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Interviewing is easy, right? Anyone can do it… but few do it well enough to unlock the benefits and insights that interviewing users and customers can yield.In this new and updated edition of the acclaimed classic Interviewing Users, Steve Portigal quickly and effectively dispels the myth that interviewing is trivial. He shows how research studies and logistics can be used to determine concrete goals for a business and takes the reader on a detailed journey into the specifics of interviewing techniques, best practices, fieldwork, documentation, and how to make sense of uncovered data. Then Steve takes the process even further―showing the methods and details behind asking questions―from the words themselves to the interviewer's actions and how they influence an interview. There is even a chapter on making sure that information gleaned from the research study is used by the business in such a way to make it impactful and worthwhile. Oh, and for good measure he throws in information about Research Operations.But, hey, that's just the nuts and bolts of the book. The truly fun part is Steve's voice and how he portrays this information through amusing anecdotes about his career, fascinating examples from other practitioners, and tips and tricks that only the most experienced UX researchers, like Steve, could come up with. As a nod to the pandemic, he offers ideas for the best way to interview someone remotely, and he also discusses personal bias―how to identify and deal with it so that it doesn't affect interviews.Everyone will get something from this book. But beyond the requisite information, it's simply a good read. And if you want another good read with stories galore, pick up Steve's other book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries.'Quite simply the best book on when, why, and how you should conduct user interview studies.'—Elizabeth F. Churchill, PhD, Senior Director, Google Who Should Read This Book? Anyone and everyone who is interested in finding out what makes their business tick, i.e., who their users are. Anyone and everyone who wants to learn how to interview and listen to people. Anyone and everyone, including CEOs, user researchers, designers, engineers, marketers, product managers, strategists, interviewers, and you. Takeaways User research is key for companies to include in their design and development process. The best way to do user research is through interviewing users and determining their needs. Interviewing can identify what could be designed or what is actually a problem. Teams who meet their users face-to-face will build better products. Field research takes a lot of preparation to be successful―and a solid plan in advance. There are critical techniques and frameworks for mapping human behavior. A good interviewer always puts their participants at ease. If you ask the right questions, you'll get the right answers. A smart interviewer checks their worldview at the door. To establish a rapport with your interviewee, listen and don't be judgmental. Research data is a combination of analysis and synthesis. The importance of research analysis must be continually highlighted and emphasized to the powers that be.

First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Qualitative Interviewing?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series.This book is a step-by-step guide for new and experienced social science researchers looking to use interviews in their projects. Rosalind Edwards and Janet Holland explain a range of interview types and practices, providing real research examples as informative illustrations of qualitative interviewing in practice, and the use of a range of creative interview tools. This new and expanded edition includes:- recent developments in the radical critique of interviews debate focusing on form and content of interviews;- the strategic shift to online interviewing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic;- discussion of the decolonization of methodology and research, and the growing attention to indigenous methodologies for generating data;- an assessment of the changing landscape for qualitative interviewing.The authors explore the use of new technologies as well as issues around asking and listening, and power dynamics in research. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book concludes with an updated annotated bibliography of key texts and journals in the field.

Qualitative interviewing has become one of the most common research methods across the human and social sciences, if not the most prevalent approach. Qualitative Interviewing, Second Edition help readers conduct, write, represent, understand, and critique qualitative interview research in its many forms as currently practiced. It discusses excellent exemplars of qualitative interview research. The book begins with a theoretically informed introduction to qualitative interviewing by presenting a variegated landscape of how conversations have been used for knowledge producing purposes. Particular attention is given to the complementary positions of experience focused interviewing (phenomenological positions) and language focused interviewing (discourse oriented positions), which concentrate on interview talk as reports (of the experiences of interviewees) and accounts (occasioned by the situation of interviewing) respectively. The second edition has a new chapter on conducting interviews in practice and is updated with new sections on research ethics and the relevance of small-scale studies in a world of'big data', many updated references, recent examples of interview studies, and reflections on similarities and differences between research interviews, journalism, and the arts.

