UX Research Research method
Shows how people experience specific situations.
User interviews collect traceable accounts of needs, decisions, and difficulties through listening and follow-up questions. Individual statements stay connected to their context and open research questions.
Which experiences, needs and motivations shape this situation, and what do we still need to learn?
One conversation is part of a research round. Participant selection and sample size follow the learning goal, diversity and remaining gaps.
Frame
Connect the question to relevant experiences.
Prepare
Prepare open topics and understandable follow-up questions.
Listen
Listen and trace concrete situations.
Synthesize
Analyze accounts continuously against the learning question.
Apply
Derive a justified next action from what is known.
Analyze as you go. Refine the guide when understanding is missing, record changes and deliberately look for contrasting experiences.
You want to understand the experiences and motivations of relevant people and sharpen questions for product, service or discovery work.
Open topics and follow-up questions linked to the research goal.
Accounts with context and sources, separate from interpretation.
Patterns, contrasting cases and justified next learning steps.
Fictional teaching example
Fictional excerpt from research on borrowing tools. The text demonstrates document structure; it is not collected evidence.
Name the question, situation and relevant experiences.
Fictional: How are tools organized for a repair at short notice?
Clarify purpose, voluntary participation, time and note handling.
Fictional: We want to understand a specific borrowing experience. Questions may be skipped; notes are used only within the agreed arrangements.
Ask openly about the last specific case and explore its sequence.
Fictional: How did you find suitable tools for your last repair? What happened next? Where did you need to ask for clarification?
Record participant code, context, account, interpretation and open question separately.
Fictional: F1 reports checking the reservation. Interpretation: availability might matter. Open question: what role did time pressure play?
Add topics and follow-ups that serve the learning goal. Keep interpretation separate from participant accounts.
Name a research question, the relevant situation and the people whose experience you need to understand it.
When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible.
Open questions are tied to concrete experiences so that examples and context become visible instead of opinions. Recurring themes and hypotheses emerge from the narratives and translate well into decisions and further research.
User interviews work because they give first-hand access to motives, decision criteria, and situational constraints. The method becomes fruitful when it asks about concrete experiences, the most recent example, and actual behavior patterns instead of general opinions. Good use listens for language, breaks, and implicit priorities so conversations turn into solid insight for product decisions.
Recruit participants along the actual research question and build the guide around concrete situations. It matters especially with hypothetical answers; then it pays to return to a real, most recent case. Close with a fresh synthesis of quotes, patterns, and open follow-up questions while the observation is still vivid.
The method guide walks execution through 5 phases, timing, 5 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.
Open method guideYour perspective
Your feedback helps shape the next improvements to methodatlas.
Plan an interview round or one working block. Connect the learning goal, relevant people and analysis.
To be confirmed
To be confirmed
Prepare an interview round Time: Several appointments; plan interview duration and analysis separately
Complete this worksheet on paper or in your own document during the work.
Name the question, situation and relevant experiences.
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Clarify purpose, voluntary participation, time and note handling.
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Ask openly about the last specific case and explore its sequence.
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Record participant code, context, account, interpretation and open question separately.
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Pilot the guide before interviewing. Preserve context and source references; record personal details only within the agreed scope.
Methodatlas teaching template based on GOV.UK
Expected artifact: Research focus
Question · situation · selection criteria · open gaps
Entry:
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Expected artifact: Piloted interview guide
Topic · open question · possible follow-up · note field
Entry:
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Expected artifact: Attributable interview notes
Participant code · context · account · follow-up · interpretation
Entry:
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Expected artifact: Traceable synthesis
Theme · evidence · contrast · interpretation · open question
Entry:
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Expected artifact: Learning and next steps
Insight · scope · decision · open question · owner
Entry:
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Method guide: https://methodatlas.meierhoff-systems.de/en/methods/user-interviews/run-sheet
Fitting alternatives with decision guidance, followed by other related methods.
Instead of User Interviews, when you want to use Surveys to collect broad, standardized feedback from many people instead of individual cases.
Sorts user perspectives into say, think, do, and feel, separating observed facts from assumptions.
Clarifies customer problems, solution ideas, and evidence by framing an opportunity hypothesis, recruiting participants, and turning insights into opportunities.
Observes real work in context and pairs it with follow-up questions to capture workflow insights precisely.
Bundles phases, emotions, and pain points along a journey to prioritize opportunities and critical moments.
Captures experiences over time in diary entries and reveals longitudinal patterns that a single session would miss.
