Plotting: User Interviews Made Visual.

User interviews are one of the most versatile tools in a researcher’s toolbox. However, we’ve also dealt with their limitations from time to time. When there are multiple items or topic threads for the researcher to follow up on, there can be significant cognitive load for both researcher and interviewee.

To address this, Jing Jing has been experimenting with ways of making user interviews visual called plotting. It combines concept-mapping and think-out-loud for the interviewee, which reduces cognitive load and quickens the synthesis process for the researcher. This is a flexible method that is easy to learn and adapt to different situations by all types of practitioners.