User Profiling Techniques - User Interviews
Description
User interviews are generally conducted one-on-one, with a single customer or user and a representative of the design team.
Interviewing is a popular way of gaining user insights.
Purpose
Interviews can be used to:
- elicit user requirements and expectations,
- establish responses to the current site, and
- understand user preferences for competitive offerings.
Advantages
Interviews support in-depth understanding of user requirements.
A structured interview enables the interviewer to focus on issues of particular relevance to the proposed profiling objectives.
Interviews are easy to conduct and provide insight into user needs relatively quickly with comparatively low levels of expertise.
Disadvantages
Interviews can be expensive and time-consuming.
Interviewees may distort information through:
- reflecting any bias of the interviewer, if the interviewer is not careful and skilled,
- recall error,
- selective perceptions, and
- a desire to please the interviewer.
Interviews can generate a large volume of information and may be difficult to transcribe and reduce data.
Contact for information on this page: nsip@finance.gov.au