User research tips for interviewing kids
Recently I conducted some user interviews with young kids for a project. This was the first time I was interviewing kids, so I did have some apprehensions about it. But it went surprisingly well. Each time I conduct an interview I learn something and this experience was quite interesting as well.
All the interviews were conducted remotely over a video call.
These are some of my observations:
Seek parents’ trust
This shouldn’t come as a surprise as all kids are taught not to speak to strangers. I began the interview with the parent and spoke to them for a few minutes to get acquainted. Since I did not know any of them earlier, I had to build some trust before I could request their permission to speak with their kids. Usually, the kids were nearby while I spoke with the parent and they were comfortable when it was their turn to speak.
Be friendly
The success of an interview depends on the comfort level established with the participants. Assuming a formal stance could be weird to the kids and smiling helps always in all interviews and especially when speaking with kids. My approach to the entire process was to treat these kids like my own nephews and nieces.
Voice and intonation
I spoke with kids of different age groups — 6 to 12-year-olds, some from India and some from the US. Hitting the right balance between paternalistic and friendly for different age groups took a bit of work. Factors like family, school, and country of living influences the way kids speak and the way they like being spoken to.
I began with a neutral tone and adapted my voice and intonation based on the interaction between the parents and their kids. It worked well and the kids were quite comfortable talking to a stranger!
Use simple words
Before every interview, I prepare an interview guide. Out of habit, I framed the questions like addressing an adult. But later while speaking to the kids, I tweaked the questions and used simple words that 6-year olds can understand.
My takeaway is to create a second questionnaire for my personal reference in advance — keeping the participant in mind (in this case — young kids). This would reduce the efforts of looking for the right synonyms and sentence formation while speaking.Trying to wing it might not work always.
Repeat and slow down
Sometimes kids tend to speak fast or use words/phrases that only their family would know, like an inside joke. There were times I did not understand their reply. So I repeated my understanding and asked them if they also meant the same. They would either agree or correct me or sometimes even spell it out for me :)
Another important thing is to speak slowly and clearly so that the kids can follow along.
Keep them engaged
Young kids tend to get restless in a few minutes and would move around. Getting them to sit in front of a computer for 30 minutes and speak to a stranger is not an easy task. One suggestion is to show enthusiasm when they speak about things that interest them. Sometimes these replies may not be related to the question but it is necessary to not cut them off immediately.
Be gentle, take(or fake) interest, ask them 1–2 questions about the topic and then gently steer the conversation back on track.
Sometimes kids don’t give a direct response to a question. Try to rephrase it in a different way and try again. But if they still don’t want to talk about it, I suggest — move on.
Forcing them to speak on a topic they don’t like would make them shut-off and not elicit a proper response for the upcoming questions.
Use leading questions at times
Sounds like a heresy to violate a gospel truth of user research but sometimes the situations demand it. While interviewing younger kids, I observed that very broad questions tend to not work at times.
When I asked them “What feature would you like to have in this app that would help you do XYZ?”, some 6-year-olds looked at me as if I was drunk. (FYI — I wasn’t)
I realized the question did not make sense to them. So at times like these, I used some leading questions like — “Would you like to have ….. in your app?”
While I was skeptical this might bias the replies, some kids surprised me with many other suggestions which I had not even thought of. Once they understood what I asked, they were actually quite happy to share their thoughts.
In general, I find kids do not hold back their imagination and let it diverge, unlike most adults. However, this should be taken with a pinch of salt given the small sample size.
Hope this helps! Do you have any such experiences interviewing kids?
