Interviewing Users

Overture, curtain, lights!

2013-05-02T15:12:01Z

Today Interviewing Users is finally released! I'm so excited; last night was like the night before my birthday (or at least the way that felt when I was a kid). Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm and I'm looking forward to people's thoughts when they've had a chance to read and digest and reflect.

Steve interviewed by Tomer Sharon

2013-02-28T00:39:53Z

I was interviewed by Tomer Sharon, author of It's Our Research. The video of our conversation has just been posted. Our topics included

why it is so hard for people to do user research
how startups should approach it
what clients expect from user research
interesting interaction with clients who work with a user research agency
how to treat the relationship with UX stakeholders as a design problem
forming checkpoints to see if clients implement results and recommendations of user research
how to create healthy partnerships with clients rather than vendor-client relationships

Recording interviews on a smartphone

2013-01-24T17:35:00Z

Here's a nice review of some smartphone apps that could be used for recording interviews. What's not covered is the implications of recording a long session: How long til the battery dies? How long til the device fills up? You should probably experiment before bringing into the field.

One of the most highly regarded voice recorder apps is Voice Recorder HD by eFusion. It is a $2 iOS app (also a $2 app for Samsung Android tablets). Its maker says it appeals to business users and even sound professionals. The app is graphically sophisticated and its interface is stripped down to the minimal components you need for recording sound.
A button starts recording the sound, a button stops recording and there is a timer. At the bottom of the main screen there are three clear menu buttons that take you to different parts of the app. There are audio recording controls, a list of your previous recordings and a settings page. It is pleasingly simple.
Where the app excels is in its subtleties -- such as its audio volume meter that displays the maximum volume recorded recently, and the app's main graphical display, which is a big image of a microphone, flashes red to remind you that you are in the middle of a recording.
The Voice Recorder HD app does fail on a couple of fronts. For example, audio file trimming functions (handy if you need to edit your recorded files right there in the field) cost an extra $1 to buy via an iTunes in-app purchase.
While the app's main systems are easy to navigate, that is not necessarily true for more complicated actions like changing the file name of a previous recording. I found this part of the interface to be confusing as it required clicking through to different subpages.
A similar app, Audio Memos, costs just $1 in the iTunes store. This app is even graphically simpler than Voice Recorder HD. Its main interface is a list of your previous recordings with a control bar at the bottom containing a large "record" button and access to the app's settings.
Despite its less eye-catching design, the app does have powerful features. These include the ability to record in the background while using other apps, and to connect to a Bluetooth microphone.
One of the difficulties of recording sound is that at times volume can either be too quiet or too loud, but this app has adjustable amplification so you can adapt it to deal with varying volume during recording.
The app can also automatically send recordings via e-mail when they are complete, and Wi-Fi file transfers are also available. A really useful feature is that the app can automatically start recording the moment it is started -- a feature that may be handy if you need to record sounds at unexpected moments.
For Android devices, the app Easy Voice Recording (free on Google Play) is an unfussy yet full-featured option. The app is split into two sections: recorder and player.
The recording section has large touch controls to start, stop and pause a recording and has a neat graphical trace demonstrating the volume of recently recorded sounds. From this part of the app you can also edit the file name of a recording, share it over Bluetooth or e-mail, and have access to the many settings.
These settings include the ability to turn on or off a hiss-reduction system and adjust the audio file format and recording quality (from below "telephone quality" all the way up to "CD quality").
Alternatively there is a $4 pro version of Easy Voice Recording, which adds extra features like a connection to Bluetooth or stereo microphones. You can also adjust the app's built in amplifier to deal with volume variations while you are recording.
This pro version also has the option of controlling the recording from outside the app itself via a widget on the main Android interface -- a feature that is useful for moments when you need to activate a recording quickly.
Another great alternative on Android is the Smart Voice Recorder app (free on Google Play). This app is less complex and has a slightly less intuitive menu system. But this simplicity may appeal to you if you don't need to record audio often. And it does offer some useful tricks like the ability to detect silence and stop recording in order to save memory space.

via Exploring the Many Options That Make Recording Easy - NYTimes.com.

