Qualitative User Research: A Beginner's Guide to UX Interviews

[00:00:00]Hey, in this video, I'm going to share a step-by-step guide on how to undertake qualitative user research.

[00:00:09]My name is Maureen.

[00:00:10]I have been working as a product and UX designer for the past four years.

[00:00:14]And in this video, I want to give you some practical steps on how to conduct user research.

[00:00:19]Now, when you're not part of a big organization, you might not have the tools or resources for high end user research.

[00:00:27]So how do you go about.

[00:00:29]When you're just starting out in UX design or when you're a freelancer first, I'm going to focus on what user research is.

[00:00:36]And then I'm going to give you some practical tips on how to undertake a specific kind of user research, which is the user interface.

[00:00:44]All the things that you need to undertake a user interview are free and accessible software for video calls.

[00:00:51]For example, Google meet or zoom, a word document to write down your research, brief and questions.

[00:00:58]For example, Microsoft words or Google docs and access to a community.

[00:01:03]To find five or seven people to interview with that.

[00:01:07]Let's dive right in.

[00:01:08]What is user research?

[00:01:12]There are typically two different kinds of user research, quantitative and qualitative quantitative user research answers the question, how many.

[00:01:24]Qualitative user research answers the question, why and quantitative user research.

[00:01:31]You reach out to many people to get statistics and qualitative user research.

[00:01:37]You interview a few people to really understand dare behavior and motivations.

[00:01:44]We use user research to better understand the behavior motivation and needs of our users.

[00:01:51]User research is normally the foundation of our design work, but we can also conduct you as a research throughout the whole design process.

[00:02:03]So why do we need user research?

[00:02:05]First of all, we can use the insights that we gained from user research to build solutions based on evidence.

[00:02:13]We also reduce the probability of building the wrong thing.

[00:02:18]And the most important thing is we ensure that we build a solution that is relevant and usable to our.

[00:02:25]We ensure that we solve the real problems that our users have.

[00:02:30]User research can also be used to understand and which direction we should go when it comes to products, experiences, or features.

[00:02:38]So now, you know, a bit more about what user research is and why it is important.

[00:02:45]As I just mentioned, there are two different kinds of research.

[00:02:49]Qualitative and quantitative.

[00:02:51]And in this video, I'm going to focus on qualitative user research that is done with a few people and answers the question why we're going to assume that you're a freelancer or just starting out in UX.

[00:03:04]So you might not have access to a lot of resources or a bigger audience.

[00:03:09]I'm going to share a few practical steps on how to conduct user research.

[00:03:14]But access to little budget and just a few people.

[00:03:17]So, first off we start with writing a user research, brief, a project brief.

[00:03:24]This is a kickoff document that shows you why you want to conduct this user research.

[00:03:31]It's important to first figure out why you want to conduct a review.

[00:03:36]Before you look into how you want to conduct a user research.

[00:03:40]The research brief consists of three important elements, the research goal research questions and the research method.

[00:03:50]Let's look at the research goal.

[00:03:51]First, the research goal explains why you are conducting the research.

[00:03:56]It shows the purpose and the scope of the research.

[00:04:00]For example, when you're designing a day, Uh, research goal might be to find out how people are looking to make connections.

[00:04:08]When you've written down the research, go it's time to think about the research questions.

[00:04:13]These are not the questions that you would ask the interviewee, but these are the questions that you would like to get answered during the research.

[00:04:21]For example, back to our dating.

[00:04:24]A research question could be, how do people connect with others online or using apps?

[00:04:29]Just for context, this research brief could just be a Google document or a word document important to keep in mind when writing down these research questions is that they should be user centered.

[00:04:41]The research questions oftentimes begin with how, what, why, in which way?

[00:04:48]For example, a research question could be.

[00:04:51]Why are people using mobile apps to connect with us?

[00:04:55]Research questions help you write an interview guide later on, and they also help you define which research method you should use.

[00:05:03]So now we discussed the research goals and you've written down some research questions that you want to get answered.

[00:05:10]Let's discuss the research method.

[00:05:13]This is the method that you will use to get the information that you're looking for.

[00:05:17]And this is important because the method also implies what kind of insights you will get new.

[00:05:23]These insights will then further inform the project or the solutions that you will be working on.

[00:05:29]There are many different research methods and you can also use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.

[00:05:36]But in this video, we will be focusing on the research method of interviewing people.

[00:05:42]The benefit of interviewing people is that you can get really deep insights and motivations needs and behaviors from just a few people.

[00:05:52]The downside of interviews is that they're quite time-consuming.

[00:05:56]So take your time in between.

[00:05:58]And also keep in mind that it is oftentimes enough to talk to five people to cover most of the insights that you need.

[00:06:08]So after you have written your research brief with the goals, the questions, and you found a research method, it's time to find people to interview.

[00:06:17]And for this, it's very important to first define screening requirements.

[00:06:22]What is it that you're looking for in the people that you want to interview?

[00:06:26]Try to find people that fit your target audience and try to avoid talking to friends and family unless they are part of that target audience.

[00:06:38]So for example, when we look back on our dating app, the screening requirements could be single people between 18 and 45 years.

[00:06:47]That already have experienced connecting with others through mobile apps.

[00:06:51]So where do you actually find these people?

[00:06:54]Bigger companies use research coordinators or even recruitment services, but keeping in mind that you're just on your own or you're freelancer, you might want to use Facebook groups or Reddit.

