• Provide your interviewee with a link (e.g., Zoom link) for an online meeting. Do not ask for their personal IDs (e.g., Skype ID).
  • You are required to obtain verbal consent from the user before you conduct your interview. You must keep a spreadsheet, which has the participant name, date of interview, and participants’ responses to each of the verbal consent questions. You must keep this spreadsheet separate from your interview data and securely stored for a minimum of 1 year. Participants are allowed to withdraw from the study at any time.
  • Your interviewees must be adult (age 19+).

Recruitment

You are encouraged to recruit through word of mouth (e.g., people you know, friends of friends) via a variety of channels (e.g., email, phone call, social media, chat interfaces such as Slack). When using social media or chat interfaces (e.g., Facebook group, Slack workspace), you should post only if the norm of the social media or chat group permits this type of study recruitment posts. If in doubt, first check with the social media or chat group owner before posting. You must use the following recruitment script in your email, phone call, or chat or social media post when recruiting participants.

Information Interviews

During the empathize phase (the first phase), you are not permitted to video or audio record the interview, so take good notes! With the user’s permission, you can use anonymous quotations and pictures. Notes and images collected during this study (without identifying information such as names and faces) must be kept for a minimum of 1 year on a password-protected computer, data server and/or cloud service. You must obtain verbal consent from the participants using the following consent forms, and document the verbal consent responses in your participant spreadsheet.

Prototype Evaluation

During test phase (the second phase), with the user’s permission, you can take audio and screen recording without any identifying information (e.g., names, faces). With the user’s permission, you can use anonymous quotations and pictures. You can transcribe audio recordings, if you wish. Notes, images, screen recordings and audio recordings/transcriptions collected (again, without identifying information) should be kept for a minimum of 1 year on a password-protected computer, data server and/or cloud service. You must obtain verbal consent from the participants using the following consent forms, and document the verbal consent responses in your participant spreadsheet.

If you are conducting the interview at a workplace during work hours, then you will also need the permission of the manager before recruiting any participants for the interview or prototype evaluation. You must obtain verbal consent from the manager using the following consent forms, and document the verbal consent responses in your participant spreadsheet.

Thank You Letter

After the interview, you should provide the user with a thank you letter.

Design Templates

Design Tools

  • Miro - for affinity diagramming, sketches, and user flows, etc.
  • XMind - for mind mapping and brainstorming
  • Figma - for brainstorming, wireframing, and high fidelity prototyping

Figma Tutorials

Academic Writing

Copyright © 2024 Jian Zhao.