Depth Interviews for Design Research: Selecting locations
When planning customer interviews, you need to consider research locations in terms of both geography and physical setting. Geography is a factor to consider in web design when people use a web site differently in one location than they do in another location. Usage variations especially pronounced when multiple languages or cultures are involved. Some areas of the country adopt new technology more slowly than other areas of the country, and people in the more advanced areas are more expert at using various types of online tools. These different usage patterns could have a substantial impact on the design strategy for reaching these audiences. People who live in an urban setting have different needs than people living in rural areas, for example in terms of delivery of products or execution of services. Regardless of its brevity, the research plan should include a section on geography in which you address geographical considerations, discussing the reasons why one or more research locations has been selected. It is more expensive to conduct research in multiple geographies, so a strong case will be needed if the research plan calls for data collection in multiple locations. However, if regional differences exist and the research sample only represents one of those regions, then the research results will be incomplete if your sample does not take these differences into account.
In addition to geography, the research plan should also specify the interview location. Will the customer interviews take place in homes, in stores, in public gathering spaces, in an office or conference room of the company sponsoring the research, in the customer’s work setting, in a coffee shop? The setting will have a profound effect on the interview results. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of the settings described above, and you should include a statement of the advantages of selecting the interview setting you have decided on.
Written by Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (www.usography.com)
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