Can Mobile Instant Messaging Be a Useful Interviewing Tool? A Comparative Analysis of Phone Use, Instant Messaging, and Mobile Instant Messaging

Abstract

Doing interviews is one of the most frequently used methods for qualitative research in human-computer interaction(HCI) field. Tools for doing interviews have changed with technological development. Mobile phones have become the main of media recently. We explored the possibility of using mobile instant messaging(MIM) as an interviewing tool. Phones and instant messengers(IM) were compared to find the characteristics of mobile instant messengers. We found there was some spare time for facilitating interview while the other is typing. It was also found that expressing context information was effective using camera within smartphone.