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The best user research questions and how to ask them

User Research

Sep 1, 2022

The best user research questions and how to ask them

To get the right insights, you need to ask the right questions. Here’s the best user research questions to start gathering feedback right away.

Lorelei Bowman

Lorelei Bowman

Content Editor at Maze

Knowing the right user research questions to ask is vital to the success of your UX research. Research is an invaluable source of input for product development, but before you can get started, you need to make sure the questions lined up will get the insights you need, without influencing the data.

Think of this article as your guide to all-things user research questions: what to ask, how to ask it, and how to create your own questions. Let’s get started.

What kind of user research questions are there?

The kind of questions you ask will depend on your research goals—are you looking to gather user feedback, or find out if a particular feature is (or would be) useful? Are you trying to discover what problems bother your user, or whether they’d prefer one solution over another?

Before planning your questions and diving head-first into research, look at your overarching research plan and objectives. Consider this on a project-by-project basis, as your end questions will be drastically different depending on where you are in the product development process . For instance, if you’re in early product discovery , you may want to discover user intent and pain points. Or, if you’re working on a high-fidelity prototype, you might want to see how users interact with the prototype, and how easy it is to use. Asking questions at different stages of your process is a big part of continuous product discovery and ensuring your product remains the best it can be.

💡 If you’re looking to understand the types of question format used in surveys or user questionnaires, take a look at our guide on how to write survey questions .

User research questions can be categorized in many ways—by objective, research scenario, or point in the product journey, to name a few. Since different questions may apply in multiple situations, we’re going to consider questions organized by their research focus.

Questions for user research can typically be categorized three ways:

  • Questions about the problem e.g., what are users’ pain points, what task are they trying to complete, what solution do they want
  • Questions about the people e.g., who they are, how they use products, what they want to accomplish, how likely are they to use the product
  • Questions about the product e.g., how users’ feel about content or design, can they navigate the product, how usable is it, what features do they like or dislike

Now we know what kinds of questions there are, let’s delve into the value of pre-made questions, and some examples of each question type.

Using pre-made user research questions

To elevate your research, you can opt to use pre-existing questions from a question bank. As with all research tools , there are many benefits to this, including saving time and effort, and having many questions to choose from. Using a question bank also ensures questions are always carefully considered, easily understandable for users, and unbiased.

Meet the Maze question bank

An open-source question repository for product teams, our question bank is aimed at helping you ask the best user research questions to gather insight that will help build truly user-centered products.

question-bank-3

A good question bank will be multifunctional, with questions you can use when running moderated to unmoderated testing, conducting generative or evaluative research, or gathering quantitative or qualitative data. So you can have one place to go for all your user research question needs.

🚀 Boost your research with Maze templates

If you’re a Maze user, you can also use the question bank as a handy companion to fuel your team’s research with Maze—check out the templates column and question block suggestions for maximum efficiency when building mazes.

Ultimately, a pre-made question bank can help save you a lot of time, and allow you to focus on conducting the research and processing analysis.

If you’d like to create your own questions, let’s get into the different user research question types, what questions they include, and how to ask them.

question bank for user research questions

Click on the image to head straight to the question bank 👆

Questions about the problem

To support product and design decisions behind any solution, you need to be familiar with the problem you (and your users) are trying to solve. Whether you’re starting product discovery and want to understand user pain points, or you’re testing new features and want to gauge which will be most popular— you can’t begin working on a solution until you’ve honed in on what the problem is.

What’s bothering your users? How can you make their lives easier? What’s their key challenge, and what are they trying to achieve that’s being blocked by that problem?

Only once you’ve narrowed down a key problem statement can you translate solutions into the user experience, and identify opportunities for product development .

Questions focusing on the problem you’re trying to solve are key in product discovery stages and concept validation . The reason for using a particular product or feature may vary between users—consider Instagram’s Explore tab: it could be used to find friends, connect with like-minded people, or find inspiration.

Questions that can help hone into the problem at hand include:

  • What problems do you face when you do [task]?
  • Please complete this sentence: "The most frustrating part of trying to complete [task] is…”
  • What is your main goal when trying to complete [task]?
  • What is your personal measure of success when it comes to [goal]?
  • How are you currently solving [problem]?
  • Describe your ideal solution to [problem]

Questions about the people

Understanding the problem you’re trying to solve goes hand in hand with the people who are facing this problem—who they are and how they think, how they adopt and use products, their wants, needs and dislikes.

