7 top tips for conducting the perfect user interview

Talking to users is an essential part of the design process because it allows us to gain an insight into people’s thoughts, goals and behaviours. We can use this understanding of our users to help us validate ideas and build solutions that create great user experiences.

There are many research techniques used to gain qualitative information from users; contextual inquiries, usability testing and focus groups to name a few, but one of the most common techniques is user interviews and this is the one we will be taking a look at.

What is a user interview?

A user interview is a research technique used to gain information from potential or current users and is normally conducted by one or two user experience consultants (one to perform the interview and one to take down notes).

The interview is performed on a one-to-one basis and can be done over the phone, face-to-face or over a video call depending on yours and the user’s flexibility.

It can cover a whole range of topics, dependant on what information you or your agency are hoping to take away from it, but typical talking points may include:

• The user’s background
• Their goals
• Their motivations
• Their use of technology
• The challenges they face

My top tips for conducting a great user interview

Make them feel at ease

There is nothing worse than an awkward interview. The user is more likely to keep their answers brief and you’re more likely to cut your questions short, so make the interview feel as natural as possible. This will make your user feel more relaxed, which will help them open up, whilst making yourself feel more comfortable too. Keep the language conversational, make sure you introduce yourself and give a brief summary of what it is you are trying to accomplish. You could also start by asking them to give a brief overview of their background to help them acclimatise and relax a little. Making the user feel at ease should significantly improve your chances of gaining beneficial insights, so set the tone nicely from the word go.

Ask broad and open questions

Make sure you don’t ask any leading questions that will prompt a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Ideally you want to promote ‘story’ like answers, so avoid starting questions with “Do you” and “Have you” and opt for more open-ended questions that start with  “Tell me about..” or “How do you..” for example. This should prompt the user to give more in-depth answers which will provide you with much more insight.

Prompt the user for more information

Don’t be afraid to ask the user to clarify their answers or to ask follow up questions to help you uncover insights that you may have forgotten to ask about. This is one of the benefits of doing interviews over alternatives like a survey, where you don’t get the opportunity to ask follow up questions, so make sure you take full advantage of this.

Ask relevant questions

Research the topic areas you are asking around before conducting the interview so you have a better chance of asking relevant follow up questions that could supplement your interview. Asking questions that do not provide helpful answers to your research is pointless, so make sure the questions that you are asking can help you gain an understanding of what the user is trying to accomplish or that help you get to the root of a problem. This will ultimately provide information that can be used to help design appropriate solutions.

Use your interview questions as a guide

Just because you have written an interview script does not mean you have to follow it down to a T. Use it as a guide only and feel free to change the order of the questions or the questions themselves if you feel it would flow better with what the user has answered previously. Otherwise you run the risk of the conversation being disjointed, potentially causing you to miss important insights.

Give them time to answer

Make sure you give the user enough time to answer the question! More often than not, if you pause a little, the user will carry on talking and provide more in-depth information which they wouldn’t have had a chance to do if you had gone straight to asking the next question. If you are conducting the interview by yourself, you will be asking the questions as well as typing up the notes, so there will naturally be some long pauses. Don’t be afraid to tell the user that you are just finishing typing their answers up as they are either happy to wait, or they’ll expand on their answer further.

Thank them!

Sounds obvious, but don’t forget to thank them for their time and for volunteering to be interviewed once you have finished. Building good relationships with these people is important as they may be able to help you recruit additional users for any other testing you have planned, or you may need to gain further insights from them later on.