Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

We frequently work with a local company to get interview recordings transcribed. We use transcripts of our stakeholder and user interviews as inputs into our design process. They help us to identify patterns from those we talk to which utlimately inform our stakeholder requirements and user needs and personae. Sometimes transcription works better than others.  Here are some tips:

• A transcript filled with "[inaudible]" notations is not helpful! Test your recorder and make sure you position it in the room appropriately to pick up all voices. (Consider background noise like loud A/C units since they may impact what gets picked up)
• Ask people to speak up if you think the tape may be missing their voice because of low volume.
• Consider giving the transcriber some assistance when you have frequently used jargon or internal terms. (We had a series of interviews on intranets and internets and the transcriber didn't know to pick up on the differences.)
• Voice the interviewer and interviewee names into the recorder before the session. This will help the transcriber track who's saying what. It also can be helpful if you have more than one interviewer and interviewee. (The typical male and female indicators in transcriptions can be very confusing when multiple people are involved.)
• If you are doing lots of interviews, identify the transcript and audio files by interviewee name instead of interview date. Sessions get cancelled and all those numbers make it difficult when trying to sort back through all of the results. 

If you've got tips, we'd love to hear them.