It's taken me years and years to begin to understand what I really want. And, as Andrea points out, it's not as simple as the opposite of whatever you hate about your current workplace.

Still, figuring out what you want is crucial, if you want a new job to be an improvement. Only once you know that, are you in a position to at least try to figure out if a workplace is going to be a good fit for you. Whether you go with direct questions or subtle questions to figure that out is a judgement call based on your own personality, your reading of the people you're interviewing with, and your own situation with your current job.

I like the subtle question approach because it's a good fit for the way I talk to people anyway. Also, though, I don't think I have any particular skill at spotting a bald-faced lie, but I think I'm pretty good at spotting the inconsistencies that turn up when someone is trying to give a misleading impression while answering multiple answers to multiple questions.