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.
What co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews
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
"Sometimes you just have to do without research if the timeline is too short."
Anna AvrekhUser Research, Design, and Product - A Love Story
March 11, 2021
"Our job as researchers is not making reports or interviewing users; it’s providing actionable, correct insights."
Laura KleinHuman vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
March 11, 2026
"There is no big idea — sometimes we just need to get the basics right and reset expectations."
Pippa LomasPaving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design
October 4, 2023
"Generative AI is not creative; it’s just pattern finding and recycling what’s been done before."
Nick LewisDesigning and building low-carbon websites independently
November 18, 2025
"Rapid research programs enable designers to submit research questions and feel empowered to participate actively in the research process."
Feleesha SterlingBuilding a Rapid Research Program
May 18, 2023
"You don’t want so much governance that people can’t be creative, but you need just enough to help their process."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"No need to take notes — our scribe David Nicholson is capturing detailed session notes and insights for you."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
September 9, 2022
"I’ve nearly bought products in my sleep because I memorized the key presses from consistent checkout flows."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
June 7, 2023
"Adding a senior researcher, Izzy, in field meant we could have more, smaller research tracks and better support for research newbies."
Mujtaba HameedThe new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
March 11, 2026