Put simply, there’s no point building a product if it solves the problem your user is having—but not in the way they wanted it to.

To really understand how your users think, and the way they approach a product, you need to understand their mental models. Broadly speaking, a mental model determines how someone forms their thinking process—it might impact the way they approach a problem, the kind of solution they’d like, and how they expect certain features to work.

UX research methods like card sorting are a good way to understand people’s mental models, but you can also gather this insight through thoughtful user interviews or research questions.

User-focused questions also cover understanding attitudes towards product adoption, use habits and circumstances, pricing models, and demographics.

Some example questions you could ask to learn more about your target users include:

  • Are there any products that you prefer to use to do [task]?
  • What does your job look like in your company?
  • How do you prefer to be trained on new products?
  • How much would you pay for [product]?
  • Please describe who you might collaborate with when [task]?
  • How often do you do [task]?

Questions about the product

Once you understand the problem your product will solve, and the people who’ll be using it, it’s time to circle back to the product itself. Questions about the product may be about its usability, what features you’re including, how users feel about content or design, and whether it does what they need it to.

Just like all research, it’s a good idea to ask product-related questions multiple time during the research phase, as both questions and answer will vary depending on what development stage you’re at—from prioritizing which feature to focus on developing first, to assessing how navigable a certain product section is, or reviewing the appeal of specific design aspects.

To gain a well-rounded understanding of how users find using your product or feature, usability testing is imperative. And, if you’re trying to nail down product navigation and identify any bumps in the user journey, tree testing is the research method of choice.

Whatever your focus, questions relating to the product are useful in both evaluative and generative research , and critical for creating a user-centered, solution-focused product.

Sample questions you can use to learn more about the product and features could include:

  • How did you find the language (including but not limited to copy, phrasing, tone) used on the website?
  • What’s the single most important thing we could do to make [product] better?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how was your experience when [task]?
  • Was the product navigation as expected?
  • If you could change one thing about the design what would it be and why?
  • Thinking about what [product] offers, which of the following best describes your feelings about it?

🤔 To dive into the questions you should be asking during usability testing, check out how to ask effective usability testing questions .

Regardless of what questions you ask, it’s worth bearing in mind that this information should be considered a guide, not a rule—as sometimes what people think they’ll do is not what they always do in practice . This is why it’s so important to continue research and testing in all stages of product development, so you can always be working off the most reliable and up-to-date insight.

Guidelines for crafting the right user research questions

Research questions set the standard of the data you’ll gather with them, so it’s crucial to properly craft each question to maximize insight and ensure accurate results.

Using a pre-made question bank is one way to keep questions effective, but if you’re writing your own questions, bear in mind that everything from the language you use to the structure or format of questions can influence the user’s answer.

The best questions for user interviews and research are clear , precise , and unbiased . Let’s go over some ultimate tips for crafting questions that fulfill this.

ux research questions to ask

Stay neutral: avoid leading questions

One of the most important points when it comes to any research is being a neutral party, which means removing cognitive bias from your work. Research isn’t helpful if it’s biased, so ensure your questions are as impartial as possible—after all, just because you like Concept A over Concept B, doesn’t mean everyone will.

The key to staying neutral is avoiding leading questions where you subconsciously favor one thing over another, or plant an opinion or idea in the user’s mind, such as “How would you use concept A?”—this assumes they preferred concept A, which they may not have. Instead, try asking which concept they would use, followed by how they would use it.

Take it one question at a time

The majority of us think best when our minds are clear and able to focus on one thing, so avoid bombarding research participants with multiple questions phrased together.

Rather than asking a question like “What did you think about the design, copy and layout of the page?”, ask individually about the design, copy, and layout. Otherwise, you risk users merging their thoughts into one answer, when in fact they may feel very differently about each element.

Of course some questions lend themselves to being combined (e.g., “Which concept did you prefer and why?”), but it’s best to keep things separate when possible, and ask “Why?” in follow up questions, to allow users space to think and form individual answers for each question.

