What I’m calling interviewing is also referred to by other names: user research, site visits, contextual research, design research, and ethnography,

Physicians and therapists are familiar with the “doorknob phenomenon,” where crucial information is revealed just as the patient is about to depart. So consider keeping your recording device on, even if it’s packed up.

“I want to go back to something else you said....” Not only does this help the person know that you’re looping back, it also indicates that you are really paying attention to what they are telling you, that you remember it, and that you are interested. If

The questions you ask are signifiers that you are listening. Try to construct each question as a follow-up to a previous answer.

“pain points” aren’t necessarily that painful for people. The term satisficing,

but I approach the interviews with a sense of what I can only call a bland curiosity.

What you’re learning is not an evaluation of the concept, but instead a deeper understanding of the design criteria for a future solution. Although concepts are the stimuli, you deliberately choose stimuli that contain some aspect of your hypotheses, ideas, or questions in a tangible form.

Near the end of the interview is a great opportunity to ask more audacious questions. Because you’ve spent all this time with your participants, talking through a topic in detail, they’ve become engaged with you. You’ve earned their permission to ask them to go even farther beyond the familiar. Two questions that work really well here are: • If we

I privilege observing and participating over asking and telling. A successful field visit is one in which, at the end, the participant feels like they’ve made a new friend rather than like they’ve just been interviewed.