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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
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Gestures provide additional layers of meaning beyond spoken words, revealing users' mental imagery.
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Gesture research has roots in psycholinguistics and can enhance user experience research by providing deeper insights.
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Recognizing gestures during interviews can lead to richer data and better understanding of user mental models.
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The integration of gesture and speech is vital; they form a co-expressive system that communicates meaning together.
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Users may have multiple mental models that can shift depending on context and technology, as demonstrated in user interviews.
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The spacing and context of gestures matter; gestures in the interactional space are often more telling than those close to the body.
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Gesture analysis can identify implicit user relationships to systems, helping refine user experience design.
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Techniques such as motion tracking can augment analysis, providing quantitative insights into gesture frequency and type.
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Gestures can indicate a user's affective states and attachment to particular features or tools.
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By understanding gesture, researchers can craft better follow-up questions that lead to more insightful interviews.
Notable Quotes
"Gestures are a window to the mind."
"Gesture serves as a window into the mind, revealing images that users often think are concealed."
"We're leaving half of our data on the table by not attending to gesture during interviews."
"Gestures hold great value in communication; they facilitate and negotiate meaning in interaction."
"Pay attention to those representational gestures that will bring forward mental imagery."
"Developing a better understanding of our users requires attention to both gesture and speech as integrated data."
"Users have more than one mental model; mental models are not monolithic but can shift based on context."
"Without looking at gesture, we would come to a less complete understanding of the user’s mental model."
"Users may be more wary of engaging with systems they don’t feel in control of."
"Gesture analysis can be applied in generative, usability, and design phases of the process."
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