Imagine sitting down to talk with people about how they use a website or app. It’s like going on an adventure to learn from them and make things better. But guess what? This adventure isn’t always easy. Sometimes, we face tricky situations that make these conversations harder than we thought. Don’t worry, though! In this article, we’re going to uncover the secrets of dealing with challenges during UX interviews. We’ll talk about common problems and share real examples to help you handle them. So, get ready to explore the world of UX interviews with us!

Don’t Interview!!

When conducting an interview, it is important to create a comfortable and relaxed environment for the interviewee. Instead of making them feel like they are on the hot seat and bombarding them with questions, try to approach the interview as normal conversational talk. This will not only help the interviewee feel more at ease, but it can also lead to more natural responses.

For example, Instead of simply asking “How did you like the dish?”, you could ask more open-ended questions like “What did you think about the flavours and textures of the dish?” or “Is there anything you would change about the dish?”. By conversational approach, encourage your user to share their honest opinions and provide more detailed feedback.

Writing vs Listening

If you start writing things down during the interview, it might disrupt the conversation’s flow and vibe. Instead, try actively listening to your interviewee and making them feel heard. This way, you can keep the conversation going without any awkward pauses. This approach will help to create a relaxed and conversational atmosphere, which is essential for a successful interview.

Tip: Record the conversation and listen back later. This will enable you to pick up on nuances, emotions, and insights that you may have missed during the interview. It helps to validate your understanding and clarify any points that may have been misunderstood during the initial interview.

Questions vs Keywords

Use keywords to guide your interview and explore different angles related to the topic at hand. Rather than asking direct questions, try to form a story that connects your keywords, enabling multiple branches that allow you to gain insight in different directions.

For example, if your keywords are related to a new product launch, you could form a story that starts with the development phase, moves on to marketing and promotion, and ends with the launch itself.
This story can help you explore different aspects of the product launch and gain insight into each stage of the process.

Tweaks in vocabulary

In UX interviews, using nouns will generate more solution-based answers but verbs can be beneficial because it enables “needs” to the interviewee to go into more detail about their behaviours, emotions, and experiences. This may help you understand their requirements, objectives, and pain points better. How so? Verbs can be used to reveal the user’s underlying needs and these needs can then be further explored by asking “why” questions again leading to deeper insights about the user’s motivations and goals.

For example, instead of asking, “What are your favourite apps?” which is a noun-focused question, you could ask, “What do you do on your phone when you have free time?” which is a verb-focused question. The last question enables the respondent to describe their activities and behaviours, which can reveal information about their wants and preferences.
Another example could be, instead of asking “What are your favourite clothing brands?” switch to “What do you look for when you’re shopping for clothes?” The first question is about nouns, and the second question is about verbs which allow the responder to describe their clothing-shopping decision-making process, revealing information about their wants, preferences, and pain areas.

Findings vs Insight

Findings are the raw data or observations collected during the UX research process. They are typically objective and descriptive and can include things like user demographics, behaviours, attitudes, and pain points.
On the other hand, Insights are the meaningful and actionable interpretations of those findings. Insights are often subjective and require the researcher to synthesise the data into a narrative that provides a deeper understanding of the user’s needs, motivations, and desires.

For example

Finding: Users spend an average of 3 min on the checkout page.
Insight: The checkout process may be too complicated or time-consuming, which could lead to a high cart loss rate.

Finding: Most of the users reported difficulty finding the search bar on the homepage.
Insight: Users may be getting frustrated when they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, which could lead to a negative experience and lower engagement with the site.

Finding: Users in the 18–24 age range prefer messaging apps over email for customer support.
Insight: Younger users may prefer more immediate and informal communication channels when seeking customer support.

You’ve now got a bunch of tools to handle tricky moments in UX interviews. Think of every stumble as a chance to get better at this! By being ready for surprises and changing up your methods, you’re not just solving problems — you’re also getting super good at understanding what users want. As you finish reading this, remember that learning to do UX interviews well is like growing and exploring. Your determination to make things better is like a guide that helps you have really good conversations with users. Thanks for reading, and here’s to more awesome UX interviews in your future! Special thanks to

Keep up the great work, and go make those user experiences even better!