I came across a great blog post from Design Staff about how body language can impact your user research.  It’s a great post about reading the body language of the participant in your user research to see if they’re uncomfortable, and what you can do with your own behavior and body language to try to make them more comfortable.

I always try to start out my research by reminding participants that we’re looking at early design thinking, and thus they can be frank with their opinions.  I also try to be encouraging without being leading, and I’m definitely grateful for the time that they take to share their thoughts with me.  I try to be good with body language, but that’s probably the hardest one to know if you’re doing the right thing.