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User interviews

Prep time:
6-8 hours + participant recruitment
Run time:
Up to 1.5 hours per session
People:
2-3 (incl. 1 facilitator)
Contributed by:
Digital Service Design Office, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
Stages:
DiscoveryAlphaBetaLive

An effective way of understanding good and bad experiences in products or services is to capture their users’ perspective. When participants describe their interactions and thoughts along the way, you gain qualitative insights into what is causing users to have positive or negative feelings about their experience. These insights help you determine how to improve the design and functionality of your product or service.

When doing any type of user interview, it is essential that the people you engage with are real users of your service or product. When you actively engage users of a service or product, you can build more effective solutions that target real needs.

Outcomes

  • Evaluate the experience of your product or service
  • Identify areas of improvement
  • Verbatim notes ready for synthesis

Tip

It’s not a good idea to record user tests on your own device. You might capture personal information about the participant during the usability testing and there are strict rules about managing personal information on your device. It is best to avoid this.

The stages

The four stages of the Service design and delivery process are Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live.

The four stages of the Service design and delivery process are Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live.

The stages of the design and delivery process

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This playbook is a beta product, your feedback helps us improve it for everyone.

Contact us

If you need advice, mentoring, or guidance on how to use the playbook, or you’d like to contribute to the playbook, you can contact us.