User Interviews: How to Usefully Talk to Your Audience
User interviews are not just conversations with potential clients — an interview is an independent research method that can bring valuable insights into user behavior, mindset and experience. However one should bear in mind that the preparation for an interview is as important as the interview itself.
A user interview is often conducted by product owners and product teams when they need to validate their ideas, plans or assumptions by engaging with their audience. It’s also an effective tool used by UI/UX designers during the stages of product discovery and project planning. To make the process insightful an interviewer should develop a plan starting with goals and finishing with outcomes analysis.
So let’s explore the meaning of a usability interview and its different types, the benefits one gets from this research method and the essential steps that help organize interviews effectively. After reading this piece, you will know about the peculiarities of interviewing your audience and be ready for the pitfalls that may arise.
What are user interviews?
User interviews are often leveraged in UI/UX design services and involve a one-on-one conversation with a representative of the target audience. Such interviews are organized to test product ideas, add product improvements and enhance the existing solutions.
Interviews cannot be named as quantitative research considering the nature and goals of this method. Instead user interviewers should treat interviews as a tool for collecting qualitative data on user experience, a specific aspect of their experience, a general impression of a product etc.
Place of user interviews in the design thinking process.
An effective interview is always a targeted effort where an interviewer gets the chance to test assumptions with potential customers. To get the applicable insights during the interview it’s also important to create and find the right personas which refers to the collective image of audience segments you target your product at.
As a result of a well-planned user interview you get in-depth insights into user behavior and their perception of your product. Also you better understand what experience they go through when interacting with your solution and what their pains, challenges and areas of interest are.
Types of user interviews
Now that you know the answer to “What is a user interview?” we can move further and talk about different types and categories of this research method.
Interviews can be structured, semi-structured and unstructured. For structured interviews interviewers develop the structure and prepare the script in advance. As a result all participants answer the same questions and rarely get off the subject.
Main types of user interviews.
In contrast to this unstructured interviews involve no predefined structure or script. These are more like free conversations focused on a specific topic and insights gained from such interviews are very creative and insightful.
Semi-structured usability interviews in turn combine the characteristics of structured and unstructured interviews. Such interviews typically have a predefined format yet the interviewer has the freedom to get off the script and guide the conversation in a way that seems more productive.
Apart from this distinction, we can also classify interviews as generative, contextual and continuous. Generative interviews focus on creating fresh thoughts around a topic and usually explore user experiences and perspectives.
Contextual user interviews on the other hand are revolving around a specific context requiring a participant to do certain tasks or answer questions. Here the interviewer is more an observer rather than an active participant in the conversation.
Finally continuous interviews involve interviewing the same participants several times during different phases of the project to see how their vision evolves. For example the first part of the continuous interviews can be conducted during the discovery stage while the final part can be conducted when enhancements or new features are added to the product.
In conclusion interviews are an effective tool for generating insights into client behavior and their perception of your product.
How do user interviews work?
Interviews are conducted in the form of question-answer which can also be organized in person or remotely with the second option being more popular.
Remote interviews involve organizing video calls with the participants usually lasting for around 30-60 minutes. In-person interviews take more time and effort but can turn into a great opportunity to build strong relationships with your target audience.
Remote user interviews offer the convenience of conducting research from anywhere, facilitating broader participant reach.
The peculiarities of this research method allow businesses to combine it with other studies including usability tests, observational studies and field studies.
While usability testing explores a user taking actions interviews can focus on figuring out why a user takes this action. These two methods can complement each other providing researchers with a better understanding of their customer’s way of thinking and mindset.
As for diary studies these are UX research studies where users log their experiences and activities as well as thoughts during a certain period. The data is then analyzed to trace trends, tendencies, irregularities etc. An interview can be integrated into this research as a final part in where researchers will ask clarifying questions and wrap up their study.
Last but not least user interviews can follow observational studies where a researcher observes user completing their task. This combination helps researchers get deeper into the context in which the observation happens.
Therefore interviews are a flexible research method that can be used independently or combined with other studies. In the next section we will explain when it’s the right time to conduct interviews and what outcomes you can get from them.
When to conduct user interviews
There is no specific project stage when interviews are the most or least effective which means you can conduct them whenever such a need arises. Below we will describe a few factors that may encourage you to start interviewing your audience.
Factors when it is necessary to conduct user interviews.