Clean Language Interviewing is a landmark publication that defines the field for this important practice; it is essential reading for all researchers who seek to obtain data that are faithful to the experience of the interviewee. Clean language interviewing aims to improve the ability of academic and applied researchers to minimise the introduction of the interviewer's own assumptions, to avoid ‘leading'questions and instead to ask ‘clean'questions. Heather Cairns-Lee, James Lawley and Paul Tosey present a state-of-the-art review of the principles and practice of clean language interviewing to make this rigorous and innovative method accessible. Using real application examples, a global group of contributors analyse the use of clean language interviewing in multiple settings including business, education, and healthcare.

Interviews are often seen as a quick, cheap, and seemingly low-stress data collection method, but once students obtain data, they can be overwhelmed at the amount of information they have to manage, sort, and analyse, even if they only have a few participant responses. There are plenty of books on data management, coding, and analysis, but no student has time to read and internalize this much detail if a deadline is looming. Use Your Interview Data takes students through the essentials of managing, coding, and interpreting interview data so they have the overview needed to negotiate their data systematically and ensure they are not marked down for haphazard or incomplete interpretation. This Little Quick Fix provides students with the understanding and skills they need to manage, sort and analyse their interview data. Helen Kara's overview enables students to negotiate their data systematically and give a complete interpretation for their research method assignment, essay or project. Little Quick Fix titles provide quick but authoritative answers to the problems, hurdles, and assessment points students face inthe research course, project proposal, or design—whatever their methods learning is. Lively, ultra-modern design; full-colour, each page a tailored design. An hour′s read. Easy to dip in and out of with clear navigation enables the reader to find what she needs—quick. Direct written style gets to the point with clear language. Nothing needs to be read twice. No fluff. Learning is reinforced through a 2-minute overview summary; 3-second summaries with super-quick Q&A DIY tasks create a work plan to accomplish a task, do a self-check quiz, solve a problem, get students to what they need to show their supervisor. Checkpoints in each section make sure students are nailing it as they go and support self-directed learning. How do I know I'm done? Each Little Quick Fix wraps up with a final checklist that allows the reader to self-assess they've got what they need to progress, submit, or ace the test or task.

Interviews are the most common data collection instrument undergraduates turn to. No matter what discipline or level, someone in the course will be doing some interviews. They're quick, cheap and students think they're easy. The first two are true, but it's more than just asking a list of questions. This Little Quick Fix lays out the basic how-to of choosing an interview as a method for a project or dissertation, and how to do it well enough so students aren't docked marks for poor or irrelevant data. Practical and hands-on, readers will be shown everything they need to prepare, how to do it quickly, and all the pitfalls to avoid. Packed with checklists, this is the foolproof solution to getting interview data quickly and effectively. Perfect for undergraduates who need to do this in a week or two. Little Quick Fix titles provide quick but authoritative answers to the problems, hurdles, and assessment points students face in the research course, project proposal, or design - whatever their methods learning is. Lively, ultra-modern design; full-colour, each page a tailored design. An hour′s read. Easy to dip in and out of with clear navigation enables the reader to find what she needs - quick. Direct written style gets to the point with clear language. Nothing needs to be read twice. No fluff. Learning is reinforced through a 2-minute overview summary; 3-second summaries with super-quick Q&A DIY tasks create a work plan to accomplish a task, do a self-check quiz, solve a problem, get students to what they need to show their supervisor. Checkpoints in each section make sure students are nailing it as they go and support self-directed learning. How do I know I'm done? Each Little Quick Fix wraps up with a final checklist that allows the reader to self-assess they've got what they need to progress, submit, or ace the test or task.

This is a concise introduction to the richness and scope of interviewing in social science research, teaching the craft of interview research with practical, hands-on guidance. Incorporating discussion of the wide variety of methods in interview-based research and the different approaches to reading the data, this book will help you to navigate the broad field of qualitative research with confidence and get out there and start collecting your data.

