UX Interview

UX Interview

Play a real user in an interview-style test of a web product. Narrate think-aloud reactions live as you click, scroll, and try to accomplish realistic goals — then deliver a structured report with severity-ranked findings, delight moments, and prioritized recommendations.

This skill is not an automated test runner (see /ui-test for that). It is a qualitative user-perspective audit. Findings are based on judgement, not assertions.

Preferences

On startup, use the Read tool to load ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/preferences.md. If missing, treat as first-run (see First-time detection).

Defaults when no preferences exist:

• output-root: ./ux-interviews/ (cwd-relative when in a project; falls back to ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/runs/ otherwise)
• default-depth: standard (quick ≈ 5–7 min walkthrough / standard ≈ 12–18 min / deep ≈ 25 min+ with multiple flows)
• narration-style: expressive (expressive — feels like a real user / neutral — observational / terse — short notes only)
• persona-mode: auto-suggest (auto-suggest with override / always-ask / fixed-default)
• severity-floor: minor (nitpick / minor / moderate / major — anything at-or-above is reported)
• capture-mode: friction-only (friction-only / per-section / never) — when GIFs/screenshots are taken
• viewport: 1440x900 — also accepts a list (e.g. 375x812,1440x900) to test responsive
• confirm-plan: always (always / never) — confirm the test plan before opening the browser
• auto-open-report: true

Also load ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/feedback-journal.md if present — surface the latest 5 Signal: lines to bias defaults (e.g. if the user repeatedly downgraded "minor copy issues", raise the severity floor pre-selection).

Context

On startup, use Bash to detect: today's date+time (date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M), the current working directory (pwd), and whether the configured output-root exists. Do NOT call any browser tool yet — that happens in Step 4.

Command routing

Check $ARGUMENTS:

• help → display help, stop
• config → run config flow, stop
• reset → delete preferences.md + feedback-journal.md + sessions/ + resume-state.md, confirm, stop
• feedback → collect ratings on the most recent session (see Feedback section), stop
• history → list recent session folders with verdict + timestamp, stop
• resume → reopen resume-state.md and continue an interrupted session, stop on completion
• --from-brief <path> → read the brief from a markdown file, run the session
• anything else → treat $ARGUMENTS as an inline brief (URL + free-text description), run from Step 1

Help

ux-interview — Real-user-perspective UX testing via real Chrome

Usage:
  /ux-interview "<url> <brief>"           Inline brief, runs the session
  /ux-interview --from-brief <path>       Load brief from a markdown file
  /ux-interview resume                    Resume an interrupted session
  /ux-interview history                   List recent sessions (verdict + date)
  /ux-interview feedback                  Rate the last session (teaches the skill)
  /ux-interview config                    Set preferences
  /ux-interview reset                     Clear preferences + journal + sessions
  /ux-interview help                      This help

Per-run flags:
  --persona "<who>"        Override the auto-suggested persona
  --focus "<areas>"        Comma-list of areas/flows to prioritize
  --depth quick|standard|deep
  --viewport <WxH[,WxH]>   Single viewport or comma-list for responsive
  --no-narration           Skip live think-aloud, only output the final report
  --no-gif                 Disable GIF capture
  --severity-floor <nitpick|minor|moderate|major>
  --verbose

Examples:
  /ux-interview "https://stripe.com — checkout flow + nav clarity"
  /ux-interview --from-brief ./brief.md --persona "non-technical small-biz owner"
  /ux-interview "https://acme.app/signup --focus signup,onboarding --depth deep"

Output: {output-root}/{YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM}-{slug}/ contains
  report.md, brief.md, transcript.md, findings.json, captures/.

Current preferences:
  (loaded from preferences.md)

Config

Use AskUserQuestion to collect (max 4 per call):

Batch 1 — Output & defaults

1. Output root path (default ./ux-interviews/)
2. Default depth (quick / standard / deep)
3. Persona mode (auto-suggest / always-ask / fixed-default)
4. Default narration style (expressive / neutral / terse)

Batch 2 — Capture & strictness 5. Severity floor (nitpick / minor / moderate / major) 6. Capture mode (friction-only / per-section / never) 7. Default viewport (e.g. 1440x900 or 375x812,1440x900) 8. Confirm plan before browser (always / never)

Save to ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/preferences.md in the three-tier format below.