So you can refer to interviewing when:
— You create user personas. Developing user personas helps you tailor your product and services to the needs of your audience thereby increasing the chances of success. Interviews help you study your user persona in real life checking if your assumptions match the reality. Based on the insights you get you can effectively segment your audience and dive deep into their pains and needs.
— You conduct market research. Looking for business opportunities is an indispensable part of the project discovery stage. A usability interview can be a great source of information provided that the participants represent your target market. With this research method you can uncover who your ideal customer is, how they perceive solutions like yours, what factors influence their purchase decisions and more.
— You test your idea. If you plan to introduce something brand-new to the market interviews can help you check the viability of your idea. During the conversation with your audience you can ask them what they think of such a product, what features they like and don’t like and whether they would use such a solution at all.
— You improve your product. It’s a common misconception that interviews are an effective tool only at the start of the web design services. This research method is no less useful after product launch when you want to collect feedback on your solution. The insights gained will help you add enhancements to the product. Besides you can do the opposite which is add improvements and then ask your audience what they think of the changes.
— You optimize your marketing strategy. Your marketing materials should form the basis of the messages you direct to your clients. For this you need to align your marketing strategy with your audiences needs. Interviews can help you achieve this goal. During a user interview you can discover the challenges and pains they face. This information can be leveraged when crafting marketing messages and optimizing your strategy.
As you see this research method serves various purposes and can be conducted nearly at any stage of the project from product discovery and planning to post-release improvements and testing.
How to do a user interview in 9 steps
User interviews in 9 steps.
1. Choose what you expect to learn
Dedicate an interview to the specific goal which you can do by identifying what you expect to learn from talking to your audience. You can pick the core question that will guide your research. For instance “How to reduce checkout abandonment rate?” or “What features would help increase user retention on the platform?”
If there are many questions you want to explore try to prioritize them and break the research down into stages. This will be a more effective approach than targeting all the questions at once. The thing is moving from topic to topic can confuse respondents and lead to insufficient answers.
2. Decide on whom you will interview
Defining the target audience is a responsible part of organizing interviews as it determines how insightful the process will be. The right choice of participants will give you the chance to reach your customers directly, talk to them, discover their vision and much more.
You can recruit 2 general categories of interview users which are your potential users or your target audience and your existing users. When you aim to study the market or competition finalize the product discovery, validate project assumptions etc. focus on your target audience.
If you want to add product improvements, collect user feedback or test new features, choose existing users as interview participants. However in some cases you may also need to involve both categories in your research. The table below explains what category is suitable in each specific case:
Pick the right interview participants.
3. Prepare an interview protocol
An effective methodology is the foundation of informative research. When it comes to interviews it’s important to develop an interview protocol that will be used during the conversation with your audience.
An interview is not just a chatting process as it should follow the rules and structure prescribed in advance. With a well-planned protocol you will make sure that no single minute is wasted for figuring out what should be done or discussed next.
Take your time to develop interview questions focused on the goal that you defined in the first step. User interview questions should be biased-free, emotionally neutral and interesting for a user.
If your audience is not related to the tech sphere they are likely to perceive your product differently than it’s done by designers or developers. Thus when writing questions try to focus on the experience users get instead of centering on technical aspects.
4. Test the protocol and interview technology
Having the list of questions in front of you does not guarantee that all of them will be answered which leads to use your time and resources effectively, test your protocol and the technology you will use before starting your set of interviews.
It may happen for example that technical limitations or some other constraints will not let you study a question at full scale. Also some of the questions may be asked in a way that doesn’t give you enough information and as a result they should be rephrased.
Testing the protocol and the software/hardware you use will help you prepare for such situations, adjust the methodology and get the most out of the research.
5. Recruit participants
You may wonder how to recruit respondents and where to find the audience to participate in usability interviews. In the case of existing users this can be easily done by leveraging information from your customer base. In the case of the target audience the situation is different.
Today there exist hundreds of platforms providing businesses with a chance to conduct interviews and user testing. You can hire participants on the platforms like Hotjar, UserInterviews, Testsigma or others. There users get paid for the interviews where they share their thoughts and opinions.
On such platforms you can filter people based on a range of characteristics, including demographics, interests, professional details, technical details etc. and find the audience that best suits your requirements.
6. Set up the interview
Schedule a user interview and prepare a kind of instruction or guide for your users. There describe what tools and software they should have, what steps they should take before, during and after the interview and how the process will unfold. If there are some materials that users should study before the conversation feel free to share them too.
Besides it’s important to prepare the recording technology or plan how the notes will be taken during the interview. The materials collected during the conversation will be then analyzed to draw conclusions and generate insights.
