User Interviews
| Number of Participants | Facilitators | Category | Duration | Level of Difficulty |
| 1 or More | 1 Moderator | Empathize Phase | 20-60min | Simple |
Description
A User interview is a guided conversation to collect qualitative data from participants. Participants may be previous, current, or desired future users of your product or service. There are 3 main types of User Interviews:
- Structured (formal) Schedule of questions, strict order and wording
- Semistructured Guide of questions, key points/topics
- Unstructured (informal conversation) Guide of broad themes
Interviews are one of the most used research methods. Its origin is in the anthropology and
sociology field of study, yet, it has been used in different areas.
A structured interview follows rigid rules, where the interviewer needs to follow a sequence of questions in the order they were created through the use of questionnaires or surveys. The two other types have a flexible format; the interviewers have an important role in the process of stimulating the interviewee through follow up questions that are directly influenced by the participant answers. It is important to mention that the type of data that each one of them can produce is different. A structured interview is classified as a quantitative method, whilst, semi- and unstructured interviews produce qualitative data, for instance, opinions, feelings, individual experiences, values, etc. If one’s goal is to collect statistically significant data, it is recommended that one chooses a structured interview format. When one’s goal is to know the different types of opinions that surround the research theme, the better choice is to use semi-structured or unstructured interviews.
When comparing semi-structured with unstructured interviews, the most noticeable difference is the flexibility the interviewers have. In the former, the interviewers use a guide to conduct the interview. They have got a couple of questions or topics that were previously determined. It is important to mention that, different from structured interviews, the interviewers have the autonomy to change the order and create additional questions, as well. In the latter, usually, the interviewers have basic information to guide them during the interview, and they, usually, start with only one planned question. The follow-up questions are created based on the participant’s answers.
Materials
- Interview Guide
- Audio/Video recording device
- Pen & Paper for note taking
- Video Conferencing software (remote interviews)
Preparation
- Establish a research goal
- Identify and recruit participants
- Develop an interview guide
- List key topics and main questions
- Revise interview guide with feedback from team members
- Choose an appropriate environment
- Assign roles (e.g. Interviewer, Notetaker)
Before doing the interviews you need to create an interview guide. It is a tool that will guide the
interview and help you retrieve the information that you think is valuable to the project. You need to remember that interviews are flexible and this guide has the goal of guiding you, but you are free to change the order and create your own questions. When creating the questions you need to create open-ended questions and avoid suggestive ones. So instead of asking ‘Did you feel anxious?’ ask ‘How did you feel?’. The first question should be easy so that will make the participant comfortable and can help create rapport, as a rule of thumb go from broad to a specific question.
Another important element is the consent form. Once the participants sign this document they give you consent to store and use the data. In this document you need to explain the purpose of the interview, what it is about, where the data will be stored, who will have access to it, how long it will be stored, why do you choose him or her, inform that the interview will be audio-taped, etc. In order to do the interview, you will need to contact people to schedule one time and place. It is a common practice to offer some compensation to incentivize people such as Amazon gift cards, money, etc. Regarding the place, you need to remember that the place can affect the quality of answers, so choose a place where the participants will feel comfortable and that is quiet so that your audio-tape will be good.
During the interview, you can ask a probing question to stimulate the participant to give you more details about their experience. The most common are: Silence (be in silence and wait for the interview to continue talking), echo (repeat the last sentence or word), tell-me-more (ask “can you tell me more about that?”).
Step-by-Step Instructions
Before the Interview
- Create a list of open-end discovery questions related to your research topic.
- Check if there is any suggestive question. In a positive case, remove or rewrite it.
- Create your interview guide
- Test your interview guide with a colleague; Change the question if needed.
- Write your consent form. It should have information such as the goal of the interview, why are you doing it, what you will do with the data, who will have access to it, if they consent you to record it, etc.
- Get in touch with the interviewee and schedule the date and place of the interview
During the interview
- Give the consent form to the interviewee to sign.
- Turn on your audio recorder. When it is not possible, take notes.
- Ask the first open-end question.
- Pay attention to what they say and ask the follow-up question written on the interview guide or create new ones based on participants’ answers.
After the interview
- You can finish by asking if they would like to tell you anything else or if they want to asksomething.
- After finishing the interview, keep paying attention to what people say. They can tellvaluable information as they will be more relaxed.
- Transcribe the interview.
- Analyze the data.
Remarks, Tips, Limitations
- Ask open questions
- Ask follow up questions
- Search for stories
- Ask about their perception
- Leave room for silence
- Do not intimidate the interviewee
- Do not ask leading questions
- Do not ask for future predictions
The interviewer should pay attention to what the participants say and how they say it. Talk less and listen more.The interviewer has a vital role as co-creator of data, so pay attention to what the interviewee is saying in order to ask the correct follow up questions. Create an interview guide. It is not possible to calculate the sample size, you will know when you need to stop doing more interviews, as soon as you reach saturation. Interviews often include the process of transcribing the conversation, so it can be time-consuming as it involves writing the words, pauses, giggles, body language, etc. If the interviewer does not develop a rapport with the interviewees, they will not be comfortable sharing their experiences. There is software that can be used to facilitate the data analysis, such as Atlas it, NVivo, and Folio views. The interviewers can use different tools as a stimulus, such as questions, photographs, comics stripe, videos, etc.
References
Book: Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/
Article: Get better data from user studies: 16 interviewing tips https://library.gv.com/get-btter-data-from-user-studies-16-interviewing-Cps-328d305c3e37
Video (22 min): Yale University – Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Interviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PhcglOGFg8
Contributed by Andrejs Pantelejevs and Roberto De Oliveira as well as Hossein Pourtavakoli ​and Lucas da Costa.
