Self-care is participant-care: a holistic view of interviewing as a UX researcher

Dominika Prikrylova
Bootcamp
Published in
6 min readNov 15, 2022

In this article, I have put together my tips that can help other UX researchers take care of their mental health and not care for participants at the expense of themselves. The elements of mental health we tend to neglect I focus on are; self-appreciation, the importance of feedback, buffer time between research interviews, and turning problems into opportunities for growth.

A smiling woman sitting behind a wooden desk and typing on a laptop.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

A mantra of UX researchers is that participants should leave the interviews in a better or minimally, a similar mood to before them. They certainly shouldn’t leave feeling worse!

Alternatively, I couldn’t help but wonder: In what state of mind do we — UX researchers — enter and leave the interviews though?

As UX researchers, we have words such as “care”, “empathy” and “compassion” in our vocabulary, but I more and more often think about how infrequently we prefix these words with “self”. Are we not forgetting about self-care, self-empathy, self-compassion? To what extent can we actually care for our participants when we forget to take care of ourselves?

The Covid-19 pandemic has promulgated much-needed tips on how to take care of one’s mental health, and these are certainly applicable to UX researchers as well. In this spirit, I have put together slightly different recommendations that have worked for me and that allow me to avoid situations where I would have to pour from an empty cup (at least while I’m on the clock).

1. Maintaining realistic expectations

What needs to happen for you to say that the interview went well? I do not mean whether a participant answers desirably or not, but if you feel good about the exchange on the whole. Giving yourself space to debrief yourself is crucial. It is beneficial to be aware of your mistakes, because if you are, you learn from them. However, sometimes it seems to me that this saying is more highly ingrained than the practice of affirming our strengths. Being able to tell ourselves what we have succeeded in, is healing. It’s hard to improve at something without knowing what goal we are striving for.

2. Ask for and receive feedback

Sometimes researchers can only think of things that we failed to do during the interview. That’s natural, but I believe we should not focus on it myopically. This thought pattern rarely, if ever, means that everything went downhill and the interview was a total disaster. Subjective experience is all we have and is closely related to the state of our mental health. That’s why it’s great if we have the opportunity to hear another perspective on how we did. One way to do this is to get feedback from someone who is distanced from the thing which is seemingly an issue.

A sign with two arrows pointing in opposite directions. One arrow says Awesome, the other arrow says Less awesome.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

3. A strong start and finish is crucial

Briefing and Debriefing are necessary parts of every interview. (If that surprises you, you should read this article put together by my colleague Adéla). We want to establish a relationship with the participants, a feeling of trust, and their well-being should be more important to us than any research objective. I see Briefing and Debriefing as important for researchers as well. We’re not robots that recite questions. We’re people first, and UX researchers second (and lots of other roles in between). The mood we set at the beginning will inevitably be the same throughout the interview. Our bad moods are contagious, and giving ourselves a moment of peace before an interview is self-care 101. Not having any buffer time to recover before, after, or between interviews, sounds more like self-neglect 101.

During the breaks, I have coffee, pet my cat, go for a walk to my local bakery, or just stare into space (which hopefully counts as self-care).

I see the way in which we end the interview to be of mutual importance. I find it very beneficial to debrief with the others present on the call and to glean some final insights. Finally, it is crucial to do a debriefing with myself, reflecting internally or jotting down notes, where I summarize what went well and what could have gone a little better, thus concluding the interview overall. If something clashed with my expectations during the interview, I’ll recap it during this debrief. Taking this final step means I don’t have to overthink it.

A woman sitting behind a wooden desk is looking at a laptop and holding her head.
Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

4. Mishaps can be happy little gifts

It can happen that they are not just perceived, but actual, when a problem or awkward situation arises during the interview. It has happened to all of us. I’m sure some examples come to mind.

Do these sound familiar?

  • you accidentally asked the participant twice in a row how they are doing and they answered you exactly the same way, twice, and word for word.
  • even on the 3rd attempt you fail to say the participant’s name correctly
  • during a remote interview, you first could not join the meeting, then could not share your screen, and finally the recording would not start (the hattrick)

(This list is not based on real situations and any resemblance to them is purely coincidental. Just kidding — they all happened to me.)

In my humble opinion, it is good to realize that we should not enter the interviews with the intention of dazzling the participants. We are not the experts in that situation, they are. Humans are empathetic creatures and have plenty of their own concerns, certainly enough to forgive our mistakes. What they are more likely to remember, is when something trips us up and we manage to overcome the obstacle, whatever it may be. This way we humanize ourselves and it is easier to sympathize with us. In addition, every stumble is a new opportunity to try something new. It is an enriching exercise to try to distance ourselves from the situation and just observe how we solve the problem.

As I have found, it’s okay to squeeze under some obstacles when they can’t be jumped over:

Situation

  • you accidentally asked the participant twice in a row how he is doing and he answered you exactly the same twice, word for word

How I responded

“I’m glad you’re still in a good mood, even though I’m not surprised after such a strong introduction…”

Situation

  • even on the 3rd attempt you failed to repeat the participant’s name correctly

How it ended

The participant suggested that I address them by a shorter version of their name and in the end it contributed to a less formal conversation. There may be some truth in the statement that a shortened version or nickname is a sign of intimacy, trust, and friendship

Situation

  • during a remote interview, you couldn’t even join the meeting, then share your screen, and finally turning on recording didn’t work (the hattrick)

How I coped with it

Anyone I see struggling with technology automatically becomes my bestie, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way!

Being a UX researcher is an emotionally demanding job. In our field too, it is necessary to be selfish to be selfless. Many methods, techniques and activities can help us to improve our mental well-being. What we can start doing today is to think about what a successful interview actually means to us, what must happen in order for us to be satisfied with our work, and measure it based on that. We can ask for feedback and not be alone with our subjective experience, which is not always on our side (we all have an inner saboteur). We can take time for ourselves and take care of ourselves before the interview and we don’t have to admit or point out our mistakes to anyone — it’s ok to keep them to ourselves. When things do not go smoothly, it is okay, we have finally an opportunity to learn something new about ourselves! Unfortunately sometimes we cannot learn anything from it, and we’re just angry at ourselves and we will subsequently do better. We are people first and UX researchers somewhere after that.

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Bootcamp
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Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. Bootcamp is a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Dominika Prikrylova
Dominika Prikrylova

Written by Dominika Prikrylova

UX Researcher @Kontent.ai exploring the mind & the world through art, books, mindfulness, and a furry feline friend.

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