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
"I do this in public, put this on a wall where you can test it so people can come and say, that is not right."
Holly ColeUnderstanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
November 8, 2018
"It’s all too easy to navigate to a mode of protection and become the gatekeeper controlling what is let in and out of the team."
Kevin BethuneGatekeepers and Servant Leadership
January 30, 2020
"You don't want to hide away for six months and try to build the perfect documentation. It won't work."
Gabrielle VerderberDocumentation Your Team Will Actually Use
October 3, 2023
"Design is not only limited to designers. Business analysts and engineers can design too, supported by designers."
Abby Covert Tomer SharonPanel: Collaboration Tools
November 6, 2017
"Slack channels and weekly meetings encourage cross-contract collaboration, avoiding duplication and sharing learnings across teams."
Shawna Hein Kevin HoffmanCreate a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
November 17, 2022
"Our brain doesn’t know the difference between a tiger trying to eat us or an angry email from our manager."
Alla WeinbergHow to Build and Scale Team Safety
January 8, 2024
"Polaris was not just a database but a system involving humans and a strong curatorial role."
Michele MarutResearch Repositories Reconsidered
February 14, 2019
"Teams can thrive when iteration and responsiveness are normalized and psychological safety is present."
Mariesa LenzWhat Beekeeping Taught me about Product Teams
October 29, 2025
"The most salary ranges fell between $140,000 to $270,000 a year, with larger companies paying more, but there’s wide variability."
Abbey SmalleyToday’s Design Ops and Programs Landscape & Career Paths
October 4, 2023