Rosenverse

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 additional layers of meaning beyond spoken words, revealing users' mental imagery.

  • Gesture research has roots in psycholinguistics and can enhance user experience research by providing deeper insights.

  • Recognizing gestures during interviews can lead to richer data and better understanding of user mental models.

  • The integration of gesture and speech is vital; they form a co-expressive system that communicates meaning together.

  • Users may have multiple mental models that can shift depending on context and technology, as demonstrated in user interviews.

  • The spacing and context of gestures matter; gestures in the interactional space are often more telling than those close to the body.

  • Gesture analysis can identify implicit user relationships to systems, helping refine user experience design.

  • Techniques such as motion tracking can augment analysis, providing quantitative insights into gesture frequency and type.

  • Gestures can indicate a user's affective states and attachment to particular features or tools.

  • 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."

Kit Unger
Theme 2: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
John Maeda
About Design Organizations
2019 • DesignOps Community
Benjamin Real
Showing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Randolph Duke II
War Stories LIVE! Randy Duke II
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Sharon Bautista
Time to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Chloe Amos-Edkins
A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jane Davis
Strategic Shifts and Innovations in User Research: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Conference
Alla Weinberg
People Are Sick of Change: Psychological Safety is the Cure
2023 • DesignOps Community
Johanna Kollmann
Insights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Alfred Kahn
A Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Ryan Rumsey
Business Influence Without Losing Your Soul
2021 • Enterprise Community
Sean McKay
Coexisting with non-researchers: Practical strategies for a democratized research future
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Conference
Neil Barrie
Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Katie Hansen
Finding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Conference
Daniel Gloyd
Warming the User Experience: Lessons from America's first and most radical human-centered designers
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Ash Brown
Silver Linings: What DesignOps Learned in the Shift to WFH
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold

More Videos

Teresa Swingler

"We want flying to be as easy as driving a car."

Teresa Swingler

Look, Up in the Sky! UX/UI for Aerospace

October 27, 2022

Karen Pascoe

"Understanding company values matters when hiring talent."

Karen Pascoe

Developing Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise

June 8, 2016

Cornelius Rachieru

"At the system level, we're dealing with an even higher degree of complexity."

Cornelius Rachieru

Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design

June 9, 2021

Onur Kocan

"We take it as a principle to act by always considering a different perspective."

Onur Kocan Ayhan Ensici

Understanding the Strategy for Civic Design in a Complex City: Istanbul

November 16, 2022

Bria Alexander

"Remember to use the hashtag #ar2023 for online discussions about the conference."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

March 29, 2023

Megan Blocker

"Research should not just inform; it should inspire action."

Megan Blocker

Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research

March 26, 2024

Niko Laitinen

"Learning together harnesses the power of the design organization."

Niko Laitinen

Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times

June 10, 2021

Peter Van Dijck

"This content is curated, there’s nothing we put out there that’s bad."

Peter Van Dijck Louis Rosenfeld

Coffee with Lou #4: Taking a Peek Under the Rosenbot's Hood

June 14, 2024

Jorge Arango

"We should think of these as tools to augment human work and let us focus on what matters most."

Jorge Arango

Scale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies

September 24, 2024