Tagging: Interview

  5. 5 Steps to Create Good User Interview Questions By @Metacole — A Comprehensive Guide

    5 Steps to Create Good User Interview Questions By @Metacole — A Comprehensive Guide

    • User interviews enable you to:
      • speak directly to your users
      • have specific questions answered
      • uncover previously unknown details and directions
    • Badly scripted questions can:
      • result in biased questions and therefore biased answers
      • lead to a flawed foundation to product and business decisions

    1. Start with a problem statement

    • What are the questions you want answered?
    • Create a list of all the questions you need answered to gain better understanding

    2. Reframe the problem statements

    • Rephrase the questions from different perspectives:
      • logical/rationale-driven
      • emotion/desire-driven
      • product/consumer-focused
    • Benefits:
      • uncovers additional opportunities to learn about your users, specifically those you hadn’t previously considered
      • creates the foundation of your interview questions

    3. Develop your questions

    • Avoid leading questions
      • Leading questions will influence the answers you receive from you interviewees
      • They infer that something is true where it might not be
    • Avoid speculative questions
      • if asking about the past, be as specific as possible
      • speculative questions invite interviewees to fill in the gaps or completely invent a scenario
      • aim for genuine and insightful data
    • Ask open-ended questions
      • open-ended questions invite interviewees to add details around the central theme
      • answers to open-ended questions unpack invaluable information that would otherwise be undiscovered by a more specific question
    • Ask multiple questions to inquire about one thing
      • offers an opportunity to verify that you’ve understood the interviewee and check for contradictions
      • avoid asking these questions concurrently, instead pick a the next natural moment in the flow of conversation
      • data triangulation{:target="_blank"} can also help
      • Avoid asking if an interviewee would purchase or use the product
        • this is an uncomfortable position for your interviewee to be put in and they will probably say “yes” even if they don’t mean it
        • instead, ask about their intent to purchase{:target="_blank"}

    4. Be prepared to paraphrase your questions

    • it’s possible an interviewee won’t understand your question
    • being prepared to rephrase a question will keep the interview flowing

    5. Add structure to your question list

    1. Introduction
    • put the interviewee at ease by explaining the purpose of the interview and where the data is going
    • avoid explainig too much to maintain natural responses to questions
    • Thank the interview for attending and introduce yourself
    • keep the introduction brief
    • ask permission: audio and video recording, photos etc
    1. Warm up
    • ask 3-5 generic questions
      • occupation/what’s an average day like?
      • hobbies
      • internet usage
    1. Main
    • ask as much as possible
    • start with specific past events then speculative questions
    • ask questions that suit the conversation, introduce the theme then dig deeper
    1. Wrap up
    • make it clear that the interview is over
    • ask if they have any questions
    • thank then for their time and contribution

  6. Interviewing Users

    Jakob Nielsen’s advice on interviews.

    • What users say and what they do are different
    • User interviews are appropriate when used in cases where they generate valid data

    What interviews can’t provide

    • Where user interviews fail:

      • when a user is asked to recall the past
      • when a user is asked to speculate the future

    • Our memories are fallible - we construct stories to rationalize what we remember, or think we remember, to make it sound more plausible or logical

    • The present is the only valid data a user can offer, everything else is recollection or speculation

    • Users are pragmatic and concrete - users (non-designers) can’t naturally visualize something that doesn’t yet exist, and similarly, designers don’t see the world from a users’s perspective. This explains the failure of a specification document and waterfall product development. It speculates that the product will succeed.

    • In contrast, An Agile team focused on learning will validate design decisions at each iteration.

    • Decisions on colours, html form element types, number of items, tone of voice are not something to ask users. Instead, these decisions will be determined from observing users use the product.

    • Avoid asking users:

      • Would you use (unbuild feature) - again, this is speculation
      • How useful is (existing feature) - these questions may lead to confused responses and unreliable data. caveat - if you do ask “how useful is (existing feature)” also ask the same for a non-existing feature

    • To gain this feedback more accurately:

      • pay attention to user comments while using these features
      • ask questions immediately after use

    What interviews can provide

    • Overall feelings of using the site after use
    • Acquiring general attitudes or “how they think of a problem” - use this feedback to design solutions
    • Use the critical incident method to ask to recall stand-out examples:
      • when they faced particular difficulty
      • when there was little friction
    • Avoid idealised examples by:
      • avoiding asking for their “usual” workflow - asking this can result in the omission of details that remove them from what they actually do

    The Query Effect

    • People make up opinions when asked for one
    • Asking leading questions can act as a catalyst
    • Be cautious not to use these opinions to make design or business decisions
    • To gain this feedback more accurately:
      • resist asking about particular attributes that might result in forced comments
      • take note of unprompted comments during usability testing

    Combining methods

    • User testing will always give you the most valuable data
    • Triangulate the findings to gain a better understanding

  7. What makes a good question

    Part of Chris How’s three-parter blog post ’How to get better answers from asking better questions’, this post walks you through 8 top tips for forming better questions for customer and stakeholder interviews, and surveys.