Ask open-ended questions

Similar to ensuring questions are unbiased, it’s also a good idea to ask open-ended questions—that is, to avoid questions which result in simply a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

The benefit of open-ended questions is that they give participants an opportunity to expand on their answer, work through their experience, and share details with you that may otherwise be missed. Consider that, while asking “Did you like the product?” may answer whether a user liked it, you’ll be left wondering what it is they like about it. Instead, try framing questions in a way that provides space for additional information, e.g. “What did you think about the product?”.

Pro tip ✨ If you do ask closed-ended questions, always keep follow up questions aside to dig deeper gather and extra insight from your participants.

Help users find their own voice

The language we use is incredibly powerful. Used well, words can move us, sway our opinions, educate us, and more.

By helping your research participants to find their own voice, you can unlock powerful statements and user insights which will truly impact your product. Formatting questions with the user at the center—using ‘you’ and asking emotive questions—builds empathy with the user and encourages them to find and share their own opinions through honest answers.

Ask questions you think you know the answer to

Our final question-crafting tip is to use research questions to test and validate your own assumptions and opinions. Ask questions you think you know the answer to—if you believe all users will prefer one new feature over the other, see if you’re right. If you think a certain design element works better on a different page, ask research participants to determine where they prefer it.

As with any research, while you may be user-adjacent, you are not your users. You are the expert in your product; they are the expert in using your product. Trust their opinions, and use their knowledge and experience to confirm your suspicions, or disprove them. Either way, you gain valuable insights.

User research is as effective as the questions you ask

Whether you’re investigating user preferences or conducting usability testing, research is only as effective as the questions you ask—and how you ask them.

Focus on questions that fit your research objectives, phrase your questions in the best way possible, and work to build empathy with your user; you’ll be able to gather valuable insights in no time.

Frequently asked questions and user research questions

What makes a good user research question?

A good research question is open-ended , unbiased , clear , and precise . It helps research participants share their thoughts, feedback, and opinions with researchers, without influencing or limiting their responses.

What type of user research questions are there?

User research questions can broadly be broken down into three categories:

How do you create a user research question?

There are several ways to create a user research question: you can either write your own question, or select premade questions from an existing research question bank.

If you choose to write your own research questions, it’s important to keep them clear and precise above all else—focus on asking questions that encourage users to open up, share additional information, and speak honestly.

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How to write effective UX research questions (with examples)

Collecting and analyzing real user feedback is essential in delivering an excellent user experience (UX). But not all user research is created equal—and done wrong, it can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and non-actionable results.

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ux research questions to ask

You need to ask the right UX research questions to get the valuable insights necessary to continually optimize your product and generate user delight. 

This article shows you how to write strong UX research questions, ensuring you go beyond guesswork and assumptions . It covers the difference between open- and close-ended research questions, explains how to go about creating your own UX research questions, and provides several examples to get you started.

Use Hotjar to ask your users the right UX research questions

Put your UX research questions to work with Hotjar's Feedback and Survey tools to uncover product experience insights

The different types of UX research questions

Let’s face it, asking the right UX research questions is hard. It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice and can leave even the most seasoned UX researchers drawing a blank.

There are two main categories of UX research questions: open-ended and close-ended, both of which are essential to achieving thorough, high-quality UX research. Qualitative research—based on descriptions and experiences—leans toward open-ended questions, whereas quantitative research leans toward closed-ended questions.

Let’s dive into the differences between them.

Open-ended UX research questions

Open-ended UX research questions are exactly what they sound like: they prompt longer, more free-form responses, rather than asking someone to choose from established possible answers—like multiple-choice tests.

Open questions are easily recognized because they:

Usually begin with how, why, what, describe, or tell me

Can’t be easily answered with just yes or no, or a word or two

Are qualitative rather than quantitative

If there’s a simple fact you’re trying to get to, a closed question would work. For anything involving our complex and messy human nature, open questions are the way to go.

Open-ended research questions aim to discover more about research participants and gather candid user insights, rather than seeking specific answers.

Some examples of UX research that use open-ended questions include:

Usability testing

Diary studies

Persona research

Use case research

Task analysis

Check out a concrete example of an open-ended UX research question in action below. Hotjar’s Survey tool is a perfect way of gathering longer-form user feedback, both on-site and externally.

#Asking on-site open-ended questions with Hotjar Surveys is a great way to gather honest user feedback

Pros and cons of open-ended UX research questions

Like everything in life, open-ended UX research questions have their pros and cons.

