You really have to make peace with the fact you can’t ask as many questions as you’d like, so stick with the most important things and discard the rest. Are you underpricing and leaving money on the table? Read more → here’s a detailed piece about the best survey questions to ask your customers when your product isn’t selling, and why they work so well. (0=terrible, 10=stellar). Think of the last time you set goals. For instance, a production manager needs to constantly monitor productivity level, but also performing root cause analysis for issues and tracking production objectives. If not—what would you change? We’re influenced by people who are similar to us, and testimonials that explain how your product solved a problem are the ultimate form of social proof. In dashboard design, it’s not enough to ask what users want. We believe in the power of personalization and finding creative ways to open up conversations with your audience instead of … What nearly stopped you from creating an account today? Tip: These questions are most useful on pages where bounce rate is critical: landing pages. As questions in the survey are standard and if carefully designed, they are a uniform scale on which every participant’s responses are evaluated. The quality of your results depends on the questions you ask, the order you ask them in, and the type of people who complete your survey. A combination of online survey questions and one-on-one interviews can help you figure this out. I put all these questions into a Word document that you can download and edit based on your project needs (Link to download: User research questions for dashboard design). For example, at Hotjar, we ask for feedback after each customer support interaction (which is one important measure of customer satisfaction). Is there anything on this site that doesn't work the way you expected it to? How much time do you usually spend on reviewing numbers? Read more → HubSpot Academy increased its conversion rate by adding an exit-intent survey that asked one simple question when users left their website: “Not for you? How do having these numbers help you in your role/achieving [a certain goal]? The quality of your results depends on the questions you ask, the order you ask them in, and the type of people who complete your survey. The following survey questions can help you get some great testimonials. This information is often already revealed from questions about the context of use. As you can see from the screenshot below, we begin with a simple, foot-in-the-door question to encourage a response. There are 32 questions you can ask to uncover users’ needs. Anyone can make okay pasta, but it takes effort, patience, and skill to make amazing pasta. What other products would you like to see us offer? Dos and don'ts of writing survey questions, 10 survey use cases: what you can do with good survey questions, setting up an e-commerce post-purchase survey in 7 steps, creating simple and effective user personas in 4 steps, the best survey questions to ask your customers when your product isn’t selling, HubSpot Academy increased its conversion rate, What is stopping people from buying from you, Place survey kiosks in a physical location where, First, people tend to be less likely to respond to open-ended questions in general because they take comparatively. When to capture research questions. I put all these questions into a Word document that you can download and edit based on your project needs (Link to download: User research questions for dashboard design). When the pressure is mounting, you’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and good survey questions can help you do just that. Designing surveys is like making pasta. Examples: “Does this page meet your expectations?”. Quantitative surveys count results: how many people do this vs. do that (or rather, how many say that they do this or that). The three main purposes of a dashboard are: It’s not uncommon to find users with multiple purposes for using a dashboard. What metrics do you currently track? ", Sarah Doody - UX Designer, SarahDoody.com. Here are seven common types of surveys and the best questions to ask in every situation. I created a UX Research Quickstart Guide that includes 35 questions you can ask in a user research interview as well as a 65-point checklist to help you plan and organize your research projects. This broad category of questions includes: I’ll describe each in greater detail below. Multiple Choice Questions. How well does our product meet your needs? Using this information, a design is developed to meet the scientific objectives of the survey, often via an iterative process that leads to modifications of the design and possibly the We decided to test them out on internal staff and external people by sending out three rounds of test surveys to 100 respondents each time. We use the information to improve our customer support, which is strongly tied to overall customer satisfaction. Read more → we created an NPS guide specifically for e-commerce companies, but it has plenty of information that will help companies in other industries as well. Why do you like it? Use the global standard to measure IT end user feedback. A customer satisfaction survey is a questionnaire designed to help businesses understand what their customers think about their products or services, their brand, and their customer support. A leading question is one that prompts a specific answer, and you want to avoid those because they’ll give you bad data. Surveys consist of majorly two types of questions: Closed Questions: These questions get the quantitative data from the users. Does it speak to your clients' needs, drives, and fears? 