Traditional qualitative interviews typically involve a single subject; interviews of dyads rarely appear outside marketing research and family studies. Experienced qualitative researcher David Morgan's brief guide to dyadic interviewing provides readers with a road map to expand this technique to many other settings. In dyadic interviews, the interaction and co-constructions of the two subjects provide the data for the researcher. Showing the advantages and disadvantages of interviewing two people at once, the first book on this research topic -covers key issues of pair rapport, ethics, confidentiality, and dealing with sensitive topics;-describes the entire process from selecting the participants to the role of the moderator to analyzing results;-uses examples of grad student experiences, physician behavior, substance abuse, services to elderly, and dementia patients to show its many applications.

Karin Olson's brief, accessible guide to the principles and practices of qualitative interviewing is a welcome addition for students and novice practitioners in a wide array of fields. Interview is the most common method for gaining information in the social realm, so there are a bewildering array of techniques and strategies for conducting them. Olson outlines the various options—from formal to highly unstructured, individual and group—and shows how and when to use each. She takes the researcher through the interview process, from design to report, and addresses key issues such as researcher standpoint, vulnerable populations, translation, and research ethics. Exercises, examples, and tables offer a convenient set of tools for understanding. This slim guide is a key resource for any research methods course.

The Second Edition of Qualitative Online Interviews provides researchers the guidance they need to extend the reach of their studies beyond physical boundaries. Focusing on designing, conducting, and assessing data drawn from online interviews as well as from observations, materials, and artifacts collected online, the book emphasizes the use of in-depth interviews in qualitative research or mixed-methods designs. Written in an easy-to-read manner, the thorough Second Edition offers the practical information and scholarly foundations needed to make thoughtful decisions in technology-infused research.

The use of the cognitive interviewing method for survey question testing has proliferated and evolved over the past 30 years. In more recent years the method has been applied to the evaluation of information letters and leaflets and to research consent forms. This book provides a practical handbook for implementing cognitive interviewing methods in the context of applied social policy research, based on the approach used by the authors at the NatCen Social Research (NatCen) where cognitive interviewing methods have been used for well over a decade. The book provides a justification for the importance of question testing and evaluation and discusses the position of cognitive interviewing in relation to other questionnaire development and evaluation techniques. Throughout the book, the focus is on providing practical and hands-on guidance around elements such as sampling and recruitment, designing probes, interviewing skills, data management and analysis and how to interpret the findings and use them to improve survey questions and other documents. The book also covers cognitive interviewing in different survey modes, in cross national, cross cultural and multilingual settings and discusses some other potential uses of the method.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on bloomsburycollections.com.What is Qualitative Interviewing? is an accessible and comprehensive'what is'and'how to'methods book. It is distinctive in emphasising the importance of good practice in understanding and undertaking qualitative interviews within the framework of a clear philosophical position. Rosalind Edwards and Janet Holland provide clear and succinct explanations of a range of philosophies and theories of how to know about the social world, and a thorough discussion of how to go about researching it using interviews. A series of short chapters explain and illustrate a range of interview types and practices. Drawing on their own and colleagues'experiences Holland and Edwards provide real research examples as informative illustrations of qualitative interviewing in practice, and the use of a range of creative interview tools. They discuss the use of new technologies as well as tackling enduring issues around asking and listening and power dynamics in research. Written in a clear and accessible style the book concludes with a useful annotated bibliography of key texts and journals in the field. What is Qualitative Interviewing? provides a vital resource for both new and experienced social science researchers across a range of disciplines.

