Twelve Effective Interview Techniques for User Research

Deep interviews are a common qualitative method, but designers often miss key opportunities to uncover users' hidden needs; this article presents twelve practical interview techniques to improve the quality of user research.

Technique 1: Reduce Tension Before the Interview Choose familiar locations such as the user’s home or office, start with casual small talk, and provide refreshments to help participants relax.

Technique 2: Emphasize That It’s Not an Exam Avoid intimidating language like “testing”; instead invite users to experience the product and help improve it, offering a higher‑order motivation rather than simple rewards.

Technique 3: Ask Questions Progressively Begin with broad, open‑ended prompts that let users share overall impressions, then gradually narrow to specific details, building a complete information map before probing deeper.

Technique 4: Converse Like a Chat Use the participant’s name, maintain eye contact, and avoid reading a script, fostering a natural, conversational flow.

Technique 5: Avoid Overly Open or Vague Questions Craft clear, focused questions to prevent ambiguous answers that yield little insight and may erode trust.

Technique 6: Don’t Let Users Speak for Others Encourage participants to share their own experiences rather than speculating on others’ perspectives.

Technique 7: Observe Micro‑Expressions Pay attention to subtle facial cues—such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise, and contempt—to detect genuine emotions that may contradict spoken words.

Technique 8: Don’t Turn Users into Designers Avoid asking users to design solutions; instead, explore their needs, difficulties, and desired improvements through specific, experience‑based questions.

Technique 9: Avoid Leading or Suggestive Answers Refrain from phrasing questions that hint at a desired response; keep the interview unbiased to prevent confirmation bias.

Technique 10: Encourage Storytelling Ask participants to narrate detailed stories about recent experiences; silence can prompt them to share additional insights.

Technique 11: Summarize and Analyze Collected Data After the interview, focus on organizing and interpreting the information to support accurate design decisions.

Technique 12: Engage Participants with Interactive Rewards Offer interactive incentives and clear communication channels to maintain enthusiasm and participation.

Author: Rosa, a Master’s graduate in Interaction Design from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, leads Baidu’s QUX experience evaluation team and has over seven years of product design and research experience.