How to

Frame Questions

in User Interviews

UX Team // Swarali Pandare

08-12-2022

“User research is a team sport.”

Contents

1. Why do we do user interviews?
2. First, a mental framework
3. How to frame questions
4. Types of questions
5. There’s no such thing as perfect

Why do we do user interviews?

1. You are not your user.
2. To learn about users’ values, mindsets and beliefs…
3. …in order to support the organization when creating products, services, and more.
4. User interviews are one of the many ways to do user research.

First, a Mental Framework

• You are not the expert.
• Worldviews: Leave yours at the door, embrace how your users see the world
• Be Neutral with Bland Curiosity
• Acknowledge the interview as something unusual.
• Listen (with your body language, by asking questions, with silence)

Framing Questions

• Focus on the interviewee and their experience.
• Focus on immediate experience.
• Simplicity in language and intent.
• Unbiased and unleading.
• Avoid judgemental language.
• Keep questions open-ended.

Focus on the interviewee and their experience.

“Is this a useful feature?”

Vs.

“Is this feature valuable to the work you do now?”

Focus on immediate experience.

“Is this interesting to you?”

Vs.

“If it were available today, would you use it? Why?”

Simplicity in language and intent.

1. Focus on one topic.
1. Divide a question like “How would this product be useful to you in school or at work?” in two.
2. Define terms or use the participants’ language.
3. Be careful of loaded words or words with many meanings.

Unbiased and unleading.

• Don’t force opinions.
• Make sure your questions don’t have implicit expected answers.

Avoid judgemental language.

• Avoid judgemental language.
1. “Don’t you think that this would be better if it was also available on smartphones?” vs. “Is there any other way you might use a feature like this?”
• Don’t quiz the user.
• “Do you know what this button means?”
• Don’t invoke authority or peer pressure.
• “Other people think this is a bad feature. What do you think?”

Keep questions open-ended.

• Avoid binary questions.

“Is this a good product?” vs “What, if anything, do you like about this product?”

​

• Leave room for examples.

Some Types

of Questions

• Sequence
• Quantity
• Examples
• Exceptions
• Complete List
• Relationships
• Structure
• Clarifications
• Ask why
• Probe delicately and without presuming
• Explain or teach to an outsider
• Compare processes, to others or across time

Some Types of Questions

• Sequence: “Describe a typical workday. What do you do when you first sit down at your station? What do you do next?”
• Quantity: “How many files would you delete when that happens?”
• Examples: “What movies do you stream?”
• Exceptions: “Can you tell me about a time when a customer had a problem with an order?”

Some Types of Questions

• Complete List: “What are all the different apps you have installed on your smartphone?”
• Relationships: “How do you work with new vendors?”
• Structure: “Who do the people in that department report to?”
• Clarifications: “When you refer to ‘that,’ you are talking about the newest server, right?”

Some Types of Questions

• Ask why: “Why do you think that happened?”
• Probe delicately and without presuming: “Some people have very negative feelings about the current government, while others don’t. What is your take?”
• Explain or teach to an outsider: “If you had to ask your daughter to operate your system, how would you explain it to her?”
• Compare processes, to others or across time: “What’s the difference between sending your response by fax, mail, or email?”

There’s no such thing as perfect

• It takes years of practice to become skilled at framing questions in the right way.
• Even experts can make mistakes.
• There is more to user interviews than just asking the right questions: Building a rapport, timing, choosing what to follow up on, making the interview a good experience for the interviewee, etc.
• Breaking rules is allowed!
• Any user research is better than no research. Don’t fear, go for it!

Sources

• Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal
• Observing the User Experience: A Practitioners’ Guide to User Research by E. Goodman, M. Kuniavsky and A Moed
• Think Like a UX Researcher: How to Observe Users, Influence Design, and Shape Business Strategy by David Travis and Philip Hodgson
• Avoid Leading Questions to Get Better Insights from Participants
• Five pitfalls to avoid when writing UX research questions | by Aviram Vijh
• Asking good questions in user interviews | by Leow Hou Teng | The UXplorer | Medium
• User Research as a Team Sport for the Entire Organization | by Dilan Ustek | UX Planet