Hannah "Rivka" Barrett
UX Researcher
Field Interviews | Playbook Five
Overview
Purpose:
The application’s premise is that mental visualization improves athletic skills while preventing injury. Past studies suggest visualization helps athletes with muscle memory, confidence, and motivation to perform well (Cocks et al., 2012; Post et al., 2011; Weinberg, 2008).
Objectives:
I conducted individual, unstructured interviews in participants' homes or my home, depending on their preferences. The interviews were planned with the following exploratory questions in mind:
1. How does mental visualization impact athletic performance?
2. How do athletes use mental visualization to prevent injury?
The first question regards mental visualization’s perceived effect on athletic performance. This includes whether or not an athlete wants to use it to change his or her performance, or already recognizes its impact on his or her skills.
The second question concerns an athlete’s goal to remain uninjured and how mental visualization plays a role in protecting him or her from harm.
Process:
1. Defined research question using NCredible framework
2. Chose study procedure, context, and dynamic
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People are often more willing to share personal details about health and exercise habits in a one-on-one interaction
3. Determined the characteristics of the ideal subject sample
4. Set the time period and schedule for the study
5. Created study protocol and activities
6. Conducted interviews
7. Created personas based on interview data
8. Identified thematic findings from interview data
9. Completed report of findings and determine next steps
Tools:
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NCredible Framework
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Empathy Map
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SurveyMonkey survey software
Participants:
Five participants (two women and three men, ages 27-36) who exercise regularly were interviewed.
Project Duration:
6 weeks (February 20-April 2)
Group members: Individual Project
Summary of Findings: Participants reported that mental visualization helped with motivation and improving technique during workouts. Most of them used methods besides mental rehearsal to avoid injury during exercise.
Keywords: Field research, interviews, personas, thematic analysis, NCredible, empathy map
Study procedure, context and dynamic
Procedure
Individual, unstructured interviews were conducted in participants’ homes or at my home, based on their preferences.
Context
I interviewed participants out-of-context (while they were not engaged in physical activity) for various reasons.
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Participants may exercise at odd hours, in locations not accessible by public transit, or in ways that are hard to observe closely, such as long-distance running.
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I also anticipated being unable to enter gyms without a membership, making it difficult to observe participants in their normal workout environments.
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In addition, many gyms and some outdoor areas can be noisy and make it difficult to have a meaningful discussion.
I also asked participants to complete an online survey and complete activity worksheets, which would have been difficult to administer in-context.
Dynamic
People are often more willing to share personal details about health and exercise habits in a one-on-one interaction.
Participants
Five people (two women, three men) aged 27-36 participated in the study.
Four participants reported being about as active as other people their age. One participant reported being more active than other people his age. All participants had exercised within the last two weeks.
Client:
Playbook Five, a startup that aims to use mobile technology to improve athletes' physical and cognitive performance. Their new application uses virtual reality to help athletes practice their team’s playbook as many times as needed.
My goals were to understand athletes' use (or lack thereof) of mental visualization in workouts or physically active hobbies, and how they perceive its impact on their performance or ability to prevent injury:
1. How athletes use/do not use mental visualization in their workouts or physically active hobbies.
2. How they perceive the impact of mental visualization on their physical performance.
3. How they use/do not use mental visualization to prevent injury during workouts or physically active hobbies.
4. How they perceive the impact of mental visualization on their ability to prevent injury during workouts or physically active hobbies.
Three participants reported exercising 1-3 times a week. Two reported exercising 4-7 times a week.
To collect enough data in a short time period, sample requirements had to be relaxed to include “casual athletes” – people who valued staying in shape and exercised 1-2 times a week, but who did not necessarily play competitive sports or consider themselves serious athletes.
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Time Period and Schedule
The study was completed over a six-week period (February 20-April 2).
February 20-March 13:
Phases 1 and 2 (Align and Plan)
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Recruitment
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Kickoff meeting with stakeholders
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Protocol creation.
March 14-23: Phase 3 (Gather)
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Conducted interviews
March 23-April 1: Phase 4 (Analyze)
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Re-listening to recordings
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Reviewing the data for themes
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Creating personas
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Documenting thematic findings
April 2
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Final deliverable shared
Estimated time:
Homework – up to 15 minutes
Interview – up to 60 minutes
Homework:
Participants completed a 9-item online survey prior to the interview session. Questions involved:
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Participant's perception of their physical activity and aptitude compared to other individuals the same age
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Frequency of participation in exercise, sports, or physically active hobbies
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Type of exercise, sports, or physically active hobbies the participant was engaged in
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Experiences of injury from exercise, sports or physically active hobbies
Interview:
The interview started with the following question:
I’m going to say a term, and I want your immediate thoughts: “mental visualization.”
