Explores how User Centred Design and acting share similar approaches to understanding people. Actors need to understand hidden motivations, emotional and psychological complexities, and character backgrounds - just like UX practitioners need to understand users. Discusses strategies and techniques from acting that UX professionals can use to better inhabit and understand prospective users from both inside out and outside in.
User InterviewsUser interviews explore people’s circumstances, experiences and needs through a guided conversation. Use them when you need to understand a problem in depth or learn how a service fits into someone’s life. Recruit current or likely users, prepare open questions and possible follow-ups, and ask for concrete examples rather than idealised accounts. Start with consent, listen carefully, and allow useful unexpected topics to emerge. A discussion guide keeps the research focused without turning it into a rigid questionnaire. Interviews can accompany usability tests when you also need to observe people using a service.