User Research Interviews and Reporting

Do interview-based design research on play, games, and ways in which people like to learn.

Games = not video games, not digital games, not sports, not indidual/solo games. Casual, in-person, social games.

See below for examples. Your interview questions should be yours, and lead towards your specific principal question (see below). Consider interviewing specific people with a connection to your interest - museums, game design, architecture, education & learning, etc.

Process

1. Decide on a principal question. This is your research point.
2. Come up with a list of 10 interview questions.
3. Interview at least 3 people. You cannot interview students who are in this class. You should record the interview and take scrupulous notes.
4. Compile your interview notes into a 1-2 page bulleted summary of insights and thoughts.
5. Prepare to present and discuss what you learned with the class.

Submission

We will hold short in-class presentations where we report our most interesting and insightful results.

Prinicipal Questions

The principal question is the single abstract objective you are attempting to learn about. This is what you are interviewing about.

The principal questions examples below are phrased in 2nd person, like you are speaking to an interviewee. It should be re-written in your documents as your more specific, ‘real’, principal question that is not in the 2nd person. For example, “How do you learn?” becomes “Hoes does [specific demographic] best learn?”

Example principal questions:

• How do you learn?
• What makes a music performance visually engaging to you?
• How do you play with friends in social spaces?
• What does an exhibit need to support young children?
• How can I get you to be interested in the university archives?
• When do you get angry at people during games (and how can we prevent that?)