Preferences file format

# /ux-interview preferences
Updated: YYYY-MM-DD

## Defaults
- output-root: ./ux-interviews/
- default-depth: standard
- narration-style: expressive
- persona-mode: auto-suggest
- severity-floor: minor
- capture-mode: friction-only
- viewport: 1440x900
- confirm-plan: always
- auto-open-report: true

## Profile (optional — edit freely)
- I usually test B2B SaaS — bias personas toward time-pressed admins.
- Skip nitpicky copy issues unless they actually block comprehension.

## Learned
- (populated from feedback over time)

Reset

Delete preferences.md, feedback-journal.md, sessions/, and resume-state.md. Confirm: Cleared. Defaults + journal + sessions wiped.

First-time detection

If no preferences.md exists:

First time using /ux-interview? Run /ux-interview config to set defaults — or just continue and I'll use sensible ones.

Then proceed.

Workflow

Step 0 — Load learning context

Read preferences.md and feedback-journal.md (graceful: if missing, continue with defaults). Note any Learned rules — they pre-bias the choices in Steps 2–6 (persona pick, severity floor, narration style).

Step 1 — Gather the brief

Inputs may come from: $ARGUMENTS inline string, --from-brief <path>, or interactive prompt. The brief should answer:

1. Product URL (required — must be reachable in Chrome)
2. What the product does (1–3 sentences)
3. Focus areas / flows to test (e.g. signup, checkout, dashboard, search)
4. Known constraints (e.g. "skip auth — use creds X", "ignore the legacy /v1 pages")

If any are missing, ask via AskUserQuestion (≤4 questions in one batch). Pre-select based on Learned rules.

Save the parsed brief to {session-dir}/brief.md.

Step 2 — Suggest a persona

Based on the product description + focus areas, propose a persona that's likely to surface real issues. A persona is 3–5 lines:

• Who they are (role / context / level of tech savvy)
• What they're trying to do (the goal that brought them here)
• What they care about (speed? trust? cost? clarity?)
• What they'd give up on (their patience threshold)

Per persona-mode:

• auto-suggest: present the suggested persona via AskUserQuestion with options Use it / Tweak it / Pick a different one
• always-ask: skip the suggestion, prompt the user for the persona
• fixed-default: use the persona stored in preferences.md Profile

Save the chosen persona to {session-dir}/brief.md under ## Persona.

Step 3 — Plan the session

Draft a short test plan (5–10 bullet points) covering:

• Entry intent — what the user is trying to do as they land on the page
• Realistic flows — 2–4 flows aligned to focus areas, in the order a real user would attempt them
• Edge probes — 1–2 deliberate "what if I do this wrong" moments (typos, back button, refresh)
• Wrap intent — when the user would close the tab in real life

If confirm-plan: always, present the plan and ask one AskUserQuestion to approve, tweak, or restart. If confirm-plan: never, log the plan to the transcript and proceed.

Save the plan to {session-dir}/transcript.md under ## Plan.

Step 4 — Run the session (think-aloud)

Open a fresh Chrome tab via mcp__claude-in-chrome__tabs_create_mcp (call tabs_context_mcp first if you don't have a current tab). Set viewport via resize_window. Then walk the plan.

For each step:

1. State intent before acting — one short sentence in the voice of the persona ("Okay, I want to find pricing — I'll scroll down").
2. Act — navigate, find, computer (click/scroll/type), form_input for forms.
3. Observe — read_page or get_page_text for content; read_console_messages if something looks broken.
4. React — narrate what the persona feels in 1–2 sentences. Tag the moment with one of:
   • [delight] — something exceeded expectations
   • [friction] — slow, awkward, or required guessing (severity: nitpick / minor / moderate / major)
   • [confusion] — couldn't tell what to do, where to go, or what something meant
   • [bug] — broken or behaved unexpectedly
   • [neutral] — noted but no judgement
5. Capture (per capture-mode):
   • friction-only → call gif_creator only on friction/confusion/bug moments
   • per-section → capture a short GIF for each major flow transition
   • never → skip capture Save captures under {session-dir}/captures/.

Append every reaction to {session-dir}/transcript.md as a timestamped line:

[HH:MM:SS] [tag/severity] (location) "narration" — observation

Stop conditions — end early if:

• The persona would realistically give up (note this as a major friction)
• The product 500s, redirects to login you can't pass, or hits a hard block
• The depth budget is hit (quick: ~5 reactions/section, standard: ~10, deep: ~20+)

If the session is interrupted (user halts, browser disconnect), save resume-state.md with the current step + transcript pointer.

