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User interviews best practice guide

Conducting user interviews are a great way to gain foundational knowledge about the problems your users are facing - It’s not just asking them what they like and dislike. User interviewing is about trying to get to the core of what a user is trying to do and what their problems are.

It's best to undertake user testing/interviews before you have an idea and prototypes. Clarifying what exactly the problems you need to solve are is an important step to take before trying to come up with a solution. You should start prototyping once you have an in-depth understanding of the issue at hand. Later on in the process, once you have developed solutions, usability testing on your prototypes are a great way to gain feedback.

STEP ONE

Define your objective

Before you start gathering insights you need to understand what sort of information you require. Without a clear objective, you risk launching a study that fails to yield actionable insights.

Ask the product stakeholders what you are trying to learn. From this, you can determine the main goal and ensure that it is realistic.

Too broad of a goal, like 'learn about users', is likely to make interviews fail because it will not focus your questions in a direction relevant to your design needs. A concise, concrete goal related to a specific aspect of the users’ behaviour or attitudes can bring the team to a consensus, and direct how you’ll construct the interview.

Do you have multiple objectives? Instead of squeezing them into one study it would be easier and more productive to run a series of smaller studies with one specific objective for each.

Remember: You don’t need to uncover every issue or problem in a single, exhaustive study.

Example of a complex objective:

Can users easily find our products and make an informed purchase decision?

This objective contains three very different components, finding a product, getting informed and making a purchase.

Examples of clear and concise objectives:

1. How do nurses feel about logging medical data, and what are the processes they believe they use?

2. Learn how architects share CAD drawings with engineers, and where they feel there are challenges and opportunities.

3. Find out how bicycle couriers get the best route directions, and what they feel works well, where they think there are issues, and how they think things could be improved.

STEP TWO

Build your script

First and foremost, think of an interview as a type of research study, not a sales session or an informal conversation. Using a series of tasks we’ll observe the users and use follow-up questions to really understand their struggles.

Don’t just wing it! Without a clear plan and base set of questions, the interviews will become muddled, and unfocused. And could result in bad data.

Instead of driving straight into a task, it's best to ease them in with some basic questions, and this will give you some background to their role, company and general persona.

For example; Ask what other products they use for work and in their personal life, and what they like or dislike about the product.

Remember: Assuming you already know the answer could cause you to miss a lot of key information.

How long should the interview be?

Scripts can range from about 15 questions to upwards of 40 depending on how complex the product is. But most importantly your interview should be between 30-60minutes, any longer and your participant will start to lose focus.

How many participants?

It’s been demonstrated that five participants will uncover 85% of the usability problems on a website and that additional users will produce diminishing returns. (Ref: Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users)

Turn User Goals into Task Scenarios

The main part of the interview will be taken up with tasks. We want to make sure we give them a relatable scenario rather than a single-step task with no explanation.

Before writing the tasks, write a list of general user goals your user might have when using your product. What are the most important things that every user must be able to accomplish on the site?

Examples of user goals:

Find and export financial report
Create a new user profile
Update patient appointment notes
Submit tax return form

1. Engage Users with Task Scenarios

Now you have your list of 3-4 tasks you need to formulate scenarios that are relevant to the user testing. They need to provide context to engage the user as if they were performing that task in a real-life situation.

Poorly written tasks often focus on forcing the user to interact with a particular feature, rather than seeing if and how the user chooses to use the interface.

In the good example, we're giving the user freedom to choose the best way of completing the task. This will help us understand how users naturally interact with the interface.

User goal: Update patient appointment details.

Example of a feature based task:

Use the calendar to change the appointment date for a patient.

Example of a scenario based task:

A patient has emailed to say they are unable to make their 3:15 appointment tomorrow and asked to move it to Wednesday next week at the same time.

2. Make the Task Actionable

It’s best to ask the users to do the action, rather than asking them how they would do it.

If you ask the participant ‘How would you…’ or ‘Tell me how you would..’ the answer is likely to be in words, not actions. Additionally, having them talk through what they would do doesn’t allow you to observe the ease or frustration that comes with using the interface.

A good indicator that a task isn't actionable enough is if the participant turns to the facilitator, takes her hand off the mouse, and says something like ‘I would first click here, and then there would be a…’

User goal: Export credit report

Example of non-actionable task:

You want to export the latest credit report. Go to the dashboard and tell me where you would click next.