Next, I led the participant through a short mental visualization exercise in which I asked them to imagine loading a dishwasher in their kitchen - specifically, the following aspects below:
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The appearance of dishes and dishwasher
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The feel of the air in the kitchen
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The feel of a dish in their hand
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Their physical stance while putting dishes in the dishwasher
Protocol and Activities
After asking participants to describe what they imagined during the dishwasher visualization, I then asked them to visualize doing an exercise, sport or physically active hobby with which they were familiar.
This time, participants wrote their thoughts down on an empathy map worksheet (shown below) and referred to it while they "walked me through" the athletic experience they'd just visualized.
I also asked participants to tell me about a time they engaged in an exercise, sport, or physically active hobby in which they were concerned about getting injured and wanted to keep from getting hurt during the activity.
Sample Personas
The Motivation Chaser
“When I’ve trained for races, I definitely visualize the finish line towards the end of my runs to push me towards the end of that last mile.”
“I do spend a lot of time focusing during my runs on [my form]. I’m thinking in my head, what part of my foot is hitting the ground?”
Persona:
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Graduate student
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Views staying in shape as a lifestyle choice
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Exercises 1-3 times a week
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Gets a feeling of accomplishment from completing her workouts
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Prefers workouts that center on her own performance, like running
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Prefers to exercise outside of her living quarters but stay close to home
Challenges:
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Boredom during solitary indoor workouts
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Lack of motivation to exercise or push herself harder physically
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Believes it is a waste of time if she is thinking about exercising but not actually moving her body.
Goals:
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Remain aware of her body and surrounding environment during exercise
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Use the right technique in order to avoid injury
Role of Mental Visualization:
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Practice proper form and prevent injury, like imagining how specific positions should feel
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Motivation to exercise and complete workouts, such as imagining the endorphin rush and feeling of accomplishment
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Envision finish line while running in order to keep moving
The Spatial Thinker
“Visualizing everything all the time is my life.”
“I think about Ultimate a lot ... I think about myself in different situations, what I should do, and I think that’s important.”
"In my head, if I strive for perfect, I get closer to perfect."
Persona:
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Software engineer
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Plays team sports about 4-7 times a week
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Competitive - wants to always be a little better than the other players, even in casual games
Challenges:
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Gets injured at almost every game
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Difficult to make himself stop playing if he is injured
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Avoids indoor tournaments since he tends to injure himself on the fake turf and surrounding walls
Goals:
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Avoid injury
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Improve his athletic skills and become a better player
Role of Mental Visualization:
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Good motivation tool
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Enhance his performance by imagining his spatial orientation on the field and the location of other people on his team, the opposing team and on the sidelines
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Remember the vulnerable parts of his body and avoid straining certain muscles
Findings
Impact on Athletic Performance
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Mental visualization was considered helpful for increasing confidence and motivation.
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Both personas mentioned using aspects of it to improve their physical technique.
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All participants held a positive view of mental visualization’s impact on athletic performance and felt it could help improve their skills.
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However, they did not want to formally incorporate mental visualization into their routine if it cut into time they could spend exercising and gaining muscle memory.
Use in Injury Prevention
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Only the Motivation Chaser explicitly mentioned using mental visualization or rehearsal to avoid injury.
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She paid close attention to her body during risky activities and used mental reminders to use the correct form.
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However, she preferred other methods such as mentally reminding herself to use the right technique.
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The Spatial Thinker sees mental visualization as his natural way of thinking and often mentioned relying on his instinct during Ultimate games.
Generally, the terms “instinct” and “muscle memory” came up often in interviews, and both personas seemed to consider these as separate from mental visualization or mental rehearsal.
What I Learned
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Interviewing 3-5 participants provides a sufficient amount of data to identify common themes and develop personas.
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The NCredible framework is a valuable method for creating and categorizing appropriate research questions.
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Rather than immediately try to answer a specific research question in an interview, it helps to first establish rapport with the participant and naturally transition to the topic.
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To help put participants in the mindset needed to draw out valuable insights, it may help to incorporate aspects such as mental visualization exercises or an empathy map worksheet.