‍As a designer, I find myself being the interviewer more frequently than the interviewee. Today, I have the chance to be one, so I document my experience to better understand the journey of a remote user interview session from a participant's perspective.

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Pre-session
I completed a survey and agreed to participate in an 30 mins interview in the survey. Not sure if it was part of screening.

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A day after completing the survey, I was emailed an invited to schedule a Calendly session.

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I accepted the invitation, chose a time that works without any problem. A lot of time slots available so that was helpful.
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In the session confirmation email, I was provided instructions & preparations for the session.
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Pretty simple, no hassle, just had to remember the when, which was I reminded by my google calendar event.

During
Video turned on both my interviewer and myself, built rapport, asked how I was doing! Felt like the interviewer were interested in my day and therefore myself. Easier to open up and helped answer following questions.

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Asked for permission to be recorded for note taking purposes and will only be viewed by the interviewer. I agreed and moved on.

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Began with a quick introduction of my occupation and career stage. Started with an easy question that anyone can answer. Helped with the internal anxiety, what if I give bad answers. Thinking back, possibly mentioning that “there are no wrong answers” would be helpful.
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Were prompted to reiterate my answers to the survey which I had dig up in my memory as it has been quite some time. Were in a rush of anxiety to recall what I had answered in the survey but luckily it came back pretty quickly. I believe the interviewer were prepared to reminded of my answers as well.
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Could have possibly been better to start this question with “to remind ourselves of your answers in the survey, you mentioned [xyz]. Would you still agree with this answer or are there any amends or caveats you would like to add?” I believe this would reduce my anxiety.
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Interviewer frequently clarified my answers, and probed deeper whenever necessary. The flow of each questions were natural, which helped it sound more like a enjoyable conversation rather than an interrogation.
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Whenever I had a hard time understanding the question, the interviewer happily restated the question. Made me felt that the interviewer understands that is in our best interest to give a thoughtful answer.

Post session
During the session, I had referred to a Youtube video for one of my answers. I sent her the link right after the call to the email address of the calendly invite. Easy peasy no problemo. Thanked her, and moved on to my day.
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Overall, this was a pleasurable experience. I was able to sit on the other side of the table and experience the journey of what it feels likes to be a participant in a user research. This will certainly be helpful to refer to the whenever I conduct my own interviews 🧙