A s a professional in the UX field, some of my most rewarding moments happened when I identified insights from UX interviews that can alter or guide the product strategy.
UX Interviews are one of the many existing methods within UXR. If you are new, you may be wondering when it is the best time to utilize this technique, here are some examples:
- To inform personas, feature ideas, design, workflow, etc.
- To enrich a research study.
- To collect observed behaviors and responses at the end of usability studies.
- Follow up on what the participant says about your product.
What to look for in UX interviews?
Find patterns across all the participants. Every person and context will bring unique experiences. Here are my thoughts on what to look for in design research:
- Actionable items to guide product design decision
- Fresh perceptions that challenge existing assumptions about your users
- Equitable outcomes ~ are there any disparities within your product? (i.e. accessibility design, equity design)
- Listening to what your users aren’t saying
How to create an interview protocol?
Everyone has their own style and it depends a lot on your timeline. Generally, I like to start by opening a blank document. On the top, I write the research goal and then break it into milestones questions that will lead me to the answer. Keep asking yourself “What do I need to know? Why?”
Brainstorming session:
Share the document with your teammates and ask them to fill in the document with questions to potentially ask at their own time.
To better facilitate independent work, make sure your team has the context of what you are trying to learn and you can break the document into sub-sections.
In your own time, ideate and sort through potential questions. Once you have your pick clean them up and change leading questions into open questions.
Here are some examples:
- Could you tell me a little bit about your process of preparing for work?
- Walk me through your process of [planning] ________________.
- What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced around _________?
- Describe an experience where _______. What did you do to __________?
Common Examples of Leading Questions
- Do you have problems with your app?
You’re telling the user there is a problem with the app. - How fast was the green car going when it smashed the yellow car?
You’re telling the user the green car was the one causing the accident. - Do you think the website should have more content?
If the user says yes or no … but to what? more content and more products, or more products and the same content?
When revising your protocol script, there should be significantly more opportunities for the participant to speak than you.
RECRUITMENT
This is tricky to advise on because it highly depends in your research budget and the maturity of your product.
If your product is new and there are no actual users consider utilizing the following user recruitment services:
For more mature products consider collaborating with your data people and ask them to help you with recruitment and screening; these existing users will be able to speak up more for your product.
How to interact with your interviewee?
OKAY! Now you have your clean up protocol and you had your first interview coming up. It’s normal to feel nervous ~ In my first UX interview I forgot how to speak English and we had the most awkward introduction 😂 That is how we learn and grow.
During the interview:
- Introduce yourself, explain the research, let them ask questions, and get their consent if necessary.
- Remind your user this is not a test and there are no right or wrong answers and they are helping you improve your product.
- Let your personality shine! If you sound like a survey person, you might as well just write and send a survey.
- You are not limited to the interview script questions. Treat your interview protocol as talking points you don’t need to follow strictly each question.
- Follow up on what the participant says and clarify what you don’t understand; don’t interrupt ~ if you have a question quickly write the idea on a post-it note and come back to it later.
- One of the best techniques is to restate answers “so what I hear you saying is______”
- Acknowledge your user’s feeling by saying “You seem very passionate about _______!” or “It does sound fun, could you describe a little bit more on what that looks like?”
- As interviewer — you should be very aware of everything and keeping track of time, the user’s energy level (adjust questions if you need to), non-verbal cues of discomfort from the user.
- When wrapping up, let them know you want to be mindful of their time and you are open to email communication if they want to share anything more and finally thank them for their time.
Communicating Your Research
Congratulations 🥳 You completed your interview!
Clean up your notes and store them in a folder that makes sense to you.
Everyone has their own style of taking interview notes. Personally, I like to use spreadsheets, and others like to write a note on a blank document.
After you completed series of interviews you can choose from various analysis methods (again this depends on the scope and the goals of your project).
Personas and User Journeys/UX Maps are two of the most common analysis methods to distill qualitative research data.
I hope you’ve found this article useful!
What advice would you give to a beginner?
