INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods
11 March 2008
theme from last week
 interviewing
as a negotiation:
 letting the interviewee lead the way
 guiding toward topics, providing prompts
and encouragement, memory jogs
what is projective interviewing?
creative strategies for
eliciting description,
interpretation that
incorporate materials
(photos, objects,
diagrams etc) into the
interview process
 …but can be distracting,
time-consuming, intrusive

what is projective interviewing?

Mapping Exercises
 Spatial maps
 Social maps
 Tours

Photoelicitation
 Photo diaries

Sorting Tasks
 Personal construct interviews

Technology/Cultural Probes
mapping exercises

geographical spaces
 map of the home, neighborhood

social spaces
 social network mapping
 hierarchical diagramming
hierarchical diagramming
touring spaces
home tours - to elicit responses to the
material environment, comments on
arrangement of space
 tour of computer ‘interior’
 tour of a mobile phone – address book,
text messages, call log

photoelicitation

“photographs are
charged with
psychological and highly
emotional elements and
symbols. In the depth
study of culture it is
often this very
characteristic that allows
people to express their
ethos while reading the
photographs.” [Collier and
Collier]
Family Photo Albums
beyond photos: stories,
skits
sorting activities

images of technologies,
settings,
advertisements, people
 on what basis would you
sort these images?
 pick the odd one out of a
group and explain.

e.g. personal construct
interviews
Example: “The Meaning of Domestic
Technologies: a personal construct analysis of
familial gender relations” – Sonia Livingstone
 Topic: Looking at how husbands and wives
separately experience and account for their
domestic technologies
 Method: separate interviews with husband
and wife, in home, for 45 minutes. Asked to
sort technologies into groups and explain.
 outcome: women emphasize domestic
technologies as necessities, different notions
of control over tech, the telephone as key
difference
cultural/technology probes
Emerging in the HCI
community
 An interdisciplinary
methodological approach
 “A probe is an instrument that is

deployed to find out about the
unknown - to hopefully return
with useful or interesting data.”
[Hutchinson et al.]

Recall our discussion of
subjectivity
[Gaver et al.]
cultural/technology probes
[Gaver et al.]
RECALL:
1 Advantage & 1 Disadvantage
[of interviewing]
efficiency: generate
a large amount of
material on a specific
topic in a short
amount of time
artificiality:
distance from
event/experience
Projective Techniques:
some benefits
Bridging the distance between lived
experience and the artificiality of the
interview event
 Aiding memory (+ cognitive assistance)
 Accessing the affective dimension of
experience
 Engagement and the research partnership -keeping interviewees committed to the task

In summary…who creates the artifact
varies…
Authored
Artifact
Produced for…
By 3rd Party
Magazine ads
…reasons
external to the
research project
Family photos
Consumer
technologies
By Researcher
Technology probes
Photo or Card Decks
(for sorting)
By Interviewee
Photo diaries
Maps of Salient
Environs
…the sake of the
research project
…and when/where the artifact is
created varies…
When Produced
Purpose Served by the Artifact
In the course of the
interview (i.e. maps,
diagrams, drawings)
As a memory jog
Discussion piece
Analytical device
As a memory jog
In the course of everyday
life (i.e. photo diaries, photo
tasks)
Closing the distance
between lived experience
and the interview event
To address access issues