This book provides the first English language account of the interview method known as the PCI. Offering a way of collecting knowledge by means of involving people actively in the research process, the interviewer takes the role of a well-informed traveller. With careful preparation and planning, the interviewer sets out with priorities and expectations, but the story the interviewer tells about his journey depends on the people encountered along the road. Novice and experienced interview researchers across the social, educational and health sciences will find this an invaluable guide to conducting interviews. Andreas Witzel is senior researcher (retired) at the University of Bremen and former director of the Bremen Archive for Life Course Research. Herwig Reiter is senior researcher in the Department of Social Monitoring and Methodology of the German Youth Institute in Munich.

Using in-depth qualitative interviews, authors Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin have researched topics ranging from community redevelopment programs to the politics of budgeting and been energized by the depth, thoroughness, and credibility of what was revealed. They describe in-depth qualitative interviewing from beginning to end, from its underlying philosophy and assumptions to project design, analysis and write up.'This book is exactly what I was looking for in that it covers interviewing and analysis in depth.'—Daphne John, Oberlin College'Students leave this book fully informed of the nuances and complexity of interviewing as well as excited about the promise interview research findings offer.'—Hannah Britton, University of Kansas'The authors′ focus on the reflective process, question development, and procedural steps associated with qualitative research is rich and thorough.'—Tracy M. Lara, Kent State University

'This is foundational and state-of-the-art for online interviewing methods and technologies…. I salute all of the participants for doing such a wonderful job with it.'—John M. Johnson, Arizona State University'The editor has made meticulous efforts to place the various chapters within a useful grid of interpretation, and this will aid readers′ understanding and use of the material.'—S.E. Bennett, Carleton UniversityIn an era of constrained research budgets, online interviewing opens up immense possibilities: A researcher can literally conduct a global study without ever leaving home. But more than a decade after these technologies started to become available, there are still few studies on how to utilize online interviews in research. This book provides 10 cases of research conducted using online interviews, with data collected through text-based, videoconferencing, multichannel meeting, and immersive 3-D environments. Each case is followed by two commentaries: one from another expert contributor, the second from Janet Salmons as editor. A open-access companion website provides sample syllabi, assignment ideas, links to other work by the book′s contributors, and guidelines for utilizing the book′s E-Interview Research Framework.Cases in Online Interview Research is an ideal companion to Janet Salmons′ Online Interviews in Real Time, also from SAGE.

Focus Group Methodology is an introductory text which leads readers through the entire process of designing a focus group study, from conducting interviews to analysing data and presenting the findings. It also includes discussions on cross-cultural and virtual focus group. Liamputtong presents clear, practical advice in simple terms which will be appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate students who are undertaking research, making this an ideal starter text for anyone new to focus group research. Like her previous book, Researching the Vulnerable, Liamputtong′s latest work pays close attention to research ethics and will also be of great interest to researchers who are working with different social groups - such as women, men, older people, children and ethnic groups - and anybody who is engaging in cross-cultural research. Illustrated with case studies and examples throughout, this is a perfect introduction to focus group methods for students and new researchers alike.

Las entrevistas son uno de los principales enfoques en la recogida de datos en la investigación cualitativa. Conocemos una variedad de formas de hacer entrevistas con objetivos y principios diferentes. Al mismo tiempo, la entrevista se presenta con varias ventajas, prácticas y problemas diversos comunes a todas las opciones de su realización. Podemos estudiar la realización de entrevistas en niveles diferentes: teórico, epistemológico, ético y práctico. Una vez que la entrevista se ha realizado, le siguen varios pasos: las formas específicas de documentar lo que ha ocurrido en la entrevista individual llevan a necesidades y reglas para la transcripción. Los datos obtenidos demandan formas específicas de realización del análisis cualitativo. La realización de entrevistas trae consigo necesidades específicas de aumentar la calidad de la entrevista en general y su validez en particular, y finalmente de informar de lo que se dijo y cómo se analizó. Este libro trata muy detalladamente todas estas cuestiones de la realización de entrevistas y se basa en la larga experiencia del autor en la realización de entrevistas y en escribir sobre ellas y su realización. Este libro es una parte de la colección de investigación cualitativa que dirijo y tiene un sólido enfoque en la recogida de datos, pero también en cuestiones específicas sobre el análisis y la evaluación de esta forma específica de datos. Por consiguiente, algunos de los otros libros de la colección deberían ser útiles para complementar lo que se dice en esta obra. En particular, los volúmenes de GIBBS (2007) sobre análisis de datos cualitativos y de RAPLEY (2007a) sobre análisis de discurso y de conversación dan más información sobre cómo analizar los datos cualitativos procedentes de entrevistas (y de otras fuentes). El libro de FLICK (2007a) entra más en los detalles de la planificación y el diseño de la investigación cualitativa (y de la realización de entrevistas) en general.

