Interviewing for User Research is hard…

This week for my UX assignment, I had to interview potential users on a fictitious reminder/notes/todo style apps. I thought coming with my previous interviewing skills as a business analyst was going to be enough but I learned that eliciting requirements is not the same as a user research interview. I had the idea that the interviews were going to take longer and provide an incredible insight on usage patterns and problems. It didn’t.

I felt the interviews were short lived and users didn’t want anything more. They were overall content with what they had. The usage patterns were varied and it was difficult to synthesize an overall direction. Clearly, I had more to learn on interviewing. My approach was to get a bit of background about them and what was the app they were using currently today. Then, I just went into “what features would you like to see”? What I am disappointed is that I know better than to ask this question or at least in this manner. Not too shortly after that realization I came across a great article on exactly not doing that which made me wish I read it before I did the interviews.

Going forward, I will make every effort to practice my interviewing skills and will try different methodologies such as those in psychology and journalism. Would love any advice on how to hone this incredibly important skill in UX…