“Dig” into the user using in-depth interviews

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Do you create products for people?
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A lot of things are created so that they are very inconvenient to use. It is as if the people designing these products do not at all think about how they will be used later. Do to do? Incorrectly form tasks and expectations? Guided by their own interests? Or do not know the users?

Incomprehensible overloaded sites, illogical mobile applications. Inconvenient boxes, jars, packaging that can not be opened, huge steps. And the food film, which does not tear? Rolls with packages in supermarkets is my particular pain. I can not tear them off quickly and I can not open the stuck bag (how do you do it?), Take the vegetables in the packed trays.



Source www.theuncomfortable.com

And there are many, many more examples.

I am very pleased that in recent years more and more attention has been paid to convenience. One of the reasons is increasing competition. But, nevertheless, there are stubborn and a lot of them!

As for the sphere of digital, many products are made similar to each other or “like competitors, but slightly better”. In this case, the general approach is maintained. It is frustrating when this general approach is inconvenient, erroneous. So there is more and more of the same type of garbage with the same errors. Still looking at each other. And then? This is becoming the norm .

In our time of abundance of information, people intuitively get rid of what is more complicated, leaving products simpler. Unnecessary / uncomfortable dies in favor of comfort. The only way to “be on the wave” in the perspective of the near future is to know what the person will really hook, what he really needs, is useful, convenient. And this is impossible if you do not work hard for this person to understand. Of course, this does not mean that you need to forget about business goals and become a philanthropist. But, if you make a product for people, your goals are closely related to how well you can solve a user's task. You need to find a balance and mark the middle ground. And it is difficult to create innovation , relying only on existing experience. It is necessary to think wider, turn off a well-grooved rut and see which roads can still be open. Then what you do will be better than your competitors.

We make products for living people, with their own moods, sensations and life experience. Many of us when designing web services, interfaces, products, forget to ask ourselves and them whether it will be convenient to use the solution, or what we will do with objections. Recently, Habré had a great article on how to inform the user that something had broken .

So, we'll talk about the same things, just tell you how to learn to ask the user and hear his answers, to feel his pains and needs, to grasp life experience and use it in order to continually improve your product. One of the effective ways to do this is in- depth interview .

Who am I, why and why?

My name is Vika and I lead the interface design at Mobile Dimension LLC . We create mobile applications and other digital products. Some time ago we made significant progress in researching users and developing empathy for them through in-depth interviews; we received a lot of valuable information and new ideas.

I want to give you a guide on how to do this research on your own. Dispel fears that it is incredibly difficult. So you can be sure that you can do it and improve your product.

About in-depth interviews

What is an ordinary interview? This is a conversation on a pre-prepared list of questions. The purpose of the interviewer is to get specific answers to specific questions. At the same time there is one drawback - the conversation is limited to those questions that were compiled by the interviewer. And it is quite likely that the respondent is actually worried about something else, but not the fact that he will tell about it.



What is an in-depth interview? This is a type of interview without a limiting list of questions. The interviewer asks the respondent to share his personal experiences and life stories, giving him the opportunity to reveal himself and choose what to tell about, helping with leading questions. The respondent, as a rule, recalls his most emotional experience, and this is the most valuable find.

The interviewer says little, basically the respondent says. This allows the conversation to flow in the direction that the respondent wishes, so you can understand exactly which moments are most important for him. The interviewer ensures that the conversation proceeds within the framework of the topic being studied. The conversation resembles a conversation between two friends. One tells stories, the second listens.

How to conduct an interview?

I will say right away that it will not be easy for everyone from a psychological point of view to start conducting in-depth interviews, and this is normal. Because it is necessary to invite a stranger, begin to communicate with him and still try to catch important moments. But the most important thing is to start, regardless of fear and doubt. Below I will tell you how to conduct an interview in steps. To make it clearer, I will immediately cite examples from our research to improve one of our most popular applications, Pregnancy Calendar.

- First, determine who your target audience is? Who are you creating the product for? You can also define additional target audience (people who somehow influence the experience of the main audience).

For example, in our case, the main target audience is pregnant women. Additional audiences can be their men, doctors in antenatal clinics, obstetricians.

It is necessary to interrogate the additional target audience if, in the course of the study, you understand that the experience of the main target body is not enough to solve your problem.

- Find a way to meet with representatives of Central Asia in person. Find and establish contact with the right people, you can use the post on social networks or through friends. If your product already exists, you can chat with current users of this product.
We sent a push-notification to the app, inviting the expectant mothers to participate in the study.

- Be prepared for failures. There will be more than positive answers. It's okay, don't let that bother you.

- Choose a wide variety of audience members.
For example, we talked with pregnant women and the 1st and 3rd trimester, with experienced (3rd pregnancy) and inexperienced (1st pregnancy).

- Most likely, organizing a personal meeting with everyone will fail. Nothing, even an in-depth interview and involves a one-on-one conversation, you can call up via video call or phone call. The main thing to lay on the call for at least 20 minutes.

We had interviews of this and that type, since not all pregnant women were comfortable visiting our office.

- Tell respondents in advance about the purpose and topic of the study, designate how long it will take (usually about an hour) and assure that you will not transfer the heard information to third parties. Ask for permission to use the recorder at the meeting. You will need to record the conversation later to analyze the conversation.

