How to get more than opinions: Interview techniques and advice

How to get more than opinions
Interview techniques and advice
Johanna Kollmann- @johannakoll
Lean UX Machine Tel Aviv, 4 August 2011
Photo by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/5038531149/

UX helps you to get out of the building
Photo by Bottleleaf http://www.flickr.com/photos/bottleleaf/2258627441/

(Some) research methods (yeah we have a lot)
Quantitative
Qualitative
Contextual inquiry
Mental models
Interviews
Diary studies
Surveys
Interviews
Generative
Usability testing
Moderated card sort
Wizard of Oz
Automated card sort
Surveys
Automated studies
Analytics
A/B Testing
Multi-variant testing
Evaluative
Adapted from figures by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer

Non-leading interviews are a conversation
Photo byDave Gilbert http://www.flickr.com/photos/eye2eye/50892860/

Non-leading interviews
Are generative
Focus on people’s behaviours and goals
Capture their way of thinking and vocabulary
Are about listening to stories
Can be conducted in-person or remotely
Should be done with people who haveimmediate experience
Mental Models byIndi Young

Planning the interview
Photo byangelamaphonehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/angelamaphone/2663422833//

Define your goals
Who do you need to talk to?
What do you need to observe?
What do you hope to find out?
What’s your hypothesis?
Also, make sure you identify your own bias and beliefs!

What topics shall the interview cover?
Dieting
Buying food
Exercise
Preparing food
Eating out
Busy lifestyle
Struggles

Prompts rather than set questions
Day-in-a-life (today, yesterday)
Decide what to eat
Last time on a diet
How active (want vs. do)
Preparing food for oneself
Preparing food for family/friends

Have a ‘softball question’ ready
Please tell me a little bit about your cooking this week.
Could you tell me about the last dish you prepared yourself?

During the interview
Photo by Anders Zakrisson http://www.flickr.com/photos/anders-zakrisson/4982281184/

Photo byJitter Buffer http://www.flickr.com/photos/ph0t0s/5984587230/
We are so used to being interrupted that we have developed highly effective interruption defense mechanisms.

Photo byEd Yourdon http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/2574628438/
Really listening lets you understand someone, or a situation, on several different levels.

Active listening
Receive
Appreciate
Summarise
Ask
From Julian Treasure’s TED talk ‘5 ways to listen better’

Ask open questions – don’t lead
YAY
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
NAY
Did
Have
Are
Were
Will
Were you trying to do A or B?
What were you trying to do?

How to keep people talking
Can you tell me the story about that?
What else can you tell me about…
Help me understand better
What do you mean by…
Tell me more…

Echoing and rephrasing
This is confusing...
Confusing...
Yes, confusing. I wasn't sure whether...
Example from ‘Storytelling for User Experience’ by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks

Echoing and rephrasing
…and so I decided to click on that link to go to the next page.
Okay, so let me get this straight: first, you saw the link, and...what, again?
I saw the link, and I thought to myself....(paraphrases self)
Example from ‘Remote Research’ by Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte

Conversational disequilibrium
I wanted to download that application, but the instructions were so confusing… (trails off and stops talking)
The instructions were confusing?
And you expected…
Confusing?...Because….
So then you…
Mmmm hmmm.
Example from ‘Storytelling for User Experience’ by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks

How to deal with difficult people
Photo by David Anderson http://www.flickr.com/photos/venndiagram/4667350842/

The quiet one
So, tell me what you're trying to do here
What are you trying to get done right now?
How does this (part/page) compare with what you were expecting?
If the user falls quiet repeatedly: And by the way, if you could just let me know what's going through your head as you’re doing this...

The bored one
I noticed that you just hesitated a bit before clicking on that button. Can you tell me why?
Why don't we back up a bit? I was curious about what drew your attention to the tab you just clicked on?
Before we move on from here, I wanted to ask you about this part a bit more. What do you think about the range of choices they give you here? Is anything missing?

The chatty one
That's really interesting, thanks for telling me about that. To come back to....
Can I interrupt you? Sorry, I was actually curious if you could...

Do’s and don’ts
Photo by Hilde Skjølberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/hebe/3004800079/

Do
Be the learner, not the expert
Ask naïve questions
Ask for specific stories
Allow people time to think
Listen!
Take notes or record
Take photos or collect artefacts
Photo by Tomas Hellberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhe/35312882/

Don’t
Be an interrogator
Ask questions that sound like blame, or argumentative
Ask for solutions
Try to solve problems during the interview
Ask what features people want
Ask people to imagine theoretical situations
Photo by G Meyer http://www.flickr.com/photos/kainet/144703613/

Have fun!
Photo by Ed Stevenson http://www.flickr.com/photos/estevenson/2641282945/

Resources
Mental Models by Indi Young
Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks
Remote Research by Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte
Undercover User Experience by Cennydd Bowles
Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
LUXrresources and materials by Janice Fraser (http://www.slideshare.net/clevergirl/) and Lane Halley (http://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/)
User Interview Techniques - Guidelines for Obtaining Better Results by Michael Hawley in User Experience, Volume 8, Issue 3, 3rd Quarter 2009
How to ask ‘why’ without asking ‘why by Karl Sabino (http://www.thinkflowinteractive.com/2009/09/01/how-to-ask-why/)
Articles on User Interface Engineering (http://www.uie.com/browse/usability_testing/)

Thank you
Janice Fraser, Lane Halley & Josh Seiden from LUXr for sharing their materials under a CC license
Flow Interactive alumni friends for sharing their advice
Graham Uff for feedback
And big thanks to everybody who made Lean UX Machine Tel Aviv happen!

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How to get more than opinions: Interview techniques and advice

by johanna kollmann on Aug 04, 2011

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