Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
What co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews
Summary
Drs. DeSutter and Scopelitis discussed how User Experience (UX) researchers can triangulate and enrich information from one-on-one interviews by attending to users’ co-speech gestures—the spontaneous movements that humans make with their hands and body when communicating. Gestures are a “window to the mind” and can reveal unspoken information about users’ emotional states as well as the structure and composition of their mental models. They concluded with a practical guide for efficiently implementing gesture research.
Key Insights
-
•
Gestures provide a non-verbal window into users' mental models, often revealing thoughts not expressed in speech.
-
•
Representational gestures, especially those made in personal gesture space, indicate cognitive processes and implicit imagery.
-
•
Users commonly hold multiple, context-dependent mental models rather than a single static one.
-
•
In interviews, interviewer gestures increase participant gesturing and improve conversational rapport.
-
•
Video interviews pose challenges for capturing gestures fully; positioning and prompting can mitigate this.
-
•
Speech-gesture mismatches often signal ongoing mental model construction or word searching by users.
-
•
Gestures can reveal emotional attachment or disengagement with technology, influencing adoption and retention.
-
•
Mental models can be anchored by recent technology prototypes, such as chat GPT for AI understanding.
-
•
Structured interview protocols that elicit gesturing and separate talking from tool use optimize gesture data collection.
-
•
Open source motion tracking and gesture analysis tools can aid qualitative research by quantifying gesture patterns.
Notable Quotes
"Gestures are a window to the mind."
"Gesture and speech form an integrated system; they reinforce one another."
"We’re really leaving half of our data on the table by not attending to gesture when eliciting mental models."
"Gesture is not computer and smartphone gestures, but spontaneous movements people make with hands and arms."
"Four me gestures happen in that personal gesture space and serve as thinking tools for the speaker."
"When gestures and speech mismatch, it often means the speaker is still refining their mental model."
"Without looking at the gesture, we would have come to a less complete mental model."
"Users have more than one mental model; they can be constructed on the fly depending on context."
"The degree to which the user feels in control with an intelligent agent brings up conversational mental models."
"The more you gesture, the more your interviewee will gesture."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Dancing monkey culture is where agencies are expected to perform with confidence and charisma but often lack internal support."
Séamus ByrneAligning Teams with Choreography
January 8, 2024
"Raising the floor and the ceiling means eliminating low-value problems and empowering talent to shine creatively."
Frances Yllana Kaaren Hanson Husani Oakley Dan OlsenDesignOps Exposed: What do our peers really think of us?
September 11, 2025
"Founders are hard to recruit for research, so showing genuine interest by solving their problems helps turn them into advocates."
Prayag Narula Abhinav KrishnaDialing for Research: How to Reach the Unreachable
March 10, 2022
"If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."
Katy MogalBut Do Your Insights Scale?
March 12, 2021
"Mission was our primary interest because we started without money, projects, or assets."
Chelsea MauldinLet's Talk About Money
November 17, 2022
"Two-factor authentication accessibility improves when there are customizable options like text, email, or QR codes."
Sam ProulxMobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
March 10, 2022
"Visual design quality actually affects perceived trustworthiness."
Daniel J. RosenbergDesigning with and for Artificial Intelligence
August 11, 2022
"Convenience includes accepting multiple payment providers like Apple Pay or PayPal, which can mean the difference between completing and abandoning a purchase."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
November 29, 2023
"When ideas don't make it into the product, I do a post-mortem to share opportunities missed and improve the process."
Tricia WangSCALE: Discussion
June 15, 2018
