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Are you looking for some open-ended questions to ask while conducting UI/UX interviews? You’ve come to the right place!

As a UI/UX designer, you know how important it is to understand the needs, preferences, and behaviors of your users. But how do you get that information from them? How do you ask the right questions that elicit honest and insightful answers?

That’s where open-ended questions come in handy. Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, but require the respondent to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings. They are great for exploring the user’s motivations, challenges, goals, and expectations. They also help you build rapport and trust with the user, as you show genuine interest and curiosity in their perspective.

Why use open-ended questions in UI/UX interviews?

Before we dive into the specific questions, let’s first understand why open-ended questions are so useful in UI/UX interviews. Here are some of the benefits of using open-ended questions:

• They allow you to explore the user’s context, situation, and environment. You can learn more about the user’s background, current situation, and future plans. This will help you design solutions that fit the user’s context and needs.

• They allow you to uncover the user’s pain points, frustrations, and problems. You can learn more about the user’s challenges, difficulties, and obstacles. This will help you design solutions that solve the user’s problems and improve their experience.

• They allow you to discover the user’s goals, desires, and expectations. You can learn more about the user’s aspirations, hopes, and wishes. This will help you design solutions that meet the user’s goals and exceed their expectations.

• They allow you to understand the user’s behavior, actions, and decisions. You can learn more about the user’s habits, routines, and workflows. This will help you design solutions that match the user’s behavior and support their actions.

• They allow you to elicit the user’s emotions, feelings, and attitudes. You can learn more about the user’s satisfaction, dissatisfaction, likes, and dislikes. This will help you design solutions that evoke positive emotions and create emotional connections.

As you can see, open-ended questions can help you gain a holistic and comprehensive understanding of your users. They can also help you generate new ideas, validate your assumptions, and test your prototypes. They are essential tools for any UI/UX designer who wants to create user-centric and empathetic solutions.

How to ask open-ended questions in UI/UX interviews?

Now that you know why open-ended questions are important, let’s see how to ask them effectively. Here are some tips to keep in mind when asking open-ended questions in UI/UX interviews:

• Start with broad questions and then narrow down. Begin with general questions that give you an overview of the user’s situation and then move on to more specific questions that dig deeper into the details. For example, you can start with “Tell me about your typical day” and then follow up with “How do you use this app in your daily routine?”.

• Use the 5 Ws and 1 H. A simple way to formulate open-ended questions is to use the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and 1 H (how). These words can help you cover different aspects of the user’s experience and elicit rich and varied responses. For example, you can ask “Who do you usually interact with when using this app?”, “What are the main features that you use and why?”, “When do you use this app and for how long?”, “Where do you use this app and in what context?”, “Why do you use this app and what are your goals?”, and “How do you use this app and what are the steps involved?”.

• Avoid leading, biased, or closed-ended questions. A common mistake to avoid when asking open-ended questions is to ask questions that influence, suggest, or limit the user’s answer. For example, you should avoid questions like “Don’t you think this app is easy to use?”, “How much do you love this app?”, or “Do you use this app every day?”. These questions can skew the user’s response, make them agree with you, or give you a yes or no answer. Instead, you should ask neutral, unbiased, and open-ended questions that allow the user to express their own opinion and experience. For example, you can ask “How do you feel about using this app?”, “What do you like or dislike about this app?”, or “How often do you use this app and why?”.

• Use follow-up questions to probe further. Another tip to improve your open-ended questions is to use follow-up questions to explore the user’s answer in more depth. Follow-up questions can help you clarify, confirm, or expand on the user’s response. They can also help you uncover hidden or unexpected insights that you might have missed otherwise. For example, you can use follow-up questions like “Can you tell me more about that?”, “Can you give me an example of that?”, “How did that make you feel?”, or “Why do you think that is?”.

What are some examples of open-ended questions to ask in UI/UX interviews?

Now that you know how to ask open-ended questions, let’s see some examples of open-ended questions that you can use in your UI/UX interviews. Of course, these questions are not exhaustive or universal, and you should always tailor them to your specific project, user, and goal. However, they can serve as a good starting point and inspiration for your own questions. Here are some examples of open-ended questions to ask in UI/UX interviews:

Questions about the user’s context, situation, and environment

• Tell me about yourself and your role.
• What are some of the tasks or activities that you do on a regular basis?
• What are some of the tools or apps that you use to accomplish your tasks or activities?
• How do you communicate and collaborate with others in your work or life?
• What are some of the trends or changes that are affecting your work or life?

Questions about the user’s pain points, frustrations, and problems

• What are some of the challenges or difficulties that you face in your work or life?
• How do you cope or deal with these challenges or difficulties?
• What are some of the things that annoy or frustrate you in your work or life?
• How do these annoyances or frustrations affect your performance or satisfaction?
• What are some of the things that you wish were different or better in your work or life?

Questions about the user’s goals, desires, and expectations

• What are some of the goals or objectives that you have in your work or life?
• How do you measure or track your progress or success in achieving your goals or objectives?
• What are some of the things that motivate or inspire you in your work or life?
• What are some of the things that you hope or dream of in your work or life?
• What are some of the things that you expect or demand from the tools or apps that you use in your work or life?

Questions about the user’s behavior, actions, and decisions

• How do you approach or perform your tasks or activities?
• What are some of the steps or processes that you follow or use in your tasks or activities?
• How do you decide or choose which tools or apps to use for your tasks or activities?
• How do you learn or improve your skills or knowledge in your work or life?
• How do you adapt or change your behavior or actions in response to different situations or feedback?

Questions about the user’s emotions, feelings, and attitudes

• How do you feel about your work or life?
• What are some of the things that make you happy or satisfied in your work or life?
• What are some of the things that make you unhappy or dissatisfied in your work or life?
• How do you express or communicate your emotions or feelings in your work or life?
• How do you manage or regulate your emotions or feelings in your work or life?

Open-ended questions are powerful tools for conducting UI/UX interviews and getting valuable insights from your users. They can help you understand the user’s context, situation, environment, pain points, frustrations, problems, goals, desires, expectations, behavior, actions, decisions, emotions, feelings, and attitudes. They can also help you generate new ideas, validate your assumptions, and test your prototypes.

To ask open-ended questions effectively, you should start with broad questions and then narrow down, use the 5 Ws and 1 H, avoid leading, biased, or closed-ended questions, and use follow-up questions to probe further.