to record it and use the transcription option to help with note taking. Make sure you have their informed consent first.
To include in your submission you should present a summary of what the interview told you (insights) and demonstrate how it informs your thinking and project.

Reaching Out to Experts

The information in the section below has been adapted from https://www.designkit.org/methods/expert-interview

Experts can get you up to speed quickly on a topic, giving you key insights into relevant history, context, and innovations.

You can gain valuable perspective by talking to experts. Experts can often give you a systems-level view of your project area, tell you about recent innovations—successes and failures—and offer the perspectives of organisations like banks, governments, or NGOs. You might also look to experts for specific technical advice. You can also show experts what you have been thinking and working on to get their perspective and feedback. Much of the advice above can be applied to speaking to experts.

When speaking to experts you should.

Determine what kind of expertise you need. If you’re focused on agriculture, perhaps an agronomist. In reproductive health? A doctor or policymaker may be a good bet. Water use? depending on your focus that could be a plumber or an academic in water management
When recruiting your experts, give them a preview of the kinds of questions you’ll be asking and let them know how much of their time you’ll need.

Don't ask them questions you can discover on your own via a google search, use their expertise to expand what you have already discovered.

Speak to a few experts, choose experts with varying knowledge and points of view. You don’t want the same information and opinions over and over.
DO NOT speak to an expert for the sake of it. Ask smart, researched questions. Though you should come prepared with an idea of what you’d like to learn, make sure your game plan is flexible enough to allow you to pursue unexpected lines of inquiry.
Record your Interview with whatever tools you have. A pen and paper work fine. You can also use Teams to record it and use the transcription option to help with note taking. Make sure you have their informed consent first.
To include in your submission you should present a summary of what the interview told you (insights) and demonstrate how it informs your thinking and project.