Friday, March 31, 2017

methodology - Is asking 'balanced' leading questions the right way during user interviews?


It sounds a little bit counter-intuitive, but I am wondering if we actually lose a lot of the information that we might otherwise intend on finding out or capturing by not asking more direct or 'leading' questions.


Conventional wisdom and the dogma of conducting interview would say that it is not a good idea, but this is because the general intent of asking these types of questions is to try and elicit a particular response, which in a courtroom or a marketing study might not be particularly appropriate.


However, in the context of a user interview trying to find out what makes people happy or unhappy, what their needs and wants are, wouldn't asking open-ended questions mean that you only end up finding out what they tell you instead of what you want to know?


My question is, can asking 'balanced leading questions', that is, if you ask them a question like "Is clicking on this button difficult for you to complete a task?" and then balancing it by asking "Is clicking on this button easy for you to complete a task?" the same or better than asking "What is the difficulty of clicking on this button to complete the task?"


Should these types of questions be included in user interview situations to gain better insights compared to simply asking open questions?




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