Video from UX Lisbon: Discover and act on insights about people

2012-12-20T18:07:34Z

The lovely folks at UXLx have just posted the video from my talk earlier this year, Discover and act on insights about people.

Some of the most effective ways of understanding what customers want or need - going out and talking to them - are surprisingly indirect. Insights produced by these methods impact two facets of innovation: first as information that informs the development of new products and services, and second as catalysts for internal change. Steve discusses methods for exploring both solutions and needs and explores how an understanding of culture (yours and your customers) can drive design and innovation.

If you don't see the video embedded above, you can view it here

Applied Ethnography Courses - A Public Resource

2012-07-25T18:56:10Z

Sam Ladner started this Google Spreadsheet that lists a variety of places where people can study applied ethnography. No doubt this document will continue to grow!

How To Work A Locker Room

2012-07-23T17:21:09Z

I came across this wonderful piece by Michelle Seaton, in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 (originally published in The Pinch).

Only an excerpt is available online; I encourage you to seek out the whole article. While the context is sports journalism, she explores empathy and how to (or not) manage professionally-determined boundaries between interviewer and subject, and how that management feels inside.

Don't talk to the stars--the high scorers, the French-Canadian goalies, the Eastern European wingers, or any rookie with a multimillion-dollar signing bonus. No one governs their behavior. No one reprimands them. No one even warns them. And on some days, who knows when, cruelty becomes sport. Talk to the captain, because he has to be nice to reporters. Talk to the goon--the guy hired for his fists, the guy whose job it is to beat opposing players while thousands cheer--because goons are plain-spoken and often funny. Nobody knows why, but they are. Perhaps human nature compels them to wrap an ugly skill in a charming package. And talk to the guy who went to Harvard. There's one on every team. These guys are never big stars, but they give nice, long answers, philosophical answers, in which most of the nouns and verbs agree. Those quotes can come in handy if the story runs short.

Don't tell anyone that you don't know anything about hockey, that you've never sat through an entire game, that you don't know any of the players' names, or that you had to call for directions to the practice facility. Act like you've been here before. The beat writers who are here every day have it down. They sigh heavily while gazing into the middle distance. They keep their coats on and check their watches frequently, as though they are late for an important meeting. They cultivate tics of boredom: tapping their notebooks against an open palm, rolling their shoulders to get at some ancient kink. They nod briskly to each other and say, "How's it goin'?" Nobody ever answers this question.

Come to Steve's UX Australia workshop on interviewing

2012-07-12T15:39:52Z

I'll be teaching Immersive field techniques: Interviewing and observing for user research, a full-day workshop at UX Australia in Brisbane, in August 29th.

Interviewing is undeniably one of the most valuable and commonly used user research tools. Yet sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:

It's based on skills we think we have (talking or even listening)

It's not taught or reflected on

People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills

Without good interviewing skills, research results may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggesting the wrong design or business responses, or they may miss the crucial nuance that points to innovative breakthrough opportunities. In this day-long session, we'll focus on the importance of rapport-building and listening and look at techniques for both. We will review different types of questions, and why you need to have a range of question types. This session will explore other contextual research methods that can be built on top of interviewing in a seamless way. We'll try some practice exercises for improving your own interviewing skills. Through a homework exercise and a field trip during the workshop, we'll also practice observation of users in an environment.

This workshop is an evolution of something I've been teaching for a number of years (and continue to refine). Over the past couple of years I've led forms of this session in Istanbul, Vancouver, Savannah, Toronto, Lisbon, Barcelona, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. Now it's Australia's turn. I believe some of the conference workshops have already sold out, so if you might be going, please sign up soon! I look forward to seeing you there!

Steve speaking locally, about improv, design, and creativity

2012-06-15T20:39:40Z

I am frequently asked when I'm doing a public talk in the SF Bay Area, and now I can answer: next week!

