Interview... is it just about asking questions ?

If you asked me this question a year ago, my answer would be, "of course, or could it not ?" However, one short period in Design class at Auckland University has changed my entire mind on visualizing an Interview.

It was a set of activities where we need to interview one person to understand and fix their problem with our creative spirit. In the beginning, we asked each other out with simple 5 of "Why" and from there, broaden out the questions and answer. For my partner, he had a problem with having too many cards to use in daily life, and it annoyed him by having to carry around with those cards as well as taking out to use. As it were, we could pull out some useful information from each other that was enough to know the problems, or at the very least, that was the thought. The information that we have at first was nowhere near to what an "Interview" should bring out at full potential because we only generated the "problem" without even know what it is. At this moment, to me, "problems" are not just issues; they are situations, consequences that are created by each person's desire or directly put, they are undesirable situations (Amy J.Ko as cited in The Sciences of the Artificial, 1969).

Furthermore, we only had clues on fixing problems with a biased, self-center mind, but not process as Design also needs design principles, design methods, engagement, and leadership (Dennis Hambeukers, 2019). As a result, we could not come up with Design that fits, and that where we started to learn the method behind an interview where we had to start broad to give our participant to get comfortable with the format of the meeting, push our biases and perceptions away to see the world through the participant's eyes, ask opened ended question

Accept ourself are the one who needs help as we are designer and they are expert. Others are in "How to run a Design Research Interview" by Matt Cooper-Wright. Still, in all, my favorite step would be "get comfortable with silence" as this is a psychological method to play with to put the participant fill the gap with, sometimes, a more honest answer when there is an uncomfortable silence gap. (Also, a psychologist nerd like me would love to use it on others aspect of life)

In brief, I honestly enjoyed the class, the method behind it and Design in Auckland University in general, because that was a big leap to my dream of becoming a designer who understands the heart of the customer.

REFERENCES:

Amy J.Ko. Chapter 3 How to understand problems. Available from: https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/books/design-methods/how-to-understand-problems.html (Accessed 7 April 2020 )

Dennis Hambeukers, 2019. The New Double Diamond Design Process is here. Available from: https://medium.com/design-leadership-notebook/the-new-double-diamond-design-process-7c8f12d7945e (Accessed 7 April 2020 )

Matt Cooper-Wright ,2015 How to run a Design Research Interview. Available from: https://medium.com/design-research-methods/how-to-run-a-design-research-interview-576d14806dfd (Accessed 7 April 2020 )