7. Conduct the conversation
When conducting the conversation you will follow the script which will make it easier for you and the participants to stick to the topic. But apart from the formal requirements your conversation should also follow the rules of effective communication.
To ease the stress for a participant, take a few moments to outline how the interview will be held.
For example it often happens that users feel nervous at the beginning of an interview which may affect the quality of the conversation. To reduce stress imposed on a participant dedicate a few minutes to explaining how the interview will look like, what questions will be about and how information will be used. This will allow a user to get more control over the situation and relax a bit.
Also try to start your conversation with easy and simple questions and move gradually to more complex ones. Remember that user interviews UX is as important as product UX as it also determines how effectively you will hit the target with our solution.
8. Follow up and probe
If there are questions that have not been covered by a participant during the conversation you can ask them during the follow-up stage. The final part of the interview can also include generic probe questions that help you better understand the participant’s motivation, logic, attitudes etc.
Probe questions are hard to prepare in advance since they often stem from the conversation however by distinguishing this phase from the others you make sure that you won’t forget about the probe and its power to enhance the interview results.
9. Share findings with your colleagues
Here the most inspiring part of interviewing starts which lies in analyzing the collected information and coming to insightful conclusions. Share the transcripts, notes and recordings with the project team. Together you will analyze the outcomes and exchange opinions on further product development.
The insights collected during interviews are the source of valuable data that will help you confidently navigate through the project improving it according to user needs. This way you’ll increase the chances of delivering the products and services your audience seeks and standing out from the competition by hearing your target user’s voice.
Tips for conducting a usability interview
Now you know everything about how to conduct an insightful interview. Here are a few tips that will ensure that your conversation provides you with useful data and that your participants feel comfortable during the interviewing process.
Things to avoid while conducting a usability interview.
— Avoid leading questions. A leading question is the one that leads a participant to think in the way you expect or answer in the way you want. Using leading questions is a common mistake during interviews as it moves a researcher away from the truth even though it provides them with the satisfaction of receiving the answers they like.
Avoid suggesting options and answers when asking questions and be unbiased and rational. To avoid prejudice in your questions ask multiple team members to go through the question list before validating the protocol.
— Keep it casual. Stick to the casual conversation style. Although the communication between you and the participants is of a professional purpose it still should be casual to allow users to respond freely to your questions.
When conducting user interviews you should maintain a balance between casual and professional style. Avoid jargon words and technical terms and try to speak in a way that resonates with your audience and matches their level of expertise in the focus field.
— Do not hurry up your respondents. Never rush your users or hurry them to answer questions. Give them time to think out the answer and do not try to fill in the silence that arises. Sometimes users take actions automatically without thinking about them in advance. That’s why it’s important to give them the chance to analyze their thoughts and get to a conclusion.
If you see that a user is confused by your question try to rephrase it or deepen the question to investigate the user’s logic. Avoid one more common mistake here like do not mention other users and their answers. Although it may seem to you like you’re helping a participant this approach only adds prejudice to the answers and moves you away from the truth.
— Warm up the conversation. Before moving straight to the topic you should set the connection with the participants. For this use the tactics of warming up the conversation. For example you can start your acquisition by introducing yourself and asking the interviewee to do the same.
The intro should be easy-going and friendly followed by a thank-you message for participating in the research. In the process of listening a user interviewer should try to express their appreciation and interest. This can be done by involving nonverbal cues like nodding, preserving eye contact etc.
— Ask open-ended questions. Yes or no questions will give you a little insight into the client’s mindset and experience. This is why you should focus on open-ended questions that provoke a discussion and encourage the user to explain their way of thinking. Open-ended questions are the ones that start with when, why, how, what and help you figure out the details.
Here are a few examples of interview questions that may help you improve your strategy:
Examples of user interview questions.
Combined with our 9-step guide these tips will help you plan out and conduct an interview effectively, considering all the pitfalls and opportunities.
Conclusion
To conclude interviews are an effective research method used in software design and development. Such interviews enable teams to dive deep into the audience’s needs, mindset, challenges, pains, interests and experiences within their services.
Here at Limeup interviews and user testing are used throughout product development as a part of your strategy. From product discovery and planning to post-release enhancements interviews help us build empathy with the target audience by providing them with pinpoint solutions to their pains.
Get in touch with the Limeup team if you need help with planning, organizing and conducting interviews as a part of the software development project. Our experts will study your goals and make this process insightful and informative.