- Tune in to the respondent in a friendly way! Start a conversation with common phrases and questions. For example, how he got there, how he spent his day, how he was in the mood. This is necessary in order to get him to himself and to conduct a more open dialogue. If a person came to your territory, offer tea or coffee. We offered both, and sweets, and after the conversation we gave flowers.



- Gradually get to the point. Your goal is to hear life stories. So ask: "Tell the story about ...". When the respondent begins the story, ask clarifying questions in the manner in which he himself leads the conversation. Questions should be open. You can capture the main points, but it’s better if you don’t get distracted from the conversation. Your colleague can assist you and record the respondent’s phrases. In addition, you will have audio recording of the conversation. If one of you records, do not enter your interpretation into what you hear, but write down literally the phrases that the respondent says.

We asked to tell stories about pregnancy right from the very beginning, from the moment they learned that they were pregnant. What happened next, what steps they took, what has changed in their lives and in their heads. They asked a lot about what they felt at one time or another. It is feelings and emotions that help people understand and feel their experiences.

- Ask to tell about what worries them most and what pleases them. What is most memorable? Both negative and positive points are important. Negative talk about problems that you can solve. And the positives can be used in the product to engage the audience. Do not interrupt. Do not fill awkward pauses, perhaps at this moment the respondent will have an idea of ​​what else you can tell. If you understand that you are far from the topic, use questions and phrases, somehow related to what interests you, to direct the conversation.

- Ask the respondent to present an ideal situation / ideal service / ideal product. What will it be in his opinion?

- Use your wisdom. A person can talk about superficial motives. Ask as many questions as possible “Why?” And “Why?” To get to the point that really bothers people. Remember Maslow's Pyramid?
For example, our respondents talked a lot about changing their diet, trying to reduce the level of stress, better filtering information, choosing the hospital and doctors very responsibly. At the heart of all these things lies a huge desire for the safety of yourself and the unborn child.



- End the conversation smoothly, thank the person for their time, because you have received a lot of useful information. Tell him about the contribution he made to the study. His usefulness will be pleasant to him. Ask for permission to contact him again if there are any other questions. Offer him to write to you if he has any more ideas or comments, it is likely that the person will remember something more significant after a while.

- A very important point! At first, you will not get much. Most likely it will not be possible to hold a conversation perfectly. Perhaps you will forget what to say and how to get lost. It may seem to you that the conversation turned out to be not entirely useful, you were expecting another and imagined everything was wrong. This is normal! Despite all the doubts, you got a lot of useful information and experience. You will definitely understand this later. Do not scold yourself, it only demoralizes. The more you do the interview, the better you will feel and understand the process.

- How many interviews are needed? Good question. It depends on how diverse your audience is. From a certain point you will hear less and less new information from respondents. The rest will be repeated. So the study can be considered quite complete. The most repetitive moments will be the most representative results of your research.
In our study for the Pregnancy Calendar, we had enough 5 in-depth interviews to get detailed information about the experience of pregnancy.

What to do with all this next?

- All received information needs to be processed. Remember, you made audio recordings of conversations? Take someone to help you, start listening to the recordings and write down all the important phrases of the respondent verbatim. It is very convenient to work with stickers, because they are visual and quickly moved. One phrase - one sticker. Try to write in legible handwriting or in block letters. The second person is needed in order to reduce the likelihood of your personal interpretation of what has been said.

At the end of the recording, you will have very, very much written stickers! For clarity, you can stick them on the board or on the wall.



- Try to group stickers into logical blocks. Stickers with duplicate information can be stuck on each other.

For example, we have the following logical blocks: “Preparing for childbirth”, “What do I think about pregnancy”, “Breastfeeding”, “Suggestions to the application”, “Doctors and the hospital”, etc. The main goal is to bring order to the resulting chaos.



- Listen to the rest of the recordings and also put the information on the stickers. Add these stickers to the created logical blocks. You can change logical blocks, create others, regroup. Repeat on how you feel more comfortable.



- Now we need to isolate the most frequently repeated moments in each block. The biggest problem is the one everyone has said about. The most important experience is that which everyone has mentioned. Individual experiences are not as important for you as often repeated. We call the identified problems “Pain”, other important points - “Insights”. List all the pains and insights where you are comfortable.

Congratulations, the research results are ready! Now you have penetrated to your users, understand them. You know what bothers them and what makes them happy. Think over every problem. How can you solve it with your product? What needs to be fixed in your product to make it easier / more convenient / more useful? What emotional moments can you use for your business? Write down all the ideas that come to your mind, even the most delusional! You will always have time to fold back the unrealizable, but this way you will have a chance to come up with something new and amazing!

It is obvious that many problems can not be solved due to the various limitations of your activities.

For example, we can not help women not to experience toxicosis, although this is a very frequent and significant problem. But, understanding this problem greatly expands our empathy for them. And, who knows, maybe someday we will figure out exactly how we can alleviate toxicosis!

Think of how to improve the experience of at least one respondent and you will help many!

In addition to the topic of empathy for users and the generation of ideas, you can read about design thinking or listen to courses.

Graphic Illustrations - www.freepik.com

Author Victoria Shishkina