User research is central to the success of any UX design process. It is part of the Observe phase of The Design Thinking Process.

There are several qualitative and quantitative methods of user research. For now, I am going to focus on user interviews. There is little downside to user interviews, provided the UX researcher is asking questions to reveal actual user behavior.

User interviews are a qualitative method of user research comprising an in-person interview aimed at better understanding a user’s attitude towards a product or service. The questions focus on what the user is Doing, Thinking, and Feeling when interacting with the product or service. It is generally accepted that 3 to 5 interviews will allow you to gain enough insight.

To get unfiltered responses about actual user behavior, it is best to avoid leading questions and questions with simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. The questions should focus on the user problem for which the UX design is seeking to solve. The UX researcher can dig a little deeper by asking “Why?” to have users provide more details for their answers.

Following is an example of user interviews I conducted for my vocabulary app project in my Intro to UX Design course.