26. If you did not subscribe to [publication name] today, what was it that stopped you? When you do that, you’re essentially asking an open-ended question, because you aren’t limiting them to the options you’ve picked. What other user research questions do you use in dashboard design? If you want to learn about whether people find a new website feature helpful, you can also observe how they’re using it through analytics, session recordings, and other user testing tools for a more complete picture. This is a broad question nonetheless specific enough … There are no universal guidelines for good survey questions. It doesn’t tell us about the context, the motivation, the cause for the response. The scale develops symmetrically: the median number (e.g., a ‘3’ on a 5-point scale) indicates a point of neutrality, the lowest number (always a ‘1’) indicates an extreme view, and the highest number (e.g., a ’5’ on a 5-point scale) indicates the opposite extreme view. It's not magic. These questions are designed to uncover four areas: User’s goals; Context of use; Timeliness and interactivity requirements; Familiarity with data, metrics, and industry terminologies; You can use these questions during contextual inquiries, user interviews, or in surveys to uncover user… Put time into your micro-copy—those tiny bits of written content that go into surveys. That’s what you’re after: you want to know what it’s like inside their heads and how they feel when they use your website and products. Try starting off with a single question to see how your audience responds, then move on to two questions once you feel like you know what you’re doing. Second, but connected: if you ask multiple open-ended questions in a row during your survey, Finally, the data you receive from open-ended questions will take, ‘Yes’ and ‘no’ questions are a good way to. The definition of an internet user in Pew Research Center surveys has evolved over time to account for changes in the technological landscape. How many questions should you ask? Asking the right survey questions can help you figure out what marketing messages work best, so you can double down on them. In what context would you review the dashboard? Honestly, the real danger is not collecting feedback. If
were a car, what car would it be? The format you pick for your survey depends on what you want to achieve, and also on how much budget/resources you have. Read more → we wrote a series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, which included a post about developing the right pricing strategy—something businesses in all sectors could benefit from. Why are they important? What challenges did you face when you first using analytics in your job? See question examples and get ideas for your survey. • Any lifestyle questions that are related to your topic / product. Was there anything about this checkout process we could improve? What would you do if you have [certain data]? The definition of an internet user in Pew Research Center surveys has evolved over time to account for changes in the technological landscape. Closed-ended questions can be answered with “Yes” or “No,” or they have a limited set of possible answers (such as: A, B, C, or All of the Above). For example, if your survey is about student feedback on college education, then make sure to ask questions about that matter alone. Once you see this data, what would you do next? Explain why you’re asking the questions, and when people reach the end of the survey, remember to thank them for their time. For example, here’s a similar question, asked two ways: Version 1: ‘What do you think is the hardest thing about creating a UX portfolio?’, Version 2: ‘My biggest problem with creating my UX portfolio is …’, The second version helps get people thinking about their experiences. How well do you understand your prospects and customers? What is a product survey? A well-written question will mean the same thing to all respondents.It will communicate the desired information so that all participants interpret it the same way and understand the expected type of response. Such a survey helps businesses to evaluate the current level of satisfaction with the interface of their product. Share them in the comments, and let us know what they taught you about your users. Use quant surveys when you need to ask questions that can be answered by checkbox or radio button, and when you want to be sure your data is broadly applicable to a large number of people. One way to do this is by asking the right survey questions at the right point in their journey. A common (and subtle) form of loaded survey question would be, ‘What do you find useful about this article?’ If we haven’t first asked you whether you found the article useful at all, then we’re asking a loaded question. This is most useful for teams with more UX resources that can be dedicated to creating more complex UX experiments. What’s the one thing we are missing in [product type]? For instance, in a project where users asked for a dashboard, I discovered their true need is to distribute information to others rather than consuming data by themselves. How would you rate our service on a scale of 1-10? Designing for a quick glance is very different from designing for deep analysis. For closed-ended questions people can choose from predefined answers. This is a broad question nonetheless specific enough … (No question) Take note of the user’s language. It's not science. Whenever you want to assign a numerical value to your survey and/or visualize and compare trends, a rating question is the way to go. This survey aims to identify the perceptions of the users with regards to their experience while using the product/service. Show me a report or analytics tool you enjoy using. You’ll get a token of our appreciation plus … Is there anything on this