The essence of User Interview

User Interview is worth using when you want to know exactly what a user thinks about the product, website, application, process, or any part of it that is being made or has already been completed. In addition to the expectations, the interviews are suitable for exploring the habits, preliminary experiences and mental models of our users.

They do not always give a complete picture on their own, so it is necessary to supplement the interviews with observational research to provide an accurate and thorough picture of what users are actually doing.

It is important for the user to feel comfortable and safe during the interview, to be able to open up and give honest answers, not the ones they think we want to hear. Interviews should always be conducted according to a pre-defined scenario that can handle digressions, excessive speech, and interruptions.

User Interview at Ergomania

In Ergomania’s practice, User Interviews are mostly conducted in a semi-directed form usually lasting for 1 hour. Interviews will be conducted with a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12 existing or potential users. For larger scale services it is advisable to go beyond this number. An important principle to follow is that if our users are very diverse, there should be 4 participants from at least each significant group.

The interview scenario is created by us together with the client. During the interview, we seek answers to our problems according to our goals by mapping their opinions, experiences, plans, motivations, fears, intentions, and needs.

Interviews are conducted face to face and in person, but if circumstances warrant it (there’s a pandemic raging on around the planet), they could be done remotely, on the telephone or using online tools.

The results are presented in the form of a short presentation and are typically incorporated into the theme of a current workshop. Later, the information obtained by the interviews can be an excellent basis for creating persons, user journeys, flow, function definitions.

The main methods of User Interview

In Ergomania’s experience, User Interview should usually be used twice, at two stages of the UX design process:

1. Before the design is done, to better design the personas and user map, to formulate ideas, or to clarify processes.
2. During usability testing, when we want to gather direct personal user experiences and verbal opinions. Here, too, there are two additional options:
   1. Before testing, an interview provides an opportunity to draw users ’attention to certain areas and learn about their preliminary expectations.
   2. At the end of testing, when we want to get to know their fresh experience immediately after use.

User interviews are conducted online via well-known software (Skype, Zoom, Hangouts, Whereby, Messenger Rooms, etc.) adapting to the expectations of our clients and users.

What do our clients gain from the User Interview?

Our clients primarily receive accurate answers through User Interviews. Interview is a quick and easy way to understand how users feel, think, and consider really important regarding the service of product, and also how they behave while using them.

What is the role of our clients in the preparation for the User Interview?

It is important for our clients to provide users who’d take part in the interview and to comment on our interview scenario. Our clients can participate in the interviews to a limited extent.

The result of a successful User Interview

The result of the finished User Interview is a presentation or a structured list of ideas and expectations, in which we present the evaluation of the answers received in the interview.