5 types of Questions for Semi-structured Interviews // Easy Guideline for Asking the Right Questions

Coming up with the right questions for your semi-structured interview can be a little daunting... This video will make your life a little easier by giving you 5 types of questions you should be asking in your qualitative interviews!
FREE cheat sheet to help you ask follow-up questions:
drive.google.com/file/d/117Ia...
📧 You can also send an email to [e-mail] if you want a free consultation on you qualitative research or project
🔔 SUBSCRIBE if you want even more content with social analysis, qualitative research and user experience!
SPRADLEY REFERENCE:
Spradley, James (1979). The Ethnographic Interview.
0:00 Introduction
0:35 Conversational Questions
1:17 Grand Tour Questions
2:07 Example Questions
2:58 Follow-up Questions
5:18 Closing Question(s)
6:22 A Question for You
6:42 Bloopers
🤓 This channel is created for students, qualitative researchers, people who work with or are interested in human insights. Whether you are looking for how to do qualitative analysis as well as research methods like semi-structured interviews and participant observation or you are here to get insights about user experience and social phenomena, I hope you find value in the videos. I am always open to new ideas and would love to hear from you - whether that be feedback or questions, I can help you with.
👩🏻‍🎓 I have a Bachelor degree in Anthropology and a Master degree in Experience Economy - both from Aarhus University, Denmark. I’m absolutely in love with the social sciences and humanities! I’m especially curious about how meanings are continuously created through our interactions with the world and how designs (services, products, processes) influence how we relate to ourselves and each other.

[@nauman121]

Very Insightful, the great thing is that I have actually started writing my research question. Hurrayyyy :) finally someone on youtube made it easier to understand.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Aw, thank you! That's very kind and I'm glad it helped you! :D

[@jibraniat]

Hello. Ur matter of video is outstanding. What I want to mention is the quality of audio can improve more The quality of this presentation.

[@zy6929]

Thank you Kirstine! Really helpful !

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

So happy to hear!

[@bartooma]

I will start my semi structured interviewing today! I'll try to share how it went later

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Whoop whoop! I would love to hear how it goes! :D

[@daria.akkura]

Thank you! Haha liked the ending of the video too!

[@alifazel4156]

Great video - really helpful for my dissertation. Thanks!

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Thank you! That's awesome! Good luck :D

[@Biggums03]

Thank you for these amazing videos, I struggle with understanding the user research/interview process. I found your channel today and learning more than I did in my online Bootcamp, great content keep it up! 💜

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

This makes me so happy to hear, Kelsy! Thank you so much :D

[@Biggums03]

Your welcome!

[@DreamsAreForWeaving]

it's such a challenge getting my head around possible questions and which are relevant for the most data.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

I totally get you! I would start with getting very clear about what you want to learn from the interview. Both overall but also cut down into more specific topics/themes. Then start writing questions - no matter how "bad" they might seem. That way you can write yourself into better questions - it just starts with getting them out on paper. Send me an email (see the description) if you would like us to look at it together :-)

[@DreamsAreForWeaving]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine thank you so much Kirstine

[@natali9263]

Hi Kirstine, your videos are just amazing! I am a newbie in the ux research field and when it comes to making semi-structured interviews I just feel so insecure about how to write the appropriate questions and talk to the interviewee. Your videos are just a blessing....thank you so much!

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Hi Natali! Thank you so much for your kind words - I'm happy that the videos are helpful. You're always welcome to reach out (email in the description) if you need help with anything specific. Have a great weekend! :D //Kirstine

[@natali9263]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine Hi Kirstine! From now on, I won't miss any of your videos! Your work it's absolutely helpful :)))

[@nakshathrarose7976]

Wow your vedio is so amazing and it's really helpful

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Thank you so much! I'm happy to hear :D

[@dmmath-tutor5769]

Very informative video Kirstine. Thank you.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Thank you so much! :D

[@laursey1969]

As an MPhil student just starting out on my own MM study, I found this so helpful thank you! Also what a great idea to ask others to comment about the challenges they've encountered.... thank you to all for your responses!!!

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

I'm so happy to hear! Thank you, Laura :D

[@TAG13990]

Thank you so much, you saved my research 🙏

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

That makes me incredibly happy to hear! Thank you :D

[@annamariegjedrem458]

Thank you for this lovely video. One of the challenges I have met during research is that in some cases the interviewee expects me to contribute to the problem at hand. Which in many instances are difficult. It is crucial for researchers to think about the effect their research has for the community at hand. Make sure that the research highlight what is important to the interviewee is crucial.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Yes, this is such a good point, Anne Marie! Our goal must be to honor the community we are inserting ourselves into. Semi-structured or unstructured interviews are great for exploring what is important to the interviewees if we use the interviews correctly :-) Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences!

[@baddoraali1014]

thank ypu very much your videos are really great and helpful ...

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

That makes me very happy to hear, thank you :D

[@sohafarooq3837]

It is really helpful for my qualitative research .😊😊

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

I'm really happy to hear, Soha! :D

[@cmh091]

What I've found the most challenging for me is developing a research question that is specific enough and has a scientific basis.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Hi Medrano! Yeah, that can be really difficult! Often times research questions will develop throughout the research process because our initial idea about what is relevant will not end up aligning with what the research itself shows to be relevant. Of course it is good to have an initial research question to start off with but my experience is that it not beneficial to get too attached to it. I will look more into this and probably make a video about it because I think we are many that find it challenging. All the best //Kirstine

[@henbar7439]

Thank you for your videos are so amazing and beneficial to mee

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you :D

[@Jose-ww8ws]

Thank you I am trying to get a good interview this month fir my research in a management paper

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

You're welcome! Good luck on the research. All the best //Kirstine

[@maramezina1094]

very helpful. thank you. We need more videos on how to organise our dissertation and design an effective experiment design

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Thank you for your input! I will definitely look into that. In what topic are you doing the experimental design?

