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Conducting User Research Interviews for Startups GENERAL ASSEMBLY
2 Diane Loviglio August 28, 2012
3. CLASS RULES.
We’re so thankful to the Hattery for hosting us in
their beautiful space! A few things to be mindful of:
• Please try to stay within the classroom and the
bathroom.
• Feel free to grab some water from the kitchen
area, but please do not take any food.
And now for the fun stuff...
Conducting User Research Interviews for Startups GENERAL ASSEMBLY
3 Diane Loviglio August 28, 2012
7. What we’ll be learning today
What is User Research?
Why do User Research?
User Research Methods
How to recruit the right people
- Writing a screener
How to best understand those people
- Writing an interview script
- Conducting an interview
8. What is User Research?
Understanding past and
current behaviors in order
to use them as a proxy for
future behaviors.
9. Why do User Research?
gain empathy
their motivations
their values
their needs
their behaviors
13. How To Recruit the Right People? Write a Screener
Give a description,
without giving away
too much info.
Include incentive.
Start with easy questions.
Always add “Other”.
21. Write an Interview Script
GOAL Explore current app-related attitudes and behaviors among
“v2 adopters” in order to identify future opportunities and
development possibilities in the app space.
METHODS 1 day diary study
2 hour in-person interview
SCRIPT Introduction (5 min)
- introduce interviewers
Create sections and give
- get permission again to take video and photos them time limits.
- sign consent form
- no right/wrong answers
- any q’s before we begin?
About You (5 min)
- what do you do?
- how long have you lived here?
Diary Study Review (15 min)
- walk me through your diary
Show & Tell (30 min)
- walk through apps on homescreen on phone and Get them to tell you stories,
tablet. when get? how find them? why get?
- any apps you don’t use? why not delete them? and not just answer the q’s.
- what are apps good for? bad for?
Finding & Choosing Apps (10 min)
- what was the last app you got? Ask about past, not future.
- how did you find it?
- what if there were 3 that did the same thing, how
would you choose?
22. Write an Interview Script
App Stores & Paying for Apps (15 min)
- in the survey, you said that you use ______ and ______ app stores.
why do you use them?
Reference data
- which other apps stores have you heard of? from screener and
- which apps have you paid for? can you show me them?
why did you pay for them?
build on it.
- in the survey, you said that you pay for ______, ______ and ______.
how is paying for this different than paying for an app?
- if you buy something from the Apple app store today and you change your
computer, what happens to your stuff?
- how do you keep track of which apps you got from which store?
Understanding the App Ecosystem (20 min)
- how would you describe apps to somebody who’s never seen them?
- can you draw everything we talked about today and how it relates to each
other?
Give them
- what the difference between an app, a website and a program? activities so you
- show 2 screen printouts - do you see any differences here?
- are you familiar with the term web app? can you describe it to me?
have artifacts.
Thoughts on [Company X] (5 min)
- if [Company X] had an app store, how would you expect it to be different?
- [Company X] is a non-profit, would they charge for apps? why or why not?
Ask who, what,
when, where, why
Wrap Up & Thank You (10 min)
- any questions for us?
and how.
- thank you so much, we got a lot of great data here.
- here’s your incentive.