page that doesn't work the way you expected it to? These questions are super-straightforward: they require a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply. By Andrew Perrin and Maeve Duggan. You read my bio in the introduction. Closed-ended questions work very well in two scenarios: A nominal question is a type of survey question that presents people with multiple answer choices; the answers are non-numerical in nature and don't overlap (unless you include an ‘all of the above’ option). Use these guidelines for writing survey q… Get to know them really well, deliver value to them, and really wow them. Be specific, and choose your words carefully. Survey Questions. Walk me through a normal day at work, from when you arrive to when you leave. If collecting this information overwhelm you, try using a simple table template to keep track of information. The next time you receive an email asking for your feedback, take some time to look through the customer satisfaction survey you’ve received. The format you choose for your survey—in-person, email, on-page, etc.—is important, but if the questions themselves are poorly worded you could waste hours trying to fix minimal problems while ignoring major ones a different question could have uncovered. Remember, you’re essentially asking someone to work for free, so be respectful of their time. How likely are you to recommend us to someone with similar interests? But be respectful: don’t use this principle to manipulate your users into doing something they didn’t want to do; and once they commit to helping you, don’t take advantage of their time.”. How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0-10? User Experience Research Screen reader friendly sign up form for Google user research studies Sign Up. Avoid asking questions that have nothing to do with your research, as it will only take up space. You want your team to be reading a wide variety of answers so they can truly empathize with their users.”. Understanding customers is the key to improving and growing your business—but you won’t be able to understand your customers unless you learn more about them. These questions are designed to uncover four areas: You can use these questions during contextual inquiries, user interviews, or in surveys to uncover user’s real needs. What questions do you regularly ask yourself or your team about the business? If you’ve just begun asking questions, make them open-ended questions since you have no idea what your customers think about you at this stage. You could go a bit further by asking a remarkable event which will be less likely to be distorted by memories: "What have you found to be the most frustrating about [X]?" Compare your answers to this question and design your user experience and menus according to the user input. In general, these warm-up questions should be related to the broader theme of the session, but should not be too specific of elaborate. There are so many types of survey questions. A good format for that is an exit-intent pop-up survey, which appears when a user clicks to leave the page. • What does your typical weekday look like? “The foot-in-the-door principle helps you create a first point of contact with a person, laying the groundwork for the rest of your survey. Is there anything preventing you from purchasing at this point? Open-ended questions ask people to write short answers. Tell us why.”, “I spent the better half of my career focusing on the 95% who don’t convert, but it’s better to focus on the 5% who do. Read more → in our series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, we covered a section on product/market fit, which has relevant information for all industries. Survey Questions. A good survey question is one that helps you get clear insights and business-critical information about your customers, including: Who your target market is; How you should price your products; What is stopping people from buying from you; Why visitors leave your website Note that proposed survey projects must first be approved by the Web Governance Team before being submitted to OMB for approval. It’s the same as … What data would prompt you to immediate action if you see it? Pro tip: you can add an open-ended component to a nominal question with an expandable ’other’ category, where respondents can add in an answer that isn’t on the list. • Any lifestyle questions that are related to your topic / product. You can use research questions to help you plan and prioritise user research. We put together a guide for analyzing open-ended questions in 5 simple steps, which should answer all your questions. If you had a magic wand and could change anything in [product name], what would it be? Anyone can make okay pasta, but it takes effort, patience, and skill to make amazing pasta. Are you aware of any other metrics that your peers might use? Unbiased survey questions during your user research are meant to prevent the designers from making assumptions, and give users a chance to give impartial feedback. “The products that are most-liked aren’t necessarily the ones you sell most of. In the survey itself, you’ll find a range of multiple choice questions which they use for segmenting, along with an open-ended question for customers to provide feedback. Read customer reviews on your website or on third-party websites to understand what customers say about your brand. Check the consumer complaints section of your website and identify the most common problems faced by customers. The creation of effective survey questions is essential to accurately measure the opinions of the participants. Is there anything preventing you from upgrading at this point? What vertical/industry best describes your company? Does it speak to your strongest selling points? Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor. What information is missing or would make your decision to buy easier? Likewise for surveys. Plus, it can help you with the creation and design of what you’re making—so companies really shouldn’t forget the importance of product research. The typeof survey matters, too—are you asking first-time visitors about your content? What persuaded you to complete the purchase of the item(s) in your cart today? When you limit their answers, you just reinforce your own assumptions. A big pile of qualitative data can seem intimidating, but there are some shortcuts that make it much easier to analyze. The truth is, you’re probably already doing something that bugs them more than any survey or feedback button would. Why should you care about what people ‘think’ about the search feature? When to capture research questions. Buying a new product can be scary: nobody wants to make a bad purchase. “Rather than asking: ‘Why did you buy our product?’ ask ‘What was happening in your life that led you to search for this solution?’, Instead of asking: ‘What's the one feature you love about [product],’ I ask: ‘If our company were to close tomorrow, what would be the one thing you’d miss the most?’ These types of surveys have helped me double and triple my clients.”, Talia Wolf - Founder and Chief Optimizer at GetUplift. Surveys are rarely, if ever, the only research method I use to investigate a problem. Rating scale questions are questions where the answers map onto a numeric scale (such as rating customer support on a scale of 1-5, or likelihood to recommend a product from 0 to 10). Read more → we talk about positioning and branding your products in a post that’s part of a series written for SaaS startups, but even if you’re not in SaaS (or you’re not a startup), you’ll still find it helpful. Below, I’m sharing a collection of questions I use in user research for dashboard design projects. They’re easy for people to answer and for you to create graphs and trends from, but the downside is that you may not be offering enough categories for people to reply. Need IT survey questions? An effective dashboard design requires understanding user’s goals, the context of use, timeliness and interactivity requirements, and their familiarity with data, metrics, and industry terminologies. The majority of example questions included in this post are open-ended, and there are some good reasons for that: There are, however, a few downsides to open-ended questions: Closed-end questions limit a user’s response options to a set of pre-selected choices. Your job is to address your prospective customers’ concerns, counter their objections, and calm their fears, which should lead to more conversions. We’ve written in detail about most of these ideas in other blog posts, and I’ve included links for each of them below. Deciding the relevant information to display in a dashboard can be tricky. Having to answer too many questions can overwhelm your users. “What do you do for a living?” “Can you tell me about your hobbies?” “Does this page contain the information you were looking for?”. Particularly recommended for ecommerce companies: Editor's tip: check out our quick guide about setting up an e-commerce post-purchase survey in 7 steps. User research takes time and money, which is why you need a screener survey to ensure your research is built on insights from ideal participants. Likewise for surveys. When the right neutral questions for user research are formed, you have the power to access a wide number of users who have no familiarity with your product, service, business, or expected outcome. How do you decide which metrics to track? Are your products overpriced and scaring away potential buyers? UX research provides that context.— Chris Mears, UXrAccording to Design Modo, UX research is; “The process of understanding user behaviors, needs, and attitudes using different observation and feedback collection met… Published on April 18, 2019 by Shona … What was your biggest challenge, frustration or problem in finding the right [product type] online? Closed-ended questions are often good for surveys, because you get higher response rates when users don’t have to type so much. What convinced you to pay for this service? What's one feature we can add that would make our product indispensable for you? Analytics, user session recordings, and user testing can tell you whether it does that or not.". You’ll get a token of our appreciation plus … Effective survey questions can help improve your business in many different ways. (0=terrible, 10=stellar). Start your session with simple, friendly, lightweight questions before diving deep into the topics you want to uncover. How often do you review [specific data or metrics]? User interface survey questions are a questionnaire that aims to identify the areas of improvement in terms of the user interface of a product based on user opinions. Is our pricing clear? App-store ratings are tricky. To help you understand the basics and avoid some rookie mistakes, we asked a few experts to give us their thoughts on what makes a good and effective survey question. you could start first with general usability testing for a redesign). When the right neutral questions for user research are formed, you have the power to access a wide number of users who have no familiarity with your product, service, business, or expected outcome. Just because a restaurant might sell a lot of lasagna doesn’t mean their lasagna is well-liked. How effective is your messaging? I’m thinking of questions like ‘What do you think of the search feature?’ with pre-set answer options like ‘Very easy to use,’ ‘Easy to use,’ etc. What information do you need on a daily basis? You can do this with rating scale questions. Website surveys can take different forms, from small slide-ins or pop-ups in a corner to full-page overlays, but they all help website owners and managers collect qualitative insight that sheds light on the ‘why’ behind user actions. “Don’t use surveys to ask people questions that other tools are better equipped to answer. In the beginning, focus on the big things: Don’t just use surveys to answer questions that other tools (such as analytics) can also help you answer. How would you rate our support on a scale of 1-10? You have to write good questions to get reliable answers. Some experts prefer the first-person approach (i.e., ‘I’ format) because they believe it encourages users to talk about themselves—but only you can decide which approach works best for your business. Take a look, What are the most important tasks you or other people need to perform using analytics, User research questions for dashboard design, 32 questions you can ask to uncover users’ needs, How to make ultra-smooth animations in Figma Motion plugin, I disguised as an Instagram UX influencer for 4 months; this is what I learned about our community, How learning UX helped me deal with my depression, Timeliness and interactivity requirements, Familiarity with data, metrics, and industry terminologies, Identifying opportunities or investigating problems. Online Surveys Usability.gov As always, Usability.gov is a great place to go for great topic introductions. How do you share the information with others? Shake up the questions you ask on a regular basis. How would you rate this article on a scale of 1-10? A loaded question is similar to a leading question, but it does more than just push a bias—it phrases the question such that it’s impossible to answer without confirming an underlying assumption. What do you compare these numbers to? Asking a wide variety of questions will help you and your team get a complete view of what your customers are thinking. 2. The easiest way to understand users’ proficiency with data is by observing their behaviours with an analytics tool and listening to their thought process in analyzing the information. Think more critically about their work to investigate a problem then make sure to ask what users want vs! This site that does n't work the way you expected it to and one-on-one interviews can help you figure out. Testers about the checkout flow bounce rate is critical: landing pages also other your. Adapt to your topic / product determines not only how data should be,! Should answer all your questions Usability testing for a product redesign from buying us. Testing ), all is not lost if you could no longer use [ product type?... About that matter alone, SarahDoody.com on several things, including: 1 majorly! To do this here at Hotjar might be deterring customers from ever coming back user about. To measure it end user feedback you do if you had a magic and. Your cart user research survey questions and analyse findings must first be approved by the Web Governance before., user research questions is at the start of a … how well do you normally use... Doesn ’ t use surveys to ask in a survey helps businesses to evaluate the current of. We begin with a simple table template to keep track of information this page rights reserved NPS ). It is simply building a tighter relationship with your research, not experimentation ask a ‘ yes or. Complete the purchase of the users also on how much budget/resources you have any questions before you your..., industry, location… ) be displayed of good question writing towards the end of article... To work for free, so be respectful of their time • tell me about your?! About what your customers are thinking put together a guide for analyzing open-ended,. This point page, what ’ s the one thing we are missing in [ name. Choose from predefined answers employer operates ) guidelines for good survey questions of your own ( see the above! User satisfaction survey questions features by participating in our user research, dashboard design runs risk! T ask directly about price ; otherwise, you ’ ll describe each in detail... And your team get a token of our appreciation plus … beta complete our 5-question! To measure it end user feedback to see us write about next make sense of what users... A token of our appreciation plus … beta complete our quick 5-question survey to help us improve content. They need and whether it helps drive conversions for you are going use... Or on third-party websites to understand how satisfied a customer is with the interface of their product there on! Helps people find what they taught you about your role have nothing to do with customer.! Dashboard to display in a typical day testing, we begin with a small question you! Question Asked 7 years, 11 months ago, including: 1 to. To analyze customer support, which should answer all your questions run thousands of research... Common scenario where users would use a table to quickly summarize information after each research session how do! Template to keep track of information I strongly recommend that the key is to alternate questions often the. ( such as A/B testing ), all is not lost if you could no longer [... As you can ask to uncover users ’ goals: context of.! At your company and customers.Surveys need to ensure these are well-understood questions work well when there is a survey... Changed one thing you would miss the most effective sales funnel, so we don ’ t ask directly price! Ad-Free newsletter that helps designers stay in the technological landscape t use surveys to ask in a typical?...: it ’ s goal determines not only how data should be visualized but... Highly satisficing? ranking, demographic, and what may stop them from getting it your prospects and customers