I'm giving my popular talk Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha in Cupertino on Wednesday, June 20th, at 6:30. This talk, about improv, creativity, and design, is something I've revisited and revised for a number of years. As the talk has evolved, I've presented it at CHIFOO, Puget Sound SIGCHI, IxDA New York (slides, video), IDSA's Southern Conference, IDSA/ICSID World Design Congress, IDSA 2009, and DUX05.

Read more here, and come on down to the event
HP Oak Room
19111 Pruneridge Avenue Cupertino, CA 95014

I hope to see you there. No iguanas will be harmed. No one will be forced to do improv but there should be plenty of opportunities to try it out if you're up for it!

Resources

2012-05-30T19:37:22Z

Presentations

We've Done All This Research, Now What (Mozilla UX 2012) (video)
Discover and Act on Insights about People (Lift 2011) (slides and video)
Culture, User Research & Design (Unfinished Business 2011) (slides and audio)
Best Practices for Interviewing Users (SXSW 2011) (slides and audio)
Skill Building for Design Innovators (CHIFOO 2010) - (slides and audio)
Ethnography as a Cultural Practice (PARC Forum 2010) (video)
Design and Research: Ships in the Night? (User Research Friday 2008) (slides; video)
Cross-Cultural Research (UX Week 2006) - (slides here, audio here)

Templates and Samples

Sample Screener (PDF)
Interview Guide (PDF) - The interview guide from my Reading Ahead project
Fieldwork scheduling - Use this Google Doc to manage the schedule, participation, and other details
A Guide to Participating in Fieldwork (PDF) - The handout we give to clients before we head out into the field together
Debriefing Worksheet 1 and Debriefing Worksheet 2 (PDF) - two different examples of worksheets to be used right after the interview in order to capture some of the key initial takeaways
Topline Summary (PDF) - an example of a topline summary from the Reading Ahead project.
Research Deliverable - Slides and audio from Reading Ahead project deliverable

Articles

Organizational Empathy, from Top to Bottom (Appliance Magazine)
The Cultures of Design - article about how organizations approach making design decisions (Design Management Institute)
Take It from Consumers: Simpler Is Better (PDF here) - article about ease of use (Photo Reporter)
The Power of Bad Ideas - Core77
Homer Simpson's Duff Beer: Barley, Hops, and Cultural Stories? - Core77
Lunapads or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Discomfort - Core77

Interviews

Interview about user research with Gerry Gaffney on the User Experience podcast
Steve speaks with Jared Spool about "Immersive Field Research"
UIE podcast - You've Done All This Research... Now What?
Interview with Ed Cotton at Influx Insights about design inspiration and design strategy
Interview with Luke Wroblewski - part 1, part 2
SpoolCast: Steve Portigal's Deep Dive Interviewing Tips Revisited
Interviewed for a Lunar Design podcast about the balance between speed, creativity and innovation in the design process.

Share Your Fieldwork War Story

2012-05-10T19:02:51Z

I've started a new series of fieldwork war stories, and I'd love to get your examples as well...(if you are reading this in Google Reader, etc. you may simply see a link to an online form, but if you open the page itself, you will see the form and a bit more about what I'm asking for!)

Fill out my online form.

Nick Bowmast's design researcher toolkit

2012-05-08T19:44:55Z

Nick Bowmast has thought in-depth about what to take with him when he goes into the field

With design research (contextual inquiry or ethnography, if you like), there's an amount of planning and kit required too - I've been running in-home interviews, playing both manager and roadie roles, but isolating these activities as much as possible from my role as researcher.

Every minute spent with a customer is valuable, so I can't afford to be distracted by practicalities like recording equipment and timings.

After a few years experimenting with these practicalities I've arrived at a 'toolkit' of things in my backpack, so when I pull up at the customer's house the 'roadie' can take a back-seat and let me get on with capturing the insights.

Check out his 'toolkit' here.

