Knowledge Visualization in Qualitative Methods -- Or How Can I See What I Say?

In several research fields, qualitative interviewing(i.e., face-to-face individual interviews and focus groups) is an essential approach to gather high-quality, and deep data about a wide range of subjective experiences. Although being a well-established research method, qualitative interviewing is fraught with various shortcomings such as difficulties in initiating the interview process, in eliciting tacit knowledge and in avoiding information redundancies. In this paper, we propose the use of visual tools (e.g., visualization software) as a support to facilitate the interview process and to gather sound qualitative data. Visual representations provide structure, context and explicitness, and thus foster knowledge elicitation and sharing in interviews. Our contribution is two-fold: First, we provide a methodological extension of qualitative interviewing. Second, we suggest a practical approach to use visuals in interviews, presenting concrete examples from the research field. We conclude our paper by discussing the limitations of our approach, and by suggesting directions for future research on visualization-based interviewing.