Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Flexible Interviews 
Flexible interviews, on the other hand, have no set questions, only a num-
ber of set topics to guide the interviewer. With no set questions, the inter-
viewer is free to follow any line of questioning that is of interest. This 
method provides much more information than the structured interview but 
this also means that the data will be more difficult to analyse. In addition, 
this type of interview requires experienced interviewers to put interviewees 
at ease and a considerable amount of effort to analyse the data (Preece 1994: 
628-629). In addition, the sheer volume of information generated may 
prove problematic and it is also possible that interesting new lines of ques-
tioning may result in key information being omitted or forgotten.
Semi-Structured Interviews 
The 
semi-structured interview
is a hybrid technique which lies between 
structured and flexible interviews. This type of interview features a series of 
questions which can be asked in any order, combined or even omitted as 
necessary. This gives the interviewer a significant level of freedom to ex-
plore new lines of enquiry which may emerge during the interview while 
still ensuring that the required information is gathered. However, this type 
of interview, like the flexible interview requires experienced interviewers 
and a considerable amount of effort to analyse the data (Preece 1994: 628-
629). The availability of experienced interviewers is, therefore, a major fac-
tor when considering this approach. As Downton (1991:337) points out, 
interviewing for surveys is a skill in itself which requires training. This can 
make flexible interviews impractical in many cases. In our case, the prob-
lems of finding skilled interviewers coupled with the intensive resource re-
quirements (e.g. time, finance, processing etc.) make interviews unsuitable 
for our purposes.