Interviewing a knowledge expert and/or a participant (sender, audience, end-user) in a message context can be a helpful aid in designing effective and appropriate visual communication.
As part of your Empowerment Design project you are required to conduct an interview and review of your design project, concept and direction, before finishing up your final design.
When initiating an interview, before hand and/or at the start of the meeting, you should let the person being interviewed know what you will be discussing and the purpose of the interview. You can do this either by phone or e-mail. You might also want to send them some of the questions you will be asking. This helps ensure the person you are interviewing understands your intention for the interview and was will be expected of them and makes them feel more at ease and self-assured.
The interview itself should be recorded if possible. Regardless, take notes. Begin by presenting a brief introduction to the design project, including identifying the sender, message, and audience, and clarifying the design’s purpose and objective. You may want to use some visual aids—a short and edited project brief, an audience persona, and maybe a quick preview of the design mockup. As you are introducing the project, ask them questions to make sure they appropriately understand the context of the design message.
Next, go through your list of prepared questions covering particulars that you need input on regarding message content, the design concept, the design itself, as well as it’s intended objective and purpose.
Even if you are recording, you still might want to take notes. Remember, this is an interview, so let the person doing the interview do most of the talking. You can subtle guide and direct them if they get off track, or do not seem to understand the questions.
Several of your questions will basically be a guided critique of the design solution by the interviewee, to see what they think and how they respond. Let the person you interview interact with and directly discuss your design mockup.
After the interview, be sure to follow up with a thank you note and/or e-mail.
Write-up and edit a concise report referencing the interview, as well as the highlights and important insights you gained. This information will help you with your final design and will also be an important part of the content for your case study design poster.