[00:07:07]You can use Facebook search filters or subreddits to find relevant groups, make sure that you first ask permission from these groups before you post anything that requires any kind of personal information.

[00:07:20]So, for example, with our dating app, I would look for groups of single people in Berlin, on Facebook, since this is a qualitative user research, I'm looking for people to interview.

[00:07:32]So I would reach out to single people in Berlin.

[00:07:35]Maybe there is a group on Facebook and I would ask them if they are interested in participating in a user research interview, since this is qualitative user research, I'm looking to interview a small number of.

[00:07:48]As I just mentioned five to seven people is already sufficient to find the most important insights to go forward with.

[00:07:56]So now we covered digital communities, but what happens when your topic has a place in the physical world?

[00:08:02]In that case, you can leave out flyers and places that are relevant for your target audience.

[00:08:08]For example, sport clubs or events, spaces, or supermarkets, what you would do is just leave your email.

[00:08:15]Phone number and some information about the interview that you want to take.

[00:08:20]Just keep in mind that leaving out flyers might not be as effective because you can't really screen the people that will reply to your flyer.

[00:08:31]After you created the research brief and you found the right people, it's time to write an interview guide.

[00:08:37]These are the questions that you want to ask.

[00:08:40]The people that you're interviewing here are a few.

[00:08:43]That I applied when writing an interview guide the first and foremost is to keep your research goal in mind.

[00:08:50]So what is it that you want to find?

[00:08:53]The second important thing is to formulate a few key questions.

[00:08:57]These are the most important questions that you want to ask, but also leave room for followup questions, because you want this interview to be like a natural conversation.

[00:09:08]Rather than a script that you're reading.

[00:09:11]Also, you can never really tell what people will answer to your question.

[00:09:16]So leaving room for followup questions allows you to dig even deeper and gain more valuable insights from your interviewee.

[00:09:26]Here are two tips to write good interview questions, tip one, avoid leading questions, leading questions.

[00:09:34]Try to get a certain answer out of your user.

[00:09:37]And we.

[00:09:38]So don't assume anything and try to ask very neutral questions, going back to the example of our dating app and example of a neutral question could be, Hey, can you tell me a bit more about your experience with mobile dating apps?

[00:09:54]An example of a leading question could be, what do you hate about tender?

[00:09:59]The reason why this is a leading question is because I assume this person has used tender and doesn't like, it.

[00:10:07]The second tip is to avoid closed questions.

[00:10:11]These are questions that your user can only answer with.

[00:10:14]Yes or no.

[00:10:15]In our dating app.

[00:10:16]A closed question could be, have you used tender that question can only be answered with yes or no.

[00:10:23]An open question.

[00:10:25]Which specific dating apps do you use?

[00:10:31]These are some tips and tricks that you can use when you're interviewing your selected participants.

[00:10:37]First of all, you want to create a safe space for the person that you're interviewing, reassure your interviewee.

[00:10:44]That negative feedback is okay as well as critical feedback, because these are the things that you want to learn more.

[00:10:52]If you want to record the conversation or maybe even film it that makes sure that you always ask permission and also explain to your interviewee what you will do with the recordings before you jump right in the questions, explain the research goal so that your interviewing knows what this conversation is about.

[00:11:12]During the interview, avoid something.

[00:11:15]I always ask why as many times, as you can to really dig deep and get to the root of a certain behavior need or motivation.

[00:11:25]One important thing to keep in mind.

[00:11:27]And this might be the most difficult thing when you're just starting with user interviews is to try and keep the conversation natural.

[00:11:35]So use the questions that you've written down before as a guideline, but not as a.

[00:11:41]Thanks.

[00:11:42]I do to keep the conversation natural is to start with a bit of small talk and also treat the questions that I've written down before.

[00:11:49]Very flexible.

[00:11:51]So when the conversation leads to a certain topic, and I actually want to talk about that later on, I might talk about it early on in the interview, because that feels more natural.

[00:12:01]And then the last tip I have for.

[00:12:04]It's to react neutral.

[00:12:06]So don't put any judgment and what your users might tell you.

[00:12:10]For example, when we're interviewing someone for a dating app and this person says, oh, I've used 20 different dating apps.

[00:12:19]Avoid any reactions.

[00:12:21]Oh really?

[00:12:22]That's a lot because we don't want the interviewee to feel judged and start.

[00:12:27]What I like to do is repeat what my interviewee just told me.

[00:12:32]So for example, someone just told me that they used 20 different dating apps, and then I would say, okay, so you used 20 different dating apps.

[00:12:41]Why is that repeating what your interview we just told you has to be.

[00:12:48]First of all, it shows that you're interested in what the other person is telling you.

[00:12:53]And second of all, it allows you to check and see if you understood the person correctly.

[00:12:59]Before we finish up, let us know if you have any questions about user interviews or use a research in the comments.

[00:13:05]We'll answer your questions as soon as we can, hopefully this video has helped you to understand what user research is, why it is important and how to conduct user interviews on your own.

[00:13:17]Of course, there are plenty of other methods to conduct user research.

[00:13:21]And the one that I discussed today are qualitative user interviews because that's the most accessible one for people that are working on their own or working as a freelance.

[00:13:33]If you want to learn more about UX and UI design, subscribe to the career Foundry channel and hit the bell icon to be notified when we release new videos, I really hope you enjoyed the video and you now better understand how to conduct qualitative user interviews.

[00:13:49]Thank you for watching and see you next time.