Structured Interviews

User interviews are commonly used while conducting user researches. By providing a series of questions, the interviewee would provide a deeper insight that would help to shape user research to go into a more concise and specific direction.

Description

A structured interview was conducted with my partner, Tania Zaidi, with the goal of understanding my partner’s research interests and her experience with group projects. Moreover, due to the “Zoom University” phenomenon since 2020 after COVID spread, it would be helpful to understand her opinions on how the group should be determined for group projects. On top of that, some questions are designed to understand more about Tania’s personality and how it would affect her work style.

Methodology/Process

Instead of making “yes” or “no” questions, the questions should be specific about the user’s experience while encouraging them to expand on the questions. This would make the interview effective. In order to achieve such goals, the interview questions will surround the following keywords:

• group work
• partners
• devices / tools

On top of that, I would ask deeper and more personal questions. Although those questions are not directly related to Tania’s experience with group projects, they represent Tania’s personality and would indirectly affect her work style.

Interview Questions

1. Do you find yourself work productively in a group or independently?
2. What kind of traits do you look for group members?
3. Name one good and bad experience that you have while working with a group.
4. Do you find it hard to work during COVID quarantine?
5. When you encounter a conflict as a group, what would you do?
6. What motivates you to work hard?
7. Do you go to the logical side or the creative side of the solution when you encounter issues?
8. Do you consider yourself a procrastinator?
9. Would you often pull all-nighters?
10. What top 3 social media platforms do you use?
11. What is one thing that you want to change about yourself?
12. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

The questions begin specifically related to Tania’s experience with working in groups. Then they move towards the direction of how COVID quarantine has affected her work. In the last part of the interview, the questions are related to her personality and lifestyle, which indirectly affect how she works and her creative thought process.

Q1: Do you find yourself work productively in a group or independently?

It usually depends, but I would prefer to work independently, just so that I don’t need to depend on other people. However, I believe that working with someone with skills would be more productive, under the situation where the partner is skilled with something that I’m not good at. Then we could distribute work evenly and work collaboratively.

Q2: What kind of traits do you look for group members?

Someone who is easy to get a hold of, who’s efficient, and offers input as much as I do. Someone who’s always available for communication.

Q3: Name one good and bad experience.

For the good one would be: last semester on Zoom. I worked with two other guys. They were very efficient in emailing and communicating. On top of that, work distribution was even and skills were well combined. Then the bad one would be: same class from last semester, but this time would be with the other two girls. One girl was dominating too much but I didn’t really speak up. The topic that we worked on was something that I wasn’t interested in. Now thinking about it, I should’ve spoken up about it.

Q4: Do you find it hard to work during COVID quarantine?

It depends. A good thing is that I get to work straight away (like I can work straight in bed), but the bad thing is that my bedroom might be distracting, and I also got roommates, so I had to be careful.

Q5: When you encounter a conflict as a group, what would you do?

I would write down the issues and list out the pros and cons for the issues. I tend to analyze the issues just so that we could understand what the fundamental problem is. In the end, I would look for democratic decisions for the group members.

Q6: What motivates you to work hard?

It would be my passion of being an artist since the age of 13. Doing what I always want to do and pursue a career that I want would also be something that motivates me to work harder.

Q7: Do you go to the logical side or the emotional side of the solution when you encounter issues?

It would be logical. I used to be emotional when it comes to encountering issues, but I have been actively wanting to change this part about myself, just so that when I try to solve problems it could be easier.

Q8: Do you consider yourself a procrastinator?

Yep… I would say I procrastinate a lot.

Q9: Would you often pull all-nighters?

I am a morning person who loves the daytime. I usually find myself work more efficiently in the morning, but at the latest, I would stop at 9 pm. I used to pull all-nighters a lot, but it would make my body feel so bad the next day, so I stopped.

Q10: What top 3 social media platforms do you use?

It would be Youtube, IG, and Pinterest.

Q11: What is one thing that you want to change about yourself?

To be able to stand up for me. I feel like I’m always being too diplomatic about problems or conflicts, and I always want to please people, so I want to be more firm when it comes to those situations.

Q12: Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

I would say extrovert.

Empathy Map

Purpose

The purpose of using these research methods is to provide me a deep understanding of Tania in terms of the way she thinks about project groups should be determined for the group project later in the semester. Also, the information that I gained from this interview leads me to understand more about the personality and the creative thought process Tania.

Conclusion

From the interview with Tania, I have a better understanding of her thoughts towards group projects and her creative thought process. Tania is very logical and analytic when it comes to conflicts. She prefers to work either independently, or with people who are skilled in areas that she is not familiar with. However, she feels that she is being too diplomatic in conflicts with other group members. Therefore, she wants to stay firm and stand up for herself in those situations.