Qualitative researchers have long made use of many different interview forms. Yet, for novice researchers, making the connections between'theory'and'method'is not always easy. This book provides a theoretically-informed guide for researchers learning how to interview in the social sciences. In order to undertake quality research using qualitative interviews, a researcher must be able to theorize the application of interviews to investigate research problems in social science research. As part of this process, researchers examine their subject positions in relation to participants, and examine their interview interactions systematically to inform research design. This book provides a practical approach to interviewing, helping researchers to learn about themselves as interviewers in ways that will inform the design, conduct, analysis and representation of interview data. The author takes the reader through the practicalities of designing and conducting an interview study, and relates various forms of interview to different underlying epistemological assumptions about how knowledge is produced. The book concludes with practical advice and perspectives from experienced researchers who use interviews as a method of data generation. This book is written for a multidisciplinary audience of students of qualitative research methods.

Too often interviewing is seen as simply a tool for data collection, while in reality it is a complex, subtle process that cannot be separated from the dynamic of the project or from the multiple and changing contexts of everyday life. In posing the question, “what is research for?”, Interviewing and Representation in Qualitative Research explores the processes of interviewing as itself a project intimately involved in contemporary debates around knowledge, freedom, power, ethics, modernism postmodernism, and globalisation. What makes the book distinctive is its focus on interviewing not just as a tool to be used within other frameworks such as case study, action research, evaluation and surveys, but as an approach to organise a project as a whole, to provide frameworks for organising perspectives on the multiple ‘worlds'of everyday life. It is argued that every project, every methodology, every theoretical perspective has its own rhetorical framework that interacts with the ‘world'as subject of study or focus for intervention. The interview, as defined in this book, is both the process of constituting and de-constructing world views – it is the inter-view, the place between worlds. Without the ‘inter-view'no dialogue and no alternatives as a basis for difference, change, and development would be possible. The inter-view as conceived in the book is fundamental to qualitative research as an emancipatory project.Research practice is thus placed in the context of philosophical, theoretical and methodological debates, taking the reader beyond many introductory texts, making it suitable for all students and researchers who wish to advance the frontiers of their research and engage with contemporary social and political realities.

'As both an academic instructor in questionnaire design and a research design methodologist for the federal government, I feel this book is very timely, useful for students and practitioners, and unique in its use of real world practical examples that most everyone can relate.'—Terry Richardson, General Accounting Office'The combination of theory and practical application will make this a useful book for students as well as professionals who want to learn how to incorporate cognitive interviewing into the questionnaire design process.'—Rachel Caspar, RTI International The design and evaluation of questionnaires—and of other written and oral materials—is a challenging endeavor, fraught with potential pitfalls. Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design describes a means of systematically developing survey questions through investigations that intensively probe the thought processes of individuals who are presented with those inquiries. The work provides general guidance about questionnaire design, development, and pre-testing sequence, with an emphasis on the cognitive interview. In particular, the book gives detailed instructions about the use of verbal probing techniques, and how one can elicit additional information from subjects about their thinking and about the manner in which they react to tested questions. These tools help researchers discover how well their questions are working, where they are failing, and determine what they can do to rectify the wide variety of problems that may surface while working with questionnaires. Cognitive Interviewing is ideally suited as a course text for advanced undergraduate and graduate research courses across the social sciences. Professional researchers and faculty in the social sciences, as well as practice fields such as medicine, business, and education, will also find this an invaluable reference for survey research. There is no other book on the market that covers cognitive interviewing as applied to questionnaire design.