Step 5 — Analyze findings

After exploration:

1. Group transcript items into findings. A finding combines related reactions ("Couldn't find the pricing link → had to use search → search returned no results" = one finding, not three).
2. Score each finding:
   • Severity: nitpick / minor / moderate / major / blocker
   • Confidence: low / medium / high (low = single observation, high = repeat or systemic)
   • Type: copy / IA & nav / visual / interaction / performance / trust / accessibility-felt
3. Apply the severity-floor — anything below the floor goes to ## Below floor (kept but not promoted).
4. Identify delight moments (anything tagged [delight]).
5. Draft prioritized recommendations — for each major/moderate finding, propose 1 concrete fix. Order by (severity × confidence) / effort (effort guessed: low/med/high).

Save structured data to {session-dir}/findings.json.

Step 6 — Generate the report

Write {session-dir}/report.md with this structure:

# UX Interview — {product name} — {date}

## Verdict (one paragraph)
Persona "{persona-summary}" tried to {goal}. Outcome: {succeeded / partially / abandoned}. {1–2 sentences on overall feel}.

## Top friction (severity ≥ {floor})
1. **{Title}** — {severity} · {confidence} · {type}
   What happened: {…}
   Why it matters: {…}
   Where: {URL or location} ({capture link if any})
   Suggested fix: {…}

## What worked
- {delight moment 1}
- {delight moment 2}

## Prioritized recommendations
| # | Issue | Severity | Effort | Impact |
|---|-------|----------|--------|--------|
| 1 | …    | major    | low    | high   |

## Persona & plan
{persona block}
{plan bullets}

## Full transcript
See `transcript.md`.

## Captures
See `captures/` ({N} files).

If auto-open-report: true, run open {session-dir}/report.md.

Step 7 — Final summary + invite feedback

Print to chat:

• Verdict line + counts ({N} major, {M} moderate, {K} minor; {D} delight moments)
• Path to report.md
• One follow-up AskUserQuestion: What's next? — Open report / Run another persona on the same product / Try a different flow / Done

Then add the line:

Run /ux-interview feedback — even one rating helps me sharpen which findings are signal vs noise for you.

Append a session log to ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/sessions/{YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM}.md with the brief, persona, plan summary, finding counts by severity, and a 1-line verdict. This is what feedback reads.

Feedback & learning

When invoked as /ux-interview feedback:

1. Find the most recent sessions/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.md. If none, say No recent session found. and stop.
2. Print a one-line summary of that session.
3. Ask via AskUserQuestion (4 questions in one batch):
   • Persona fit — was the persona believable for this product? (spot-on / close / off)
   • Findings quality — were the issues real or fabricated/noisy? (mostly real / mixed / mostly noise)
   • Severity calibration — were severities right? (right / too harsh / too lenient)
   • Depth — was the session the right depth? (right / too shallow / too deep)
4. Append to ~/.claude/skills/ux-interview/feedback-journal.md:

   ## {session slug} — {date}
   - Persona fit: {answer}
   - Findings quality: {answer}
   - Severity calibration: {answer}
   - Depth: {answer}
   - Signal: {one-line generalisation, e.g. "User wants severity floor raised for B2B SaaS — they keep flagging minor copy as noise"}
   

5. Promotion rule: when 3+ recent sessions show the same Signal, promote it to ## Learned in preferences.md. Mention once: Noticed you consistently {…}. Saved as standing default.
6. Drift correction: if a Learned rule is contradicted in 2 newer sessions, demote it (log the demotion in the journal).

Pre-selection in Step 2's persona question and Step 5's severity-floor application should be biased by Learned rules.

Principles

1. Real user, not assertion engine — narrate the felt experience. If something is technically working but emotionally annoying, that's still a finding.
2. Stay in persona — if the persona is "non-technical small-biz owner", do NOT use the dev tools mindset to spot CSS issues. Note what they would notice.
3. Severity is honest — a "tiny copy issue" is nitpick, not major. Inflating severity ruins the signal.
4. Capture the moment, not the page — GIFs should show the friction (the wrong click, the back-button, the squinting), not a clean recording.
5. Graceful degradation — continue with built-in defaults if preferences.md / feedback-journal.md can't be read; skip captures if gif_creator fails; don't abort the whole session for one tool error.
6. Learn quietly — promote a rule only after 3+ consistent signals; mention once when promoting.
7. Destructive actions need confirmation — never click anything that obviously deletes/posts/charges without asking the persona-as-user "would I really click this?" and confirming with the human user.
8. Stop means stop — when the human user halts mid-session, save resume-state.md and exit cleanly. Don't keep poking the browser.
9. Skill orchestrates, does not re-judge — preserve the user's brief verbatim; don't rewrite their focus areas to be "more testable".