Project and
Methods:
Interviews:
Overview:
Bill Gaver did not conduct interviews, in his studies, relying instead on the returned cultural probes as the primary touch points with the participants. (Though as Hemmings notes "It is clear that, in the course of the visits to the homes of volunteers, designers were implicitly involved in eliciting ethnographically-oriented data." Hemmings et.al. pg 6.) All other studies surveyed used interviews as an element in their design research. In Design Probes Mattemäki gives a step by setp guide to probing. Her process involves the researchers looking over the probes before the interview and using them to guide the interview activities. Within the Super Studio tradition, interviews were historically the main means of primary research, additional activities have been added with each progressive year of the class.
Interviews in Women Who Play were intended to be an hour to an hour-and-a-half long. The interviews conducted in the home met this expectation, the in-facility interviews were all less than an hour. The questions asked are meant to both gather direct information and to evoke textural content from those being interviewed, eg a story, a memory, a dream, an opinion. Interviews were uniformly done after the completion of the probes. Though not intended as such, several participants noted that the probes where a good warm up for the interview, that is, it helped them gather their thoughts before being asked questions on a similar topic. There is emerging thinking about probes and self reflection by both Nugent and Mattelmäki.