Beyond the script: Decoding guarded behaviour
What if the most valuable insight in a research session is the thing a participant never says?
In sensitive or high-pressure situations, people may offer polite, rehearsed or coded responses shaped by fear, professional expectations, social pressure or self-protection. The challenge for researchers is knowing how to interpret these moments without making assumptions or pushing participants beyond their boundaries.
Drawing on experience in complex public-sector, justice and healthcare settings, Sayani Mitra will explore how researchers can make sense of the gaps between what people say, what they do and the context they are operating within.
Combining gentle interviewing with techniques borrowed from ethnography and participant observation, Sayani will show how to notice where words, silences, actions and context diverge. She will also introduce practical ways to map the pressures surrounding participants and develop richer user archetypes based on how people navigate difficult systems.
This session is for researchers, designers and product strategists who want a more ethical, nuanced and context-aware understanding of human behaviour.
You will learn:
- How to recognise when a participant’s words may not tell the whole story
- How to use gentle, ethical techniques to explore guarded or coded responses
- How to interpret behaviour in context by looking at the social, institutional and situational pressures around people
