Interview protocol
The Occupant IEQ Survey was then followed by a series of personal interviews with a total of 20 randomly selected FTE and transient users from both Building A and Building B. These interviews were designed to contextualize survey results and further understand issues that building occupants identified within the eight aspects of their built environment. During each interview, participants were asked to respond to three types of open-ended questions: main questions that began and guided the conversation, probes that clarified answers or requested further examples, and follow-up questions that pursued the implications of answers to main questions (Doody and Noonan, 2013). Each interview lasted approximately 30-60 minutes and was recorded in order to accurately capture the exchange of information between the interviewer and the interviewees. In preparation for each interview, participants were informed of the study’s purpose and its goal to examine occupant’s satisfaction with the IEQ of LEED-certified higher education buildings. Using ATLAS.TI, a powerful software for analyzing qualitative data (ATLAS.TI, 2013), interviews were examined to better interpret the information provided by survey participants.