
Adventures in UX p1: Crafting User Interview Questions
The thought process behind how I choose my first interview questions.
While crafting my interview questions, I tried to keep in mind some key learnings;
Ask open-ended questions, Avoid leading questions, Ask about behaviour, Avoid compound questions, Avoid pointing out issues, Use answers to further questioning, **listen**
I first needed to somewhat establish what information I was looking for. In this case, I was looking to find out how people make decisions to what they do in their leisure time and if busy-ness is a pain point in that decision process.
The Questions
I tried to craft initial questions that were open-ended and easy for people to answer, and once I had an answer I could dig deeper for more specific information. I felt like I got some good responses this way because there wasn’t any pressure to the questions, there’s wasn’t a clear ‘right’ answer to them and they felt natural to a conversation. I also made sure not to mention the idea/concept I had in mind before the interview, to ensure I didn’t sway the conversation.
What are you doing this weekend?
Asking people what their plans gave me a base introduction to the interviewee’s personality, and where their interests lie. From here I could dig deeper into the whys; Why that’s their plans? Is this they’re average behaviour?
Describe to me how you make plans?
I wanted to find out the variables that would go into the interviewees decision. Do they reach out to friends? Does location & connivence matter? Are they looking for new or previously had experiences? Is there any obligations? Are they trying to avoid crowds or wait lists?
When was the last time you experienced something new?
I was looking to understand what happens when they experienced something ‘new’, the decision process to get them into a new situation and their take-away feelings about it. What made them go to this ‘new’ situation? Was it a positive or negative experience? Is there anything they would change about it? Why?
How do you feel about Toronto?
Establishing what the interviewee’s likes and dislikes about the city was to find any more pain points. Why do they feel this way? Do they offer up any solutions?
How do you stay connected to people?
I wanted to find out how people felt connected and what they do to re-connect. Do they meet up? If so, where do they go/what do they do? Is it over text/phone/social media?
*To be honest, by the end I felt like this question didn’t invoke very insightful answers.
Take Away
What I really took out of this exercise is be really focused on listening to what they were saying and allow the interviewees to lead the direction of the conversation. The best insights I received were when I dug deeper into questions and topics the interviewee demonstrated they wanted to talk about. All 5 of my interviews lead me to different topics, but I was able to find some similarities.
Once the interview were over, I told the interviewees what my concept/ideas were, and from there I also got some interesting responses. I found most people had a positive reaction, offered up functionalities and told me some additional insights.
