Section 9: User Interview Pilot

This activity is designed to help you prepare for your project's user interviews. There is nothing to submit for this activity; there is no participation credit, etc. However, you will find that this activity will help you complete part of the project milestone.

Part I: User Interview Questions

For your project, you will need to prepare at least 7 effective interview questions.

Your questions should follow the guidelines for effective interview questions as discussed and practiced in class: they should ask interviewees to recall specific events/memories, follow-up to learn more about interesting responses, and be neutral (i.e. avoid leading or speculative questions).

Working with a peer, help each other plan your interview questions. Take care to avoid asking leading, speculative, or design questions.

Part II: AI User Interview Pilot

It can be difficult to know in advance whether your user interview questions will produce useful information. Historically, UX practitioners have conducted pilot interviews to test and refine their interview questions before conducting the "real" interviews with actual participants.

However, some UX practitioners have started using large language model chatbots to simulate a pilot user interview to help them refine their questions before piloting the questions with a person, and then conducting the "real" interviews with actual participants.

Working with a peer, take turns conducting a pilot interview with a chatbot.

1. Reflect on the characteristics of the people you plan to interview.

   For example, mid-career software engineers.

2. Prompt the chatbot to take on a persona similar to the one you reflected on above. Then interview the chatbot. (Don't forget to obtain consent!)

   Example:

   Imagine that you're a student living in Ithaca, NY attending college at Cornell University. You are being interviewed by a UX researcher designing a website for a festival. I am that researcher. Respond as if you were talking to a real person. Your responses should be complete, but not overly verbose.

3. After the interview, reflect on the quality of the responses. If some of the questions did not provide useful information, revise them.

Part III: Person User Interview Pilot

Now practice conducting a pilot interview with a person. You can do this with your peer, or with someone else you know.