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This is where UX surveys come into play. But how can you compile questions that will lead to useful answers, and what other aspects of survey design need to be considered in this context?
Sticking to tried and tested strategies
You don’t need to redesign the wheel when making your own UX survey for your latest product. In fact, the following best practices for question writing will deliver value time after time.
Battling bias
If your questions are phrased or scaled in a way that biases the respondent’s answer in a particular direction, then it’s a wasted opportunity.
For example, avoid composing questions that suffer from confirmation bias. Don’t ask “Would you prefer it if the product were yellow?” Instead, ask “How did you feel about the color of the product?”
It’s also unhelpful to construct questions with emotive language that steers respondents down one path. Don’t ask “What part of your experience with the product was the most amazing?” Instead, ask “How would you rate your experience with the product?” and provide a scale for an unbiased reply to be given.
Even the scales used in UX surveys have to be balanced. Make sure that if you’re using a number-based scoring system, the upper and lower ends of the scale are at the extreme, and there’s room in the middle for ambivalence to be expressed.
Eliminating bias is all part of UI testing, both in terms of survey design and how you use tools and collaboration within your development team itself.
Focusing on problems
Another must when designing UX surveys is to pinpoint problems you already know about and put these to respondents as questions. This is ideal if you know something’s wrong, but you haven’t come up with a convincing solution yet.
Mix these questions about specific pain points with more open-ended queries that give users space to express their own experiences. A good blend will give you actionable insights.
Aiming for brevity
The longer a survey goes on, the less likely it will be for respondents to actually reach the end, or to remain engaged enough later in the process to give valuable answers.
Making it short and sweet is therefore vital. Obviously, the length can vary depending on the context and your needs, but the quicker a survey is to complete, the better.
This doesn’t just apply to the number of questions, but their individual length. If you can trim down long-winded queries so that they’re simpler for a reader to scan, the whole thing will feel less of a chore.
Using surveys regularly
A single UX survey can give you data that helps improve the product experience for end users. However, every change you make and update your rollout can bring new UX issues along with it, so you have to be consistent in creating and running surveys for as long as a product is on the market.
This will not only help you address product-specific issues and move towards better UX design but also allow you to keep your ear to the ground regarding wider trends that might otherwise pass you by. Learn more about user experience design firms.
Final thoughts
UX survey design is half science, half art, and so it’s a skill you need to nurture over time, not something you can expect to get right on the first try.
Working on it is worthwhile, because with user insights your product development will go more smoothly, and sales will soar as a result.