Interviews are appropriate when the purpose of the researcher is to gain individual views, beliefs and feelings about a subject. when questions are too complex to be asked in a straightforward way and more depth is required from the answers. People will nearly always write as little as possible when asked a question; if they are asked to reply verbally they are far more likely to talk at greater length and depth about the topic Interviews can be used to confirm or refute data gathered from other tools such as observation or diaries; they can be used to identify salient issues that need to be followed up, possibly using another data collection technique