Interview roles are less clear than they once were, and in some cases, the roles are even exchanged to promote new opportunities for understanding the shape and evolution of selves and experience. Postmodern Interviewing offers readers an exploration of the postmodern interview, a conversation with diverse purposes in which the communicative format is constructed as much within the interview conversation as it stems from predesignated research interests. It provides cutting-edge discussions of emerging horizons, featuring reflexivity, poetics, and power, along with discussions of new ways of gathering experiential knowledge. Employing concepts from anthropology, family studies, history, and sociology, the contributors present the ambitious new directions in which the interview has gone, such as: How the interview process is refracted through the lens of language, knowledge, culture, and difference How the dividing line between fact and fiction is blurred to promote richer understanding How standardized representation has given way to representational invention By exploring these exciting developments, readers will be exposed to the engaging opportunities for understanding the shape and evolution of selves and social worlds that are made possible through changes in the interview process. This volume is comprised of chapters from the Handbook of Interview Research (Gubrium and Holstein, SAGE, 2001). The companion volume, Inside Interviewing (SAGE, 2003), is also comprised of chapters from the Handbook.

`Wengraf provides a comprehensive theoretical and practical guide to the planning, conduct, and interpretative analysis of data by semi-structured interviewing methods. Forthright and frank in his comments about the limitations and practical implications of varying choices which investigators have to make in designing their research projects. Reading this text is like having a tough but expert and caring mentor who wants you to do the best research possible, but will not hesitate to tell you when your ideology and assumptions skew that possibility′ - Vincent W Hevern, Le Moyne College, USA Unique in its conceptual coherence and the level of practical detail, this book provides a comprehensive resource for those concerned with the practice of semi-structured interviewing, the most commonly used interview approach in social research, and in particular for in-depth, biographic narrative interviewing. It covers the full range of practices from the identification of topics through to strategies for writing up research findings in diverse ways.

Students at postgraduate, and increasingly at undergraduate, level are required to undertake research projects and interviewing is the most frequently used research method. Interviewing for Social Scientists provides a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to interviewing. It covers all the issues that arise in interview work: theories of interviewing; design; application; and interpretation. Richly illustrated with relevant examples, each chapter includes handy statements of'advantages'and'disadvantages'of the approaches discussed.

`A comprehensive, balanced and judicious treatment of biographical methods in social research, made all the more useful to students by its careful delineation of the practicalities involved′ - Raymond M Lee, Royal Holloway, University of London Specifically designed for those carrying out biographical, life history or family history research, this concise guide covers the methods and issues involved. The author demonstrates that biographical research is a distinctive way of conceptualizing social activity. The three main approaches to biographical and family history research are covered: - Realist - focused around grounded-theory techniques of interviewing; - Neo-positivist - more structured interview techniques; - Narrative - with emphasis on the active construction of life stories through the interplay between interviewer and interviewee. An invaluable introduction to the field, which contains much that will be of interest to the experienced practitioner, the book will be ideal for researchers in sociology, psychology, political science, social policy or anthropology.

The Long Interview provides a systematic guide to the theory and methods of the long qualitative interview or intensive interviewing. It gives a clear explanation of one of the most powerful tools of the qualitative researcher. The volume begins with a general overview of the character and purpose of qualitative inquiry and a review of key issues. The author outlines the four steps of the long qualitative interview and how to judge quality. He then offers practical advice for those who commission and administer this research, including sample questionnaires and budgets to help readers design their own. The author introduces key theoretical and methodological issues, various research strategies, and a simple four stage model of inquiry, from the design of an open-ended questionnaire to the write up of results.