March 11, 2019 at 11:07The designer is not a journalist. How to conduct an interview with a user
Over the past two years, I have participated in interviews with users from various fields: from the leaders of large banks to football fans. Interviews help to get to know users better and to confirm or refute hypotheses. Here are a few principles that help me with this.
The user is not a designer, so you do not need to force him to do someone else's work. You should be interested only in facts, not their interpretation. Do not ask the user “Would you be comfortable using this feature?” It is better to collect and analyze information, and then offer your solution.
An ordinary person relies on the patterns seen in other products, so his ideas are not suitable for solving new problems. The designer is able to create new ways to interact with the interface for a specific task.
Interviews are best done where the person uses the product. This gives a lot of additional information. For example, after spending half an hour at the logistician’s desktop, we found a sticker with the order number. It is convenient to make notes on stickers, but it is not convenient to understand them later. They are also lost. Seeing this problem, we added a field with the order number to the application form and saved the user from unnecessary work.
Logistics Workplace
Sometimes you have to meet with the user out of context. While developing the application for the football arena, we did not pester people during the match and invited them to the office. It is not as effective, but no less valuable.
Put yourself in the position of a student and sincerely interested in the intricacies of the user's work. Not every day people come to him who are interested in his experience. More often, these are colleagues with new tasks or problems. Do not be afraid to ask naive questions, listen carefully and you will see that people are pleased to act as an expert. This is what you need.
Understand what you need to know first, and then prepare the questionnaire. Thanks to this, even forgetting the questions, you will not get lost in the conversation. If you sit in front of a person with questions on sheet A4, like Vladimir Pozner, or with open notes, like Dud, the person will feel uncomfortable.
Your goal is not to expose politics and not to find out how much Mikhalkov earns. You need to build a comfortable dialogue and find out more information about the user's work.
It’s good when you work together. One person can ask questions and another can take notes.
Questions should be open, which cannot be answered with “yes” or “no”. Encourage stories. It is good when a person gives specific examples from working experience. You can specifically ask about it.
A few universal questions:
In addition to general questions, there may be specialized ones in your area. For example, for truck drivers, I prepared questions about navigation on the highway, recreation and entertainment on the road.
Usually, user work is carried out in three stages:
The designer must love people, otherwise it is impossible to create a product that cares about the user. It’s good when your product helps you work more efficiently. Even better - when your product brings a smile and enhances job satisfaction.
The designer has the opportunity to make people's lives better. Do not neglect her.
Facts Not Interpretation
The user is not a designer, so you do not need to force him to do someone else's work. You should be interested only in facts, not their interpretation. Do not ask the user “Would you be comfortable using this feature?” It is better to collect and analyze information, and then offer your solution.
An ordinary person relies on the patterns seen in other products, so his ideas are not suitable for solving new problems. The designer is able to create new ways to interact with the interface for a specific task.
Context
Interviews are best done where the person uses the product. This gives a lot of additional information. For example, after spending half an hour at the logistician’s desktop, we found a sticker with the order number. It is convenient to make notes on stickers, but it is not convenient to understand them later. They are also lost. Seeing this problem, we added a field with the order number to the application form and saved the user from unnecessary work.
Logistics Workplace
Sometimes you have to meet with the user out of context. While developing the application for the football arena, we did not pester people during the match and invited them to the office. It is not as effective, but no less valuable.
Forget you are a designer
Put yourself in the position of a student and sincerely interested in the intricacies of the user's work. Not every day people come to him who are interested in his experience. More often, these are colleagues with new tasks or problems. Do not be afraid to ask naive questions, listen carefully and you will see that people are pleased to act as an expert. This is what you need.
The designer is not a journalist
Understand what you need to know first, and then prepare the questionnaire. Thanks to this, even forgetting the questions, you will not get lost in the conversation. If you sit in front of a person with questions on sheet A4, like Vladimir Pozner, or with open notes, like Dud, the person will feel uncomfortable.
Your goal is not to expose politics and not to find out how much Mikhalkov earns. You need to build a comfortable dialogue and find out more information about the user's work.
It’s good when you work together. One person can ask questions and another can take notes.
What questions to ask
Questions should be open, which cannot be answered with “yes” or “no”. Encourage stories. It is good when a person gives specific examples from working experience. You can specifically ask about it.
A few universal questions:
- What working day can you consider successful? Which is unsuccessful?
- What is the most important thing in work?
- What activities take a lot of time?
- What information helps make decisions?
- What problems arise in the work? How do you deal with them?
- What similar services did you use? What is convenient and not convenient in them?
In addition to general questions, there may be specialized ones in your area. For example, for truck drivers, I prepared questions about navigation on the highway, recreation and entertainment on the road.
Three stages of user experience
Usually, user work is carried out in three stages:
- Information gathering . The first stage of the interview is when you act as a student and try to learn more about a person’s profession.
- Clarification . At this point, you already have ideas that you want to confirm with additional questions. Additional difficulties are often found here.
- Confirmation . You propose a concrete solution, ideally, using the example of a working prototype, and collect delightful feedback.
About people
The designer must love people, otherwise it is impossible to create a product that cares about the user. It’s good when your product helps you work more efficiently. Even better - when your product brings a smile and enhances job satisfaction.
The designer has the opportunity to make people's lives better. Do not neglect her.