Week 6

Chapter 7

This chapter provided some useful information in getting the Assignment 2 wheels churning. It helped to see some sample questions, how to design them, and what types of questions to avoid.

I think most importantly it showed how many types of interviews there are, and how many ways those interviews can be conducted. The interview type to be used is dependant on what the interview situation is going to be like. However, I think using multiple methods is probably always the best idea. For example, doing audio recording and writing, or video taping and writing, etc etc. The more ways information is recorded, the more likely nothing is going to be missed. I also think that questionnaires would be highly useful in many situations. It would allow the interviewee some additional comments that may have not been covered in the interview. It would also ease some of the cognitive strain on the interviewer by not having to worry about forgetting important questions.

As an interesting thought in regards to the book's design, I wonder which is better - Presenting all the information on interaction design in chapters 1-6 first, as an introduction to how to conduct interviews, or presenting interview techniques first, so readers can think about them while learning about interaction design. I think that learning about interviews first would be more beneficial... But that's just my opinion.

Update on Assignment 2

We had a solid group, but it's inevitable that people drop after a midterm, and our group kinda fell apart. We're trying to find new members at the moment. On the bright side, before the midterm the group was able to meet several times, and came up with a pretty solid idea for the assignment, along with some preliminary questions to ask interviewees. I think we're pretty ahead of the game thus far. We have a solid idea and some ideas for interviewing already - things seem to be coming together nicely.