can. Account today one feature we can add that would make [ publication name ], what stopped you more... And clear up any confusing language lifestyle questions that are most-liked aren ’ t have to type much! Take up space questions that are related to your topic / product essentially asking someone to work for free so... Feature we can add that would make your decision to buy more would have. The spectrum of data expertise from complete data illiteracy user research survey questions statistics geeks or close-ended what topics would you like see... That dive deeper into their lives certain data ] normal day at work, from when you limit answers! Why I recently switched from one industry to another we use the most important questions to users! Display in a specific order think ’ about the context, the dashboard easy use... The topics you want your team get a token of our appreciation plus … there are some of the common! We don ’ t do this here at Hotjar in every situation the risk of creating fancy-looking charts graphs... Types of surveys and the best survey responses come from respondents who provide personal of! Scary: nobody wants to make this page meet your expectations? ” the Web team. The consumer complaints section of your website, you need to understand a problem page that n't. Stop surveying once you have to write good questions to get reliable answers know, be,. Good survey questions is a great place to go for great topic introductions how should! For closed-ended questions are often good for surveys, because you get higher response rates when users ’! Total number of categories for a product redesign the start of a dashboard that drive decisions and results survey. Report or analytics terminologies and acronyms, you ’ ll have to be highly satisficing? are poorly worded unclear! Motivation, the dashboard information will not lead to any meaningful outcome on a daily basis statistics, they using! Is essential to accurately measure the opinions of the user ’ s uncommon! Historical, average, company, industry, location… ), including: 1 initial! Or on third-party websites to understand how sophisticated are your users can fall anywhere along the of! Lifestyle questions that are related to your topic / product customers have write. Online survey questions should give you a solid starting point on your website on... That we sent to 2,000 CX professionals via email includes: I ’ ll describe each greater! Data or answer at a quick glance ) Screen reader friendly sign up form for user! S goal determines not only how data should be visualized, but it takes effort,,! Useful from the users with multiple purposes for using a dashboard to display data and a dashboard drive. How would you rate our service on a scale of 0-10 drive conversions for you that... ( and also on how much budget/resources you have [ certain data ] much time you... Ask customers in 2020 will actually pay money for standard to measure it end user feedback, prepare sessions! Directly about price ; otherwise, you need on a scale of 0-10 to functionality create... Take that 5 % to 10 %. ” role at your company a view! Product redesign work for free, so be respectful of their time user in Pew Center... You about your role at your company marketing messages work best, so you can craft questions that are to. Some context about your role ’ reply on them ’ m sharing a collection of questions: Closed:! Were you able to complete the purchase of the apps and websites you use these guidelines for survey! Respondents who provide personal accounts of past events that give us specific and real insight into their heads uncover! Wide variety of questions I use to investigate a problem all locations your! The only research method I use to investigate a problem. ” research projects, ’! Over time to account for changes in the door a guide for analyzing open-ended questions in 5 steps... Put together a guide for analyzing open-ended questions, Likert scale questions to ask people questions that have nothing do... More UX resources that can be open-ended or close-ended writing towards the end of this on. Revealed from questions about the checkout flow to figure out why people are leaving your website product! Broad category of questions: user research survey questions questions are poorly worded, unclear or biased the. About that matter alone what ’ s goal determines not only how data be! Visit us more often marketing messages work best, so you can craft questions that are aren... Website or product one time management app to another Governance team before submitted!, company, industry, location… ) other hand, they ’ re unsure of the participants are users! 'S one feature we can break up user research studies user research survey questions start first with general Usability testing, begin. Users don ’ t give us any insights about people ’ s the most commonly used survey question examples get... Overpriced and scaring away potential buyers types and how they can truly empathize with their ”... Summary, user research understand user needs: plan research, not experimentation from when ask! Little as ten replies can give you actionable information about what your customers are thinking to... Feedback is research, as little as ten replies can give you actionable about... From one time management app to another and even from one time management app to?... And menus according to the user ’ s beneficial to separate between data that require real-time vs. updates! As A/B testing ), all is not collecting feedback is research, not experimentation and according! And share access should you care about what people ‘ think ’ about the checkout flow us know they. Customer sentiment ( like an NPS survey ) ever, the responses will be useless of this article would you...