[@maramezina1094]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine could you give me your email, please to ask you some questions?

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

@@maramezina1094 Yes, it's [e-mail] :-)

[@emanyahia9940]

Very informative and helpful. You're so nice and funny by the way Kristen 🤩🤩

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

I'm so happy to hear, Eman! 😀 And thank you, I do my best 😉

[@emanyahia9940]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine believe me you're doing a great effort and leaving a very impressive impact👏. I know it might be a little bit discouraging that though all the wonderful tips you provide, still you have few followers🤦. But just keep going and keep spirits up 💪. Impacting only one person really matters ☺️. I'm a PhD candidate pivoting recently from academia to UXR and its seems so frustrating that regardless of my years of research experience using both qualitative and quantitative methods, I still can't even find even volunteering opportunities to practice UX. But I'm doing my best and still try to focus on the bright side, believing that my efforts will eventually pay off, someday 😊.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

@@emanyahia9940 Thank you for your support, Eman. It is greatly appreciated. I'm just happy that people find the videos helpful 😄 I wish a lot of luck and I'm sure that your efforts will pay off 🙏

[@tiadavenport5465]

I'm a doctoral student struggling with developing my interview protocol questions.

[@katherinehandal8056]

If you do not have a follow up question but just want to move to the next question, how do you transition? In other words, what do you say to the person after they gave you the answer. I often struggle because I keep saying things like aha, okay, so...

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

That's a very good question, Katherine, and I totally recognize your experience. The worry maybe is that it can seem like an interrogation or an unnatural situation if we just move to the next question with no transition. I think it is perfectly good to say little filler words like aha, okay - it let's our participant know that we are listening (though I understand that it might feel a little awkward because from normal conversation we are used to giving more of ourselves when we respond to someone. However, this is an interview and it will look different than a normal conversation and the awkwardness is often just in our heads). You can also say something like "I would also really like to know...". But I would say the most important here is our facial expression, body language and tone of voice. You can totally move from one question to the next without saying much if you look and sound engaged. Hope this helps and thank you for a very good question :D

[@RainbowSpecial]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine there's also the option to recap what they said and then ask if you understood correctly. that's usually a good idea because you're getting ahead of any potential interpretation problems you would've otherwise had. Alternatively, you could say "okay, interesting. Another question I had, to really get to the bottom of our topic, is ... " or "Aha, yeah. I think I understand. Now, the next thing I wanted to ask, (at least, if you don't feel like adding anything more to the last question), was ...". Sidenote: I haven't read your follow-up question cheat sheet yet, so you may have already given these tips and I wouldn't know about it 😅

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

@@RainbowSpecial Yes, absolutely! Thank you for this contribution - it is a very good point and not something that's really in the follow-up sheet ;-)

[@Irisjohnnylee]

@@RainbowSpecial I am struggling with the exact same thing - follow-up an answer with a comment to transition into the next question. This is very helpful thank you! :)

[@cocinandoconmaggiyandrea9033]

Is it a good idea to divide the work and have more than one interviewer following the same guidelines, interviewing different people?

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

That's a really good question! The advantage of that would mainly be that you can get more interviews done in less time. However, semi-structured interviews end up being so different from one another even though you use the same guidelines. Furthermore, from each interview you learn something new that you might affect what you should ask about in future interviews. In that way the guideline is continuously evolving. So if you are more people doing interviews, I would make sure to check in with each other and adjust the guideline as you get your data and experiences from the interviews. All the best/Kirstine

[@wissalassouli6576]

I'm working on my research, and I'm following a qualitative reseach design. The problem is that I have to interview teachers who are not in the city I'm living in.

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Hi Wissal, thank you for your comment! As I understand your comment, the issue is that you can't meet your participants in person? If that's the case, I would suggest setting up a video call with them on zoom for instance. Let me know if the problem has to do with something else :-) //Kirstine

[@jenemar1234]

Is theory relevant in designing semi-structure interviews, if so how?

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Hi Kedir, that's a very good and relevant question! And yes, theory is definitely relevant for designing semi-structured interviews. If you're at a point where you know what theory, you're going to apply, ask yourself what type of answers work really well with that theory and then make sure that your question elicit those types of answers. Knowing the theory and the aim of you research in general will also help you evaluate if a semi-structured interview is the best method to use or if you should use another type of interview or even an entirely different method /Kirstine

[@EmiWoodScully]

Hello… I tried to email you for the follow up questions but your email is inactive?

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

Hi! Thank you for reaching out! I have received other emails so the line should be open. Have you checked if you have spelled my email address correctly? :-)

[@EmiWoodScully]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine yes! I triple checked 🤔

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

@@EmiWoodScully Hmmm, okay that's really strange. Will you try sending an email to me again to [e-mail] I'm sorry for the inconvenience :-/

[@socialdesignwithkirstine]

@@EmiWoodScully Hi again! I have made an easier way to get a hold of it! You'll find the direct Google Drive-link for it in the description. Hope this helps :D

[@EmiWoodScully]

@@socialdesignwithkirstine Thank you so much!