Rosenverse
What co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s 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

Friday, June 30, 2023 • Rosenfeld Community
Share the love for this talk
What co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews
Speakers: Dane DeSutter and Stephanie Scopelitis
Link:

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."

Ask the Rosenbot
Christian Rohrer
Insight Types That Influence Enterprise Decision Makers
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Alla Weinberg
Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Chris Geison
Theme 1 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Melinda Belcher
Bridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sarah Fathallah
Lessening the Research Burden on Vulnerable Communities
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Jay Bustamante
Navigating the Ethical Frontier: DesignOps Strategies for Responsible AI Innovation
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Theme 3 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Jen Cardello
Learning Velocity—The Insights Speedometer
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Katie Hansen
Finding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Amy Paris
Delivering Equity: Government Services for All Ages, Languages, Sexual Orientations, and Gender Identities
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jim Kalbach
Jobs To Be Done
2021 • Enterprise Community
Emily Eagle
Can't Rewind: Radio and Retail
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
John Taschek
Making People the X-Factor in the Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Noel Lamb
Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Jessamyn Edwards
Surviving Your UX Career in Enterprise Design
2021 • Enterprise Community
Vanessa Varin
Feedback: The Other F-Word
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold

More Videos

Abby Covert

"Collaboration is actually not anarchy in companies. There’s always this need for control."

Abby Covert Tomer Sharon

Panel: Collaboration Tools

November 6, 2017

Clara Kliman-Silver

"There’s a perception that generative AI is gonna change everything, but I think it’s gonna transform, not totally overhaul mine."

Clara Kliman-Silver

UX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design

June 7, 2023

B. Pagels-Minor

"I woke up one day and just chose myself. I changed my name in Apple’s directory and it was the best moment ever."

B. Pagels-Minor

Breaking the Tension: The Power of Enabling Your Employees to Show Up Authentically

June 10, 2022

Noel Lamb

"Legal impacts just about every aspect of research Ops, from GDPR to incentives to internal documentation."

Noel Lamb

Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops

March 21, 2022

Billy Carlson

"A great design solution for a poorly defined problem is infinitely worse than an average solution applied to a well-defined problem."

Billy Carlson

Ideation tips for Product Managers

December 6, 2022

Tricia Wang

"Positive mutual regard helps uncover root causes behind people’s behaviors to build collaboration rather than combat."

Tricia Wang

SCALE: Discussion

June 15, 2018

Nathan Shedroff

"Reading books and articles is no longer central for many young people. What will replace books and articles for collective knowledge building?"

Nathan Shedroff Hugh Dubberly Thomas J. McLeish

How Will Design be Taught When the Schools Shut Down?

May 8, 2026

Matt Stone

"We have to think beyond projects to the larger ecosystem and understand the ladder of intended outcomes."

Matt Stone

Scaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management

June 11, 2021

Uday Gajendar

"Cornelius Rushrew will set the stage and tone for how to tackle problems at scale."

Uday Gajendar

Theme 1: Introduction

June 9, 2021