Interviewing

In step 3.6, we introduced you to a number of different research methods. Let’s explore one in more detail – interviews.

Interviewing is a very common research method, but it’s not just about asking questions. There are a lot of different skills and techniques involved. These skills are learned mostly from experience – you will only know how you will react in different situations when you actually encounter them!

However, it is important to have an understanding of good interview practice. In the next steps, you will get the chance to ‘analyse’ some footage of interviews, but let’s first explore some of the key ideas.

Questions

There are different types of questions that are used to get different types of answers.

Open questions broaden the topic and encourage people to ‘open up’, so they bring their best ideas to the table. They often start with words like tell, explain or describe:

• “Tell me about the issue you are dealing with?”
• “Explain the issue to me, how can I help?
• “Describe what you have done so far.”

After asking a question, do not try to fill moments of silence. Give your participants time to think of answers and explore different possibilities.

Probing questions are often used after an open question to get more specific details. They are still open in question style, and start with words like who, what, where, when and how:

• “Who have you spoken to about this?”
• “What risks have you identified so far?
• “When did the problem first occur?”

Consider your tone of voice when asking probing questions – you could find that you have stopped interviewing and started interrogating!

Closed questions allow you to check specific information such numbers, dates or contact details, or get to the point when you need a quick yes/no response:

• “Is this the most recent dataset?” ** “How many people have you spoken to?”

Be careful that you do not ask too many closed questions. As user researchers, the point is to let the user speak and share their experiences – asking too many closed questions could mean you do most of the talking and they do not get the chance to contribute!

It is also important that you do not ask leading questions in user research. A leading question is one that suggests to the participant that you are expecting them to answer in a certain way.

For example, if you asked a participant something like “did you prefer the second version of the webpage?”, it could make them think that they are meant to prefer that one. Instead, just ask the simple open question – “which version of the webpage did you prefer?”

Avoiding leading questions will also help you reduce bias by allowing the participant to answer without influencing what they say.

You should always remember to keep your questions direct and simple. Asking complicated questions using high-level language or technical jargon can be confusing.

You should also avoid asking multiple questions at the same time. This can be confusing to the participant and also to you when it’s time to analyse your data, since it can sometimes be unclear what the participant is actually responding to.

Active listening

In step 1.8, several of our user researchers said that one of the most important skills in user research is active listening.

Active listening means paying attention and making it clear to the participant that you are focusing on what they are saying. There are several things you can do to show this, such as:

• making eye contact
• having open and engaged body language (sitting upright, leaning forward and not having your arms crossed)
• nodding or making verbal encouragements (saying “yes” or “mhmm” to show you are listening and understanding the participant)
• smiling to show that you are friendly and engaged

It is important that you allow the participant to speak. This includes giving them time to think or to work through their ideas verbally, so it is important that you allow there to be silences. It can be difficult to resist the urge to ask more questions or try to follow-up with another prompt when a participant takes some time to answer, but it is important that you develop this skill.

However, as well as letting your participant speak, you do also need to make sure the conversation stays on topic. If you are paying attention to what your participant is saying, you will be able to notice when they are going off on a tangent or perhaps adding too much extra information that is not relevant to the question.

If this happens, you need to try and steer the conversation back to the main topic so that the session is productive – but you need to be able to do this without interrupting suddenly or making the participant feel like they have given you the “wrong” answer.

Consent and safeguarding

This week, we learned about the importance of consent and safeguarding. It is crucial to remember that these things are always ongoing processes.

Even though your participants will have signed consent forms prior to the research session, you must always remind them that their participation is voluntary and that they can withdraw their consent at any time – even after it has finished.

During the session, you should always consider your participants’ wellbeing. Take breaks when necessary and always ensure that they are comfortable and happy with how the session is proceeding. A friendly tone of voice and open body language will help a participant feel safe and comfortable.

Task

In the next two steps, you will be asked to analyse some ‘interview’ footage. Take some time now to reflect on the information in this step to prepare.

If you have been involved in any kind of research interview before, either as a researcher or participant, share your top tips or any interesting experiences you have had with your fellow learners in the comments below.