What Are User Interviews? + How to Conduct Them

Key takeaways

User interviews offer your organization the opportunity to gain insight into the individuals who use your product and understand their needs.

• When conducting a user interview, you can choose from three formats: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured.

• The three types of user interviews are generative, contextual, and continuous interviews.

• You can learn how to become a UX researcher to conduct user interviews.

Discover more about what a user interview entails, the reasons to conduct one, and how to be successful in the process. Afterward, if you're interested in learning more about UX design, consider enrolling in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate, where you can learn to complete the design process from beginning to end.

What are user interviews?

User interviews are opportunities to understand who your users are and hear about their needs and goals when interacting with a product. They're a key part of UX research, which tends to support one of two main processes: either the design of a new product or the improvement of an existing one. The results from user interviews can inform the work that UX designers, UX writers, and UX engineers go on to produce.

Unlike surveys, which aim to gather a large amount of quantitative data about a broad number of users, user interviews can be held in small groups or one-on-one. They can be conducted in person or virtually, but they typically last 30 to 60 minutes. User interviews are meant to gather information about user attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Interviews can occur during any stage of the UX design process, including ideation, prototyping, or usability testing, but they're always recorded for later review.

Who conducts user interviews?

At large companies, a UX researcher will often conduct user interviews as part of their work to gather both qualitative and quantitative user data. However, if the company is smaller, a UX designer or UX writer may conduct a user interview.

User interview formats

When conducting the interview, the UX researcher has the option of choosing between three different formats: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured.

• Structured: The most organized and rigid of the options. Interviews are conducted using the exact same questions and asked in the exact same order.

• Semi-structured: A more flexible option, semi-structured interviews combine structured and unstructured approaches. While the interviewer will follow a script, it's looser, and they're able to ask follow-up questions.

• Unstructured: The most flexible option, unstructured interviews don't follow a script. Instead, the interviewer will have an open conversation with the user in an effort to discover more details than predetermined questions might reveal.

3 types of user interviews

User interviews can be used throughout the design process. As a result, it can sometimes be helpful to approach each stage using a specific type of user interview. We've outlined three below:

1. Generative interviews are conducted early in the design process to get ideas from users. This type of interview involves broad questions and a structured format. 

2. Contextual interviews are used to evaluate the use of a product or service. This semi-structured interview happens in the place where the participant normally uses the product or service, whether at work, home, or the company conducting the interview.

3. Continuous interviews help gather feedback from users on a consistent basis. Data gathered from these open-ended interviews helps improve a product, service, process, or make it more customer-driven.

What is the best time to do user interviews?

User interviews are often conducted before a product launch, but they are also helpful in identifying causes of problems after launch, before adding new features, analyzing competitors, building user personas, and improving customer support.

How to conduct user interviews

Knowing how to conduct user interviews can help ensure their effectiveness. Consider using these strategies:

Define your objectives. 

To determine clear objectives for your user interview, as well as which format might be best to achieve those objectives, meet with your key stakeholders to discuss the intent for conducting research. Consider what users can tell you that might improve your product and how the information could affect your development process.

Build a rapport with users.

To put users at ease during an interview, it helps to build rapport. Try these tips.

• If it’s a remote interview, ease into the telephone call with the user in a friendly manner to introduce yourself and explain the process.

• For in-person interviews, greet your user by name at the beginning of the interview and offer a beverage.

• During an in-person interview, maintain good eye contact and make use of affirmative nods or verbal responses like, "Okay, thank you."

• Allow users to finish their thoughts without interrupting. 

• Speak slowly and calmly.

Ask open-ended user interview questions.

Instead of asking closed-ended questions that require a "yes" or "no" response, ask open-ended questions. These types of questions require a more detailed response, which means you'll gather more information. To get a detailed response, start a question with who, what, when, where, why, or how. Explore these examples for various stages of the design process:

• What do you like about using (product/service)?

• How would you describe your experience with (product/service)?

• How often do you think you might use (product/service)?

• Why did you decide to purchase (product/service)?

• What issues do you have with (product/service), if any?

• In what ways would (product/service) be useful to you?

• What improvements would you make to (product/service)?

Prepare follow-up questions.

Some users might not be as talkative as others. When you're using a semi-structured format, you can build in follow-up questions to encourage a user to expand on their answer. Good examples of follow-up questions include:

• "You mentioned X. Can you tell me more about that?"

• "What did you mean by X?"

• "What I'm hearing you say is X. Why is that important?"

• "Can you give me an example of X?"

Avoid jargon.

Participating in a user interview can make some people anxious. There's a good chance your users won't understand UX jargon like "beta launch," "end user," "needfinding," and "prototype." To keep your participant comfortable throughout the interview, avoid using these types of terms. 

Read more: User Experience (UX) Terms: A to Z Glossary

Consider your interview environment.

Choosing an appropriate user interview environment can also ensure a more comfortable experience for participants. Instead of conducting interviews in your company office, consider a more neutral environment. Good choices include:

• An empty conference room

• A meeting room at a local restaurant 

• A location the participant chooses

• A remote user interview

Extra tips for first-time interviewers

Extra information can help improve your interview skills, especially if it's your first time. Consider these tips:

• Come prepared with an interview guide, and tailor it to each participant. 

• Ask easy questions first to help the participant feel at ease, and arrange your questions in an order that makes sense, such as sequentially or in groups or themes.

• To help ensure authentic answers, refrain from leading the participant with biased responses like, "How nice," or "That sounds frustrating."

• Give your participant your full attention by digitally recording the interview rather than taking notes (but be sure to ask permission in advance).

• Tell the participant in advance how long they can expect the interview to take, and stick to that timeframe. 

Keep up with job possibilities and trends in UX design

To stay current regarding trends and job possibilities in UX design, join Career Chat on LinkedIn. Explore these other free resources:

• Watch on YouTube: Welcome to UX Design: Course Introduction and Objectives

• Take a quiz: UX Career Quiz: Is It Right for You? Find Your Role

• Explore AI for work: Reimagining Work and Learning with AI: Expert Insights from Dr. Jules White

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