User interviews are an important part of designing and building great products. But if you’re not careful, they can also be a major time suck.
Most user research begins with interviews. But not all user researchers know how to create an effective interview plan. This leads to wasted time and effort, which could impact the results of your research project. How do you write an effective user interview plan? How can you ensure that your user interviews will be successful and provide the information you need?
In this post, we’ll show you how to write a user interview plan and share some tips for conducting user interviews effectively. By following these tips, you’ll be able to get faster, better results from your user interviews. So what are you waiting for? Start writing that interview plan!
What Is A User Interview?
A user interview is a conversation between a researcher and a user during which the inquirer asks questions concerning the user’s requirements, goals, and actions. User interviews are usually held in person but may also be done over the phone or via video chat. Video chats for user interviews have increased since the covid outbreak. People who use Zoom increased from 59% in 2021 to 70% in 2022.
User interviews are a type of qualitative research, which means that they’re used to gather insights that can’t be quantified. Qualitative data is often more useful than quantitative data when it comes to understanding user behavior.
What Is The Goal Of User Interviews?
The goal of user interviews is to understand the user’s needs, goals, and behavior. User interviews can be used to gather data about a specific task or event, such as how a user completes a purchase on an eCommerce website. Or they can be used to gather data about a broader topic, such as how users interact with mobile apps.
User interviews are typically conducted at the beginning of a project before any design work has been done. This allows researchers to gather insights that will inform the design of the product.
User interviews can also be conducted after a product has been launched, in order to understand how users are actually using the product.
How To Write A User Interview Plan
Before you can conduct user interviews, you need to write an interview plan. An interview plan is a document that outlines the goals, methods, and logistics of a user research project.
The goal of the interview plan is to ensure that the user research is conducted efficiently and effectively. A well-written interview plan will help you stay organized and focused during the research process.
Here’s what your interview plan should include:
1. Project Goals
Firstly, establish the goals of the user research project. What are you hoping to learn from the user interviews?
Are you trying to understand how users interact with a specific feature on your website? Or are you trying to understand the overall user journey on your website?
Your project goals will determine the scope of your user research. Establishing clear goals at the outset will help you focus your research and avoid collecting unnecessary data.
2. User Criteria
Next, you need to establish who you will be interviewing. You should start by defining your target audience. Who are the users that you want to learn from?
Once you’ve defined your target audience, you need to establish criteria for selecting interviewees. This will help you ensure that you’re interviewing the right people.
For example, if you’re trying to understand how new users interact with your website, you might want to interview users who have recently signed up for your website.
3. Questions
After you’ve established the goals and criteria for your user research, you need to write a list of questions that you want to ask during the interviews.
Your questions should be focused on the specific goal of your user research. For example, if you’re trying to understand how users complete a purchase on your eCommerce website, you might ask questions about the user’s thought process as they add items to their cart and check out.
4. Methods
Now that you’ve established the goals, criteria, and questions for your user research, you need to decide how you will conduct the interviews.
User interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video chat. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
In-person interviews are typically the most effective method for conducting user research. They allow you to build rapport with the interviewee and pick up on nonverbal cues. They also allow you to show the interviewee prototypes or design concepts, if necessary.
However, in-person interviews can be logistically difficult to arrange. They also require more time and effort than other methods of conducting user research.
Video chat interviews are the most convenient method of conducting user research. They don’t require the interviewer and interviewee to be in the same place, which makes them easy to arrange. Due to the rise of covid, other forms have become popular such as using Zoom and Google Meet for user interviews. tl;dv is a tool that can make your user interviews much easier, and faster and help you not just “question” your users, but also connect with them as you pay more attention to them. tl;dv will take care of recording your sessions, automatically transcribe them and you can have notes along with timestamps as your converse with your users. It makes life for a user researcher much easier. When all is said and done, you can quickly review full sessions or jump to specific sections with the timestamps you create. Sharing from tl;dv is even much easier! Try tl;dv now for free.
However, video chat interviews can be less personal than other methods. It can be difficult to build rapport with an interviewee over video chat, and you might miss out on nonverbal cues.
5. Logistics
Once you’ve decided on a method for conducting your user research, you need to establish the logistics of the project.
If you’re conducting in-person interviews, you need to establish a location for the interviews. For phone interviews, you need to establish a time and method for contact (e.g., email, phone call, etc.).
With video chat interviews, you need to establish a time and method for contact as well as a video conferencing platform (e.g., Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.).
6. Schedule
After you’ve established the logistics of your user research project, you need to create a schedule. When will the interviews take place? Who will be interviewed?
It’s important to create a schedule for your user research project in advance. This will help you ensure that the interviews are conducted in a timely manner and that you have enough time to analyze the data.
7. Analysis
After you’ve conducted the user research interviews, it’s time to analyze the data. What did you learn from the interviews? You should start by creating a report of your findings. This report should include a summary of your findings as well as recommendations for further action. Share your findings with your team. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that they understand the results of the user research. In order to increase the quality and impact of your reports, you should back up your analysis and recommendations with evidence from your user research sessions. tl;dv records and transcribed your meetings, so that you can mark important AHA moments of the research and attach them to the report, for maximum clarity of conclusions, and amplify the voice of the user to all stakeholders and decision-makers, such as the engineers, the product team and the designers
How Do You Formulate A User Interview Plan?
Qualitative user research is an important part of the product design process. It allows you to gain insights into how users interact with your product and understand their needs and wants.
One of the most important parts of qualitative user research is the interview. A great interview can provide a wealth of information about your users. But how do you create the best user interview? By planning. With a laid-out plan, you can create the right user interview script to use for your master plan. You can also make use of a user interview template based on tour designed agenda for your sessions.
However, conducting a great interview is not easy. It takes practice and experience to master the art of interviewing.
Know Your Goal
Before you start creating questions for your user interview, you need to know what you’re hoping to achieve. What is the goal of the interview? What do you want to learn from the users?
By understanding the goal of the interview, you can ensure that your questions are focused and on track.
Keep It Simple
When creating questions for your user interview, it’s important to keep them simple.
Don’t try to ask too much in one question. Instead, focus on one specific aspect of the user’s experience.
Be Direct
It’s important to be direct when asking user interview questions.
Don’t beat around the bush or try to trick the user into giving you the information you want. Instead, ask a straightforward question and let the user answer.
Avoid Yes/No Questions
Avoid asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Instead, ask open-ended questions that require the user to elaborate on their answer. By asking general instead of leading questions, you can get natural responses from your interviewees. This is the basic tenet of the book, The Mom Test written by Rob Fitzpatrick.
Be Prepared
It’s important to be prepared when conducting a user interview.
This means having a list of questions ready in advance. It also means being familiar with the product and the user’s experience with it.
By being prepared, you can ensure that the interview goes smoothly and that you get the information you need from the user.
User interviews are an important part of the product design process. By asking the right questions, you can gain insights into how users interact with your product and understand their needs and wants.
By following the tips in this article, you can ensure that your user interviews are effective and efficient.
Conclusion
User interviews are an important aspect of the design and development process, but they can also be a major time waster if you aren’t careful. You’ll improve your chances of impressing the interviewer and getting the job by preparing ahead of time for your UX interview. Get interviews done faster and reviewed the smart way with tl;dv.
