Interviews are an important part of the job recruitment process and every one of us dreads the idea of an interview. Lately in the field of UX user interviews have gained popularity and it is now a popular method of getting feedback. Many corporations use this method because it is quite easy and fast. It helps the businesses to learn about the audience’s perception of the particular product or design and not about the usability. This method of interview is now a core user experience method. With such methods & clutch design agency reviews, you can gain core knowledge about multiple problems that your audience is facing.
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UX user interviews
In Layman’s terms, a user interview is a research method under which the researcher or product design companies ask certain questions to its users about their respective topic of interest. The main objective behind the interview is to learn about the topic. Thus we can say that user interviews are different from our day-to-day conversations and focus groups. In focus groups, there are multiple users at the same time but on the other hand, user research interviews happen on one basis. As the data is easy to collect in such interviews people can make use of such data in agile environments.
User Interviews are very much like journalistic interviews but in a much narrower sense. It is also known as the critical incident technique that is more formal and was introduced by John Flanagan in 1954.
This method of user research interviews is quite simple yet tricky and there are certain things that you should keep in mind when you interview people. You should have a clear and defined topic of the interview that will help in a smooth interview of your target group. Apart from this, you should also have a solid and convincing reason for choosing such methods of interviews as a curiosity or a lack of substantial data from multiple sources, or the impossibility of using different other methods.
Some people feel that UX interviews are simple and easy and somewhere straightforward but there is more to a good interview than many people realize. The best interviews are something that results from topics that are well researched and where the other party is eager to know about the topic along with genuine openness.
To conduct a good interview, here are some of the points that you should keep in mind when going for such interviews and when you are preparing for user interview questions.
Interview UX
- You should approach the interview process with respect and rigor. As many people think that a user interview question is an informal chat with people where they can run an idea or prototype. This is completely false. These interviews help to know about the problems of people and try to get to the core of what the person is trying to come up with the product and the problems he/she is facing.
- The questions for the interviews should have some research behind them that gives the person an idea that the questions are well thought of and purposeful. If the questions are not well researched there might be a possibility where you will not get the data that you require and the bad thing about no data is bad data.
- The interview is best for early in the process before having an idea or prototype. As after you have a prototype it is the usability methods that are better for getting feedback from people.
- Many people confuse user interviews as asking questions to people about what they want you to build and to do. But it is not the case it is also not about asking people what they want. The interview is a full learning process about what the user is trying to get an understanding of what is working out for them and what is not.
The processes are a good method of identifying the problems of the user and then identifying the correct solutions to solve the problems of people.
User Interviews are best at the time of Exploration
You can opt for user interviews when you have more exploration to do on the particular topic and want insights from people on how they relate to your respective topics. It works fine when you are at the early stages of the development of the product. It will provide you with some valuable insights from people about your queries about the product. This interview also lets you have an understanding of how your target crowd talks about the issues at hand and what are their views on the particular topic. The UX user interviews let you collect what other people are talking about the product and help you in making the product more customer-centric.
Tips for good interview UX
Do not go for Yes/No Questions
Try not to have yes/no questions as they are not elaborative and do not give much scope for a follow-up question. You cannot extract any valuable data from an interview if you stick to a Yes/No question. Try to have questions that could give you answers in an elaborate manner. If you give people the option to answer in monosyllables they will do that and the interview won’t be a success.
No Room for assumptions
People can miss crucial information if they do not ask some basic questions. The key to having an informational interview is to never make any assumptions. Try to ask questions that are basic and could give you key information. They are also one of the best methods to make a person comfortable in an interview so that he/she can answer truthfully and without any hesitation. The advantage of asking basic questions is people will not think much about the question and it will get them talking more comfortably and honestly.
The same question from different angles
Interviews are a tricky process and sometimes it does not yield the results that you desire. The best practice to tackle such a situation is to ask the same set of questions from different angles. This will help you to get to the core of the problems and the data that you require. The key to asking the same questions from different angles is to spread the question through the overall process of the interview. This will help the user to think deeper into the question and will give you the information that you require.
Ask to Follow-up Questions
Follow-up questions are as important as the base questions of your interview process. The follow-up questions let you fill-up the blanks with additional information and let you clarify what the user thinks about the product at hand. The follow-up questions make sense and create clarity in the minds of the interviewer and what kind of questions he/she next asks based on the follow-up questions.
Embrace Silence
One of the best practices that you can follow while going for an interview is the ability to embrace silence. You should know how to embrace awkward silence in the room and try not to fill them. Most of the time people you interview are the ones that fill the silence in the room with information that works out for your benefit of data collection. Many data suggest that the best information comes out from such silences. It is one of the best practices to slow down during the interview and collect all the information that is presented to you.
Be Neutral
You need to be neutral when doing an interview. If you are interviewing someone else’s product it is easy for you to have a neutral stand but it is not the case when you are in an interview for your product. People struggle in such interviews. This is one such reason why product managers are not good interviewers. They are very engrossed in their product and will look for validation rather than looking for truth. Your job for user interviews is not the marketing of your product but to listen to the problems of the product that people face.
Conclusion
With the help of the above findings, we can conclude that one of the best methods to sense how users and your audience feel about a particular project or topic is by employing an interview about Telecom Industry Design Services or related fields. It is the best way to collect data and with the above-mentioned questions, there won’t be any problem in collecting the data that you require.
