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.
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
"It’s difficult to break the rules when they’re not very clear or even there."
Neema MahdaviOperationalizing DesignOps
November 7, 2018
"The ability to understand business needs and align efforts is key to delivering recognizable business value."
Sean McKayCoexisting with non-researchers: Practical strategies for a democratized research future
March 11, 2025
"Using Merge we’re closing the loop of documentation and empowering stakeholders to communicate via common jargon and components."
Jack BeharHow to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product
December 6, 2022
"We must create spaces that allow nature to thrive within our cities."
Lena ShenkarenkoCollaborative Wireframing for Creating Team Alignment and Shipping Better Products
October 21, 2020
"Design producers love their creative tools and want reporting to be automated, not manual."
Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank DeshpandeIntroduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
September 9, 2022
"Allow people to tell you how trauma extraction feels; don’t assume based on your cultural lens."
Matt Bernius Sarah Fathallah Hera Hussain Jessica Zéroual-KaraTrauma-informed Research: A Panel Discussion
October 7, 2021
"An ending occurs when the reality of your present moment shifts or changes all together."
Maria GiudiceEmpowering change: Reigniting purpose, passion and impact in research
March 13, 2025
"The timing is key—you want to interrupt them when they are in that flow state."
Marc Majers Tony TurnerInterrupted UX - Add A Dose of Reality To Usability Testing
March 11, 2022
"Designers can help facilitate the breakdown of power structures, even if we get pushback from status quo."
Jennifer Strickland Lesley-Ann NoelFireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
March 18, 2022