Example of an actionable task:

You’ve been asked for a copy of the latest credit report, using Cloud Financials can you find the report and attach it to an email.

3. Avoid Giving Clues and Describing the Steps

The end goal is to create a self-explanatory product, to do this we need to fully understand where the user is currently getting lost. A huge part of these tasks is seeing how the participant naturally navigates the interface, and if they miss current information scent.

If you’re interested in learning if people can sign up for the newsletter and your site has a large button labelled Sign up for the newsletter, you should not phrase the task as "Sign up for this company's weekly newsletter." It's better to use a task such as: “Find a way to get information on upcoming events sent to your email on a regular basis.”

User goal: Look up grades

Example of leading task:

You want to see the results of your midterm exams. Go to the website, sign in, and tell me where you would click to get your transcript.

Example of an open-task:

Look up the results of your midterm exams.

Final Tip! Ask open-ended questions

Open-ended questions yield expansive responses which are key to finding out what people are trying to do and what their problems are.

Avoid leading questions that are designed to elicit a specific response, and keep the questions open-ended without suggesting a possible answer. With the example on the right, many people will answer that question from the lens, “I’m sure someone will find this feature useful, therefore it is a useful feature.” But that’s not what you were trying to find out. You want to know if this particular user finds this feature useful.

User goal: Look up grades

Example of closed question:

What makes for a useful feature?
or Is this feature useful?

Example of an open-question:

Is this feature valuable to the work you do right now?

STEP THREE

Hosting the session

Now you have a clear objective and an Oscar-winning script, you’re almost ready to
dive into the interviews. But, before you do, here's a list of top tips to ensure you get the best responses to aid your project.

People are more likely to remember, talk, and let their guard down if they feel relaxed and trust the interviewer and the process. Use the meeting invite to set the tone with a brief overview of the meeting and how the data will go towards to wider project. No one likes going into a meeting blind, after-all.

Simple steps to put the user at ease

Create a rapport with the user
At the start of the actual interview, explain the reason for the interview, and how the data from it will be used
Refer to the tasks as actives so they don't feel like its a test
Make the user feel heard by taking notes, nodding, and making frequent eye contact

Record the interview if possible. Video is even better*.

Recording interviews means that people who didn’t attend the interview can see and hear for themselves. It will also be a great reference when you’re collating your notes - don’t forget to take detailed notes too.

**Not everyone will agree to be recorded, but you should always ask and try.

Consider constructing follow-up questions based on your research goals. Anticipate different responses!

You may feel completely confident about what people will say. Yet, anticipating answers to the best of your ability can help you better prepare for the interview.
What happens if the user doesn’t have a response to your question, are there ways in which you can help the user to find an answer?

For example, imagine you are working on a new travel website, and that a participant was recruited because she has booked travel online within the last 6 months.

Let’s pretend that some of the research goals of the interview are:

Do people remember how they chose vacation destinations?
What’s memorable about vacations?
What do users feel is easy about booking travel now?

Setting the pace

Don’t rush the user. Pause. Slow down your pace of speech. Talking slowly has a calming effect and indicates that you are not anxious and that you have time to listen.

Embrace awkward silences. Do not fill them. Most of the time, the person being interviewed will fill the awkward silence with more info. I often find the best information comes out during these silences.

Find something to do while you interview people that will force you to slow down and process information.

Remember: Let users finish their thoughts. Do not interrupt them.

Be neutral. Don’t try and defend your product or company.

Your job during a user interview is to be a psychologist intently listening to someone’s problems. We’re hunting for the truth, not trying to validate what has already been done - it's not personal.

STEP FOUR

Summarise findings

Turn your notes and recordings into actionable recommendations. This is the first step to converting user research to change. Don’t worry about writing a long report, a deck of findings that has a lot of bullets and annotated screenshots/photos works best.

Useful Resources

Article

User Interviews: How, When, and Why to Conduct Them

Summary: User interviews have become a popular technique for getting user feedback, mainly because they are fast and easy. Use them to learn about users’ perceptions of your design, not about its usability.

Video

Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users

Summary: Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

Example

Example interview script

Summary: A useful starting point for leading a user interview, includes example questions grouped along the key moments often found in an interview: introductions, warm-up, topic-specific questions, demos, etc.