Structured interviews are very rigid and quantitive in its approach. Questions are pre-decided and there is very little or no prompted the participants. Semi-structured interviews allow more flexibility for follow-up questions while keeping the basic interview structure.
Advantages
- Structured interviews collect extremely organized data. Different respondents have different type of answers to the same structure of questions which can then be collectively analyzed.
- Semi-structured interviews are flexible while maintaining the research guidelines. Researchers can express the interview questions in the format they prefer, unlike the structured interview.
- They can be used to get in touch with a large sample of the target population.
- The interview process is easy and quick to execute because of the fixed structure.
Steps
- Prepare an interview guide, or checklist of questions to be asked during the interview They can be closed-ended as well as open-ended. Closed-ended questions will help you understand user preferences from a collection of answer options. Open-ended are useful to gain richer detail.
- Start the interview with an introduction. Explain how long the interview will take and what to expect. You should also introduce yourself and the aims of the interview.
- Ask questions. In a semi-structured format, you may include follow up questions and prompts. Talk less and listen more.
- If you are going to transcribe the interviews, do so as soon as possible after the interview while the data is still fresh in your mind.