Research: Interviewing Users

Qualitative user interviews are a core method of user research with which UX professionals likely feel very confident. However, when running user interviews for products that require users to interact with Generative AI (GenAI) experiences, there are some differences, so be prepared to ask certain key questions.

In this article, we’ll provide a definitive collection of qualitative interview questions that you can incorporate into your next user-research project for GenAI products. We’ve designed these questions to uncover insights at different stages of the product lifecycle, ensuring that your research remains human-centered and actionable. Maze AI’s excellent blog post on UX research interview questions categorizes these questions into three types:

1. Questions about the problem—The purpose of these questions is to understand the user’s core painpoints and goals.
2. Questions about the people—These questions let you gain insights into the users themselves, including their behaviors and preferences.
3. Questions about the product—Asking these questions lets you explore how users interact with and perceive the product your team is building. Read More

Who is doing the research work to recruit, observe, and understand the perspectives of users who, while they need mainstream technology solutions, also want to fulfill their basic survival, health, and safety needs? Users that societal systems have marginalized—whose voices have mostly been locked out or remain unrecognized?

Those of us who identify as members of such marginalized groups are more likely to consider the voice of the voiceless in our work. We, the authors of this article, grew up with and live around these voiceless people. In fact, they are our relatives and friends. As Black psychologists and researchers who are working in the field of User Experience, we feel compelled to share our experiences with you. Read More

A funny thing happens when you interview people—they answer your questions even if they don’t really know the answer. That’s why it’s so important to know what types of questions people can and cannot answer correctly.

There’s a good reason why UX research focuses more on observing people’s behavior in their natural context than on interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Although all of these techniques can be useful, what people say doesn’t always match what they actually do. Observing and interviewing people in the context of their tasks gives you a much more accurate understanding of their characteristics, their tasks, the tools they use, and their environment.

Of course, talking with people is helpful because observation alone often isn’t enough. So almost every user-research method includes some kind of interview or discussion. While observing user-research participants shows you what they do, it also raises questions. Unless you interview participants, too, you’ll have to make assumptions to understand the motivations behind their actions. Talking with people is essential for you to understand their behavior. Read More