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
"AI-generated images often have no racial diversity and show inaccurate assistive device representation."
Kate KalcevichDesigning inclusively with AI
June 5, 2024
"We wrote one great security narrative and then just copied and pasted it into every other piece of paperwork."
Marina MartinLives on the Line: The Stakes of UX at the Scale of Government
June 14, 2018
"Rolling out a research repository is complex but crucial to avoid duplicate research and make insights discoverable."
Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie MorellRolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization
March 28, 2023
"Feedback is a gift; it’s always about the work and never about the person."
Erika Kincaid Brenna Heaps Jessica TsukimuraConnecting the Dots: How to Foster Collaboration and Build a Strong Design Review Culture
June 8, 2022
"You can be most successful at using new note-taking tools if you bring to the practice a different set of mental models."
Jorge ArangoExploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars)
April 19, 2024
"Embedding community members to lead design sessions helps shift power dynamics and surfaces authentic voices."
Justin Entzminger Terrance Smith Tracy M. Colunga Mai-Ling GarciaRisk and Reward: How to Diversify the Field of Civic Innovators and Designers
November 17, 2022
"Removing my position as a designer means creating space for residents and staff to do the real work and magic."
Ashley Cortez Devika Menon Nidhi Singh Rathore Danita J. Reese Mari NakanoShifting Toward Community-Led Innovation in Local Government
December 8, 2021
"Through this final set of speakers, we hope to inspire you with a pathway through this massive topic."
Uday GajendarTheme Four Intro
June 6, 2023
"Sense-making is a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections and act effectively."
Nick CochranGrowing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
June 3, 2019
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
When should specialized researchers be involved in a research study based on problem clarity and risk?
What practical practices can make accessibility a sustainable part of daily design and development workflows?
How does intrinsic motivation play a critical role in committing to an academic career in ethics despite job market challenges?