Many of the articles I read about user interviewing are horrifyingly intimidating. They take time and budget that most do not have. So, in this post, I adopt a more pragmatic approach.

Before talking about user interviews, let's talk about my favorite topic, I myself!

I would like to talk about 6 facts about me:

• I am 47 years old.
• He has been married to a wonderful wife for 21 years.
• I have a 1 6-yea r-old son.
• It has been 23 years since I was involved in digital work.
• For 13 years, he established and managed a digital agency.
• Currently working as an independent consultant.

Well, do you know these facts and feel like you know me? Of course that is not the case!

If this list is twice or 10 times, you will not know me. Also, reading all my books and 14 years of blog posts may not know about me yet. If you don't interact with people, it is difficult to know that person.

Only by spending time with a person can understand and understand that person, encourage the person's actions.

Reading the facts is not the same. That's why you need to actually meet the audience. You can only understand them by spending time with people, and only by understanding them can encourage them to act.

It is also recommended not to read the essays. Too many organizations rely on thir d-party user research companies. This has an advantage, but it should not be an excuse to avoid interviews with users.

So why are there few people who have some contact with users? Why are there people, such as designers, developers, marketing staff, management, and product owners, have never met target users?

The British government's digital service calls for a stakeholder who participates in the project to spend at least two hours with users in the last six weeks in the project.

This is not the case in the British government. UK government digital services argue that user surveys are very important, and in order to participate in the project, people who are interested in projects must contact users for at least two hours in the last six weeks. I am.

Similarly, Steve Krug, a usability expert, suggests that in his book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, he will carry out usability tests with users every month.

If you do a user interview at least once, your readers will be completely understood, and as a result, you will be able to drive the reader to your actions.

So how to start?

Consider Going to Your Users when Interviewing

I recommend visiting the audience's workplace or home. My personal experience can say that this kind of interview can be transformed.

It takes a little time, but we recommend visiting the audience's work and home. Personal experience is that this kind of interview will change.

I did this for the first time when I was involved in an e-commerce site. The client claims that I spent time with the viewer, but I admit that I was skeptical that I had been investigating enough.

I went to the first participant's house at the promised time. When he opened the door, two cats immediately tried to leave, and one rubbed on my feet on the way.

To be honest, when I met this very beautiful woman and entered the house, my head immediately came to a cat woman of The Simpsons. In fact, she turned out to have a total of nine cats.

Every aspect of her house was covered with a cat souvenir. The moment I sitting on her sofa, the cat jumped into my knees and stroked me.

After chatting for a while, I suggested how he had found an e-commerce site. She took me to the office and sat in front of an old desktop computer that I had never seen. The desktop computer was also filled with cat souvenirs.

In fact, her desk was filled with cat souvenirs, and there was no space to put the mouse.

Looking at our website, it looks simple and easy, but in the real world, people are distracted and not be the most suitable state.

At the moment she sitting, she asked the cat to jump on her knees and pay attention. In fact, she was strongly sought to be careful, so she tried to stop typing on the keyboard.

I learned valuable lessons from the first session. Looking at our website, it looks simple and easy, but in the real world, people are distracted and not the best condition. This is the topic mentioned in my post regarding cognitive impact.

I wouldn't have learned this lesson by talking to her on a survey, report, or on the phone or office. I just went to her house, where I saw the real face behind the persona and the survey.

Moreover, she was the first one of the six that day, and each was more impressive than the last one. I learned that day more than I had done so far.

Yes, such visits take time, but they are worth it. Even if you can only do it once, I urge you to do it. I spent a day on it and it changed the way I approach projects.

Supplement Your In-Person User Interviews with Remote Interviewing

However, you will probably feel the need to talk to more than six people. You may feel that this is not representative and that you need to listen to more. After all, six people cannot represent the whole audience.

Indeed, it is true. Talking to six people in one day will not give you a complete picture of your audience. But it is a start, and you can supplement it with a survey.

You can also ask people to come to you. This can save you a lot of time from visiting. But it can also prevent many people from participating, especially if you are trying to reach busy people (which, let's be honest, is most of us these days).

So whether you want to increase your sample size or reach people who cannot meet in person for some reason, remote interviews are a worthwhile option.

A simple phone call is a perfectly valid way to conduct a remote interview. But I personally prefer video conferencing using Skype, Zoom, etc.

Tools like Zoom are great for remote interviews because you can see the participants and even share your screen.

While sometimes a little less reliable than a phone call, it has two clear advantages. First, you can share your screen so you can see the location and so on together. Second, and in my opinion, even more important, you can see the other person. It's amazing how facial expressions often give more insight into the user and their thought process than what they're actually saying.

There are also video conferencing tools dedicated to user research, like Lookback. But these are overkill for simple interviews. They're designed for usability testing.

Avoid Interviewing Multiple People Together

Whether you're doing user research in person or remotely, I highly recommend doing it one-on-one instead of in a group session.

Focus groups have been popular for years, but they have some big drawbacks.

The focus group tends to control the conversation and involve other people in the group. As a result, it is easy to assume that the majority of the ou t-o f-th e-themtable people are shared by the majority.

On e-o n-one interviews may take time, but you can get better insights for the audience.

Ensure Your User Interviews Are Focused

The key to success is to clearly imagine what you want to learn, and to interview. What it is depends on your environment. But the good starting point is to focus on customer journey.

We recommend talking to the participants about your experience working with your company.

• What kind of problems and purposes did they first visited your company?
• How did you meet your company at first?
• What kind of impression did you have?
• What did you do next?
• What kind of questions did you ask and how did you get the answer?
• What other steps did you have in your relationship with your company?
• How did you feel about the process?

Talking about their journey is a good starting point for two reasons. First, it can focus on their experience, not their opinions. It's common to say something while saying something, so focusing on their journey simply talks about them, without being drawn into subjective discussions.

Second, and more importantly, understanding their journey is essential for improving conversions.

Not User Interview Best Practice

I know that the approach mentioned in this post is not the best practice. He's doing something less than what he needs to do. But I am a realist. We know that there is almost no time and permission to interview companies such as Google and Facebook.

However, the approach introduced in this article can be done by anyone, no training, no budget, time. In my opinion, even a small amount of user interaction is better than doing nothing. The < SPAN> Focus Group tends to control the conversation and involve other people in the group. As a result, it is easy to assume that the majority of the ou t-o f-th e-themtable people are shared by the majority.