Читать книгу Interviewing Users - Steve Portigal - Страница 25

I often leave an interview with my head slightly swimming, in a state between energized and exhausted. In addition to all the useful information that will impact the project, I’ve just made an intense connection with a new person. I’ve established a rapport with someone. That’s a powerful feeling, and likely as not, my participant is feeling the same way. Our quotidian transaction to learn about breakfast making has turned into something else.

The rapport is what makes for great interviews. You won’t leave every interview walking on a cloud, but getting to that state with your interviewee is something to strive for.

It’s your job to develop that rapport over the course of the interview. By all means, recruit participants who are articulate, outgoing, and eager to be part of the interview, but remember that creating that connection falls to you, the interviewer. As in life, you’ll meet some people who you’ll connect with easily, and others who you’ll have to work hard for. Some of my best interviews have been with people who are visibly uncomfortable or disinterested at the outset.