Documentaries as interviewing exemplars

2012-04-07T18:15:23Z

In the book I describe a scene from Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man; but great (and not-so-great) examples of interviewing best practices can easily be found in documentaries. A nice little blurb from the New York Times review, 'Player Hating,' Maggie Hadleigh-West's Documentary

In contrast to the approach she took in her confrontational 1998 documentary, "War Zone," she stays mostly in the background, making no apologies for her subjects' off-screen crimes. Rather, like the best interviewers, she holds her shots for several seconds after someone has ceased talking, knowing that silence, like an empty belly, demands to be filled.

Meet Google's search anthropologist

2012-03-30T16:04:26Z

Some nice bits about the process (including a lovely mention of "listening") in this article today

But about four years after forming, Google came to realize it needed human insights to infuse that information with context and meaning.
The company began conducting user research studies and hiring human-computer interactions experts, eventually snagging Russell from IBM in 2005. His main role is studying Web searchers in their natural environment, at home or work, picking up the human scent where the data trail goes cold.

"One of the things we can get from data is the behaviors," he said. "But in many cases, we don't know why the behaviors are the way they are."

For instance, just knowing that people were fleeing from advanced search didn't begin to tell the company how to fix it.
...
But at least one change made around the end of last year seems to have had a lasting impact. Google peeled the "advanced search" button off the main page to make it clean and simple, qualities users always request. Usage numbers declined, however, and stayed down.

During a trip to the San Francisco Public Library this month, it was clear why. Russell spent about an hour observing and talking to Patrick Shea, a librarian working on the ground floor.

He asked about typical patron inquiries and the search tools Shea employs to help them. Then he ran him through some tests, asking how he'd use Google to find vague queries like: "A book about oranges by a Scottish author."

At one point when Shea was stumped, Russell suggested he try advanced search. But Shea couldn't find it. The company hadn't just moved his cheese, they'd hidden it.

Russell has heard from a number of other librarians who can't seem to find it anymore. But when asked, he said that doesn't necessarily mean Google is going to put it back.

Google has hundreds of millions of users, each with different needs, working styles and levels of search competence. Every change for one subset - like those who occasionally use advanced search - comes at a cost for others - like the vast majority of people who never use it and don't want it cluttering up the main page.

Striking the right balance for the greater good requires listening to the data - and, of course, to the users themselves.

"That particular interview didn't finish off the painting," Russell said. "But every interview helps fill in a little bit more of the canvas."

Sketchnotes resources

2012-02-24T20:18:42Z

In the chapter on documenting interviews, I devote a little bit of ink to visual form (which include a variety of techniques, such as visual recording, visual note-taking/sketchnotes, and mind-mapping). While I can only focus on a limited aspect of these tools, I wanted to offer a bit more info. Adam Menter has generously given me permission to post a PowerPoint presentation and the associated PDF handout from a talk he gave at CCA in 2008.

Visual Recording Presentation (3.3M PPT)

Visual Recording Handout (2.3M PDF)

Tips to Improve Your Interviewing Skills (and a request for more!)

2012-01-10T23:19:56Z

I'm working on some of the final chapters and am interested in the ways that people have developed their own skills as an interviewer. I'll list a few but this list can only get better with your input.

Practice, man, practice. It's how you get to Carnegie Hall and it's how you get better at interviewing.
Create your own practice occasions: that chatty seat mate on an airplane, the extroverted cashier - ask them a question and then ask them a follow up questions!
Reflect, just like a football coach who reviews the game films; watch your videos, read your transcripts, and look at what worked well and what you might have improved
Be interviewed whether it's for a survey or a usability study or a poll, experience the interview from the other side of the lens
Critique the interviews of others (without resorting to your just-got-your-drivers'-license-know-it-all we all were at 16)
Observe others at work including great interviewers and poor interviewers - this can be in your work context, or in the media (Marc Maron, Charlie Rose, Terry Gross, and others)
Collect war stories (more on this coming very soon)
Try improv

That's my starter list, but what have you done to get better as an interviewer?