Emotional probes with interview techniques

Abstract

The design of technology for communicating with loved ones abroad should be based on a real understanding of emotional experiences with regard to separation and communication. This paper describes a component of this work in the form of a probe study concerning how to plan and conduct a method of emotional probing by means of interviews. Nine participants were recruited, all of whom have one or more family members separated by large distances. Two sets of interviews were conducted with the participants at their homes using the emotional probes which incorporated the ‘spirit of oracle cards’, and the concept of a ‘journey with my family where I was very happy’. The qualitative data elicited from these interviews (17hrs and 4min) was examined for text that indicated: (i) emotional feelings towards the family, (ii) comments about the method of communication, and (iii) positive or negative comments on family relationships using content analysis. The results were illustrated and distributed with the three fixes. The most significant number of text sections examined was in association with the ‘emotion’ and ‘relationship’ section (zone: B). We assumed that the text sections coded with the ‘emotion’, ‘relationship’ and ‘technology’ section (zone: A) will result in more emergent codes in the next step. Further analysis of the data is needed to understand more subtle, complex and meaningful themes on emotions.