User research :: Interviews

The Purpose

There were several issues that we wanted to address during our user interviews. Primarily, we wanted to understand the elderly's needs and perspectives in life as well as those that are music related. Going into the interviews, we felt that the elderly already don't have many options when it comes to digital music players, and they are not very familiar with the new technology that is out there anyway. They also tend to have obtained a very large music collection. Keeping these concepts in mind, we catered our questions to explore these areas further, specifically the drive of understanding their lives, whether music related or not.

The Interviews




Carnegie Mellon alumni during homecoming weekend
We performed four different 10-15 minute interviews with a total of seven different people. We inquired about their typical day and their music listening habits.

A couple in their home
One member of our team performed two hour long in depth interviews at a couples home. This also focused on the couple's daily life and their needs regarding music. We gained additional insite from this interview because we were able to see their home, their current music systems and collections, as well as interview them in their own environment.

Group interview at Longwood Retirement Home
Our team also interviewed seven total participants in a group interview. Here, we changed the focus of our interview to probe about their music needs and wants beyond just their daily lives.

Process Sections