Aside for user research
Aside records user interviews on your computer without a bot, keeps your research questions in view, and gives you a transcript with your notes at the moment you took them.
What gets lost in user interviews
Most of the value is in the participant’s exact words and the follow-up you didn’t plan. Both are easy to lose when you’re also running the discussion guide and taking notes.
Leading the participant
To fill a silence, interviewers suggest an answer or explain the product. Then the session tells you what you said.
The guide runs long
Discussion guides have more questions than time. The question the study depends on gets cut when an earlier one runs over.
Notes or attention
Typing every quote means missing the moment to ask “why?”. Not typing means hunting for the quote later.
Something else on the call
A bot in the participant list is one more thing to explain at the start. Aside records your computer’s audio, so nothing joins the call.
How Aside helps with user interviews
Turn your discussion guide into goals and a playbook, see which research questions are covered during the session, and work from the transcript and recording afterwards.
Your guide as a playbook
The Customer interview starter playbook covers the flow, what to listen for and how to probe without leading. Edit it to match your method, or ask a connected AI app to turn your own discussion guide into a playbook.
Research questions as goals
Make each research question a goal in the plan. The dots fill in as the participant covers them, and the next-move line can point to a follow-up on something they just said.
Notes at the right moment
Press ⌃⌥N or CtrlAltN and type a short observation. It lands in the transcript at the moment you started typing, next to the participant’s words. The recording stays on your computer with playback of both sides, so you can hear their tone.
Across sessions
Search every session with ⌘K or Ctrl+K for the moment a word was said. To pull themes across sessions, connect an AI app such as Claude; it can read the transcripts and your notes.
Participants’ privacy
Audio in English or 24 European languages is transcribed on your computer, unless you’ve added a language the on-device model doesn’t know (then every call is sent to a speech-to-text provider, whatever its language) or the computer is too slow to keep up, and the recording stays there. Meeting text syncs to your Aside account when you’re signed in. Nothing is used to train AI models.
An example
A 45-minute interview on Zoom
The study is about how small teams handle expenses. Your plan has four research questions. The participant mentions they export everything to a spreadsheet every Friday. You press ⌃⌥N or CtrlAltN and type “Friday export, ask why”. The pill suggests asking what happens when the export is wrong. Afterwards, your note sits in the transcript at that moment, next to their exact words.
An illustration of how Aside works, not a customer story.
What Aside doesn’t do for researchers
Aside is for running and capturing the interview. It isn’t a research platform.
No video
Aside records audio only, so it doesn’t suit usability tests where you need to see the participant’s screen or face.
No tagging or repository
There are no highlights, tags, clips or shared insight library like Dovetail. Copy quotes out, or use a connected AI app to pull themes across sessions.
No recruiting or scheduling
Aside doesn’t find, schedule or pay participants.
No team library yet
Shared plans and a team library are planned for a Team plan, which isn’t available yet.
Related
Customer interview playbook
The flow and the questions for hearing about the problem.
Read the playbookAside vs Granola
Neither uses a bot. Granola transcribes in the cloud; Aside transcribes English and 24 European languages on your computer (add another language and every call is transcribed online, as on computers too slow to keep up, but for notes-only calls on the free plan).
Read the comparisonBot notetakers vs recording on your computer
What a meeting bot does and where transcription happens.
Read the guideConnect AI apps
Let Claude or ChatGPT read your sessions and find themes.
Set it upQuestions
Can I use Aside to record user interviews?
Yes. Aside records your microphone and your computer’s audio, so it works in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or any other call app, and in the room. Recording laws differ by place and many require everyone’s consent. Tell people at the start, for example with a line in the call’s chat.
Does Aside record video for usability tests?
No. Aside records audio and gives you a transcript. For usability tests where you need to see the screen, use a tool that records video.
Can I find themes across many interviews?
Not as themes. ⌘K or Ctrl+K finds the moment a word was said in any session. To pull themes, connect an AI app such as Claude and ask it; it can read the transcripts and your notes across your sessions.
Is participant audio uploaded?
Only if you’ve added a language the on-device model doesn’t know (then all your calls are) or your computer is too slow to keep up, and on Free only the calls Aside guides. English and 24 European languages are transcribed on your computer (add another language and every call is transcribed online, as on computers too slow to keep up, but for notes-only calls on the free plan), and the recording stays there. Meeting text syncs to your Aside account when you’re signed in, and nothing you record is used to train AI models.