The objective of this assignment was to practice the preliminary interviewing process; empathy (Step one of Design Thinking Method). It also included practicing how to document the feedback and learn more about the neighborhood. The neighborhood I selected is Crown Heights and I went there along with my friend to interview some people. An empathy interview is an approach to finding out as much as possible about a person’s experience as a “user” of space, a process, an objective or an environment. We want to understand the choices that people make and why they make them.
Here is how we tried to tackle the interview:
Here are the 6 interviews we took and voice recorded them:
There were a few difficulties we faced. The primary one was that whenever we asked someone what do they like about the neighborhood or something around that, their answers were very short and close ended. We tried that twice or thrice until we realized that we needed to talk about issues that are pertinent or controversial about Crown Heights so that they tell us more about their opinions. It was also hard to take pictures or videos of the interviewees because they didn’t want to be in any trouble or part of any assignments with their face so we couldn’t do that either.
I decided to take 6 interviews so I could cover more topics. It is not very direct as to how the positives were asked because of the difficulty mentioned above but that also led us to know much more about the neighborhood and it’s true side. These interviews include both positive and negative aspects because that is the only way how we could build on ideas and expect open ended answers. We decided to go to different areas than the usual so that we could see if there’s any difference and it was surprising to see a new side. Also visiting on a Saturday night was very different from the first 3-4 visits because the place was much more lively and we could see more gatherings. I think this also made me more confident to talk to people and direct a conversation.