Advantages of open-ended questions include:

Detailed, personal answers

Great for storytelling

Good for connecting with people on an emotional level

Helpful to gauge pain points, frustrations, and desires

Researchers usually end up discovering more than initially expected

Less vulnerable to bias

 Drawbacks include:

People find them more difficult to answer than closed-ended questions

More time-consuming for both the researcher and the participant

Can be difficult to conduct with large numbers of people

Can be challenging to dig through and analyze open-ended questions

Closed-ended UX research questions

Close-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by ranking or rating, or with a single word.

They’re easy to recognize because they’re similar to classic exam-style questions.

More technical industries might start with closed UX research questions because they want statistical results. Then, we’ll move on to more open questions to see how customers really feel about the software we put together.

While open-ended research questions reveal new or unexpected information, closed-ended research questions work well to test assumptions and answer focused questions. They’re great for situations like:

Surveying a large number of participants

When you want quantitative insights and hard data to create metrics

When you’ve already asked open-ended UX research questions and have narrowed them down into close-ended questions based on your findings

If you’re evaluating something specific so the possible answers are limited

If you’re going to repeat the same study in the future and need uniform questions and answers

Wondering what a closed-ended UX research question might look in real life? The example below shows how Hotjar’s Feedback widgets help UX researchers hear from users 'in the wild' as they navigate.

#Closed-ended UX research questions provide valuable insights and are simple for users to address

The different types of closed-ended questions

There are several different ways to ask close-ended UX research questions, including:

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys

CSAT surveys are closed-ended UX research questions that explore customer satisfaction levels by asking users to rank their experience on some kind of scale, like the happy and angry icons in the image below.

On-site widgets like Hotjar's Feedback tool below excel at gathering quick customer insights without wreaking havoc on the user experience. They’re especially popular on ecommerce sites or after customer service interactions.

#Feedback tools can be fun, too. Keep your product lighthearted and collect quick user feedback with a widget like this one

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

NPS surveys are another powerful type of (mostly) closed-ended UX research questions. They ask customers how likely they are to recommend a company, product, or service to their community. Responses to NPS surveys are used to calculate Net Promoter Score .

NPS surveys split customers into three categories:

Promoters (9-10): Your most enthusiastic, vocal, and loyal customers

Passives (7-8): Ho-hum. They’re more or less satisfied customers but could be susceptible to jumping ship

Detractors (0-6): Dissatisfied customers who are at a high risk of spreading bad reviews

Net Promoter Score is a key metric used to predict business growth, track long-term success, and gauge overall customer satisfaction.

#Asking your customers, 'How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?' helps calculate Net Promoter Score and gauges user satisfaction

Pro tip: while the most important question to ask in an NPS survey is readiness to recommend, it shouldn’t be the only one. Asking follow-up questions can provide more context and a deeper understanding of the customer experience. Combining Hotjar Feedback widgets with standalone Surveys is a great strategy for tracking NPS through both quick rankings and qualitative feedback.

Pros and cons of closed-ended research questions

Close-ended UX research questions have solid advantages, including:

More measurable data to convert into statistics and metrics

Higher response rates because they’re generally more straightforward for people to answer

Easier to coordinate when surveying a large number of people

Great for evaluating specifics and facts

Little to no irrelevant answers to comb through

Putting the UX researcher in control

But closed-ended questions can be tricky to get right. Their disadvantages include:

Leading participants to response bias

Preventing participants from telling the whole story

The lack of insight into opinions or emotions

Too many possible answers overwhelming participants

Too few possible answers, meaning the 'right' answer for each participant might not be included

How to form your own UX research questions

To create effective UX questions, start by defining your research objectives and hypotheses, which are assumptions you’ll put to the test with user feedback.

Use this tried-and-tested formula to create research hypotheses by filling in the blanks according to your unique user and business goals:

We believe (doing x)

For (x people)

Will achieve (x outcome)

For example: ' We believe adding a progress indicator into our checkout process (for customers) will achieve 20% lower cart abandonment rates.'

Pro tip: research hypotheses aren’t set in stone. Keep them dynamic as you formulate, change, and re-evaluate them throughout the UX research process, until your team comes away with increased certainty about their initial assumption.

When nailing down your hypotheses, remember that research is just as much about discovering new questions as it is about getting answers. Don’t think of research as a validation exercise where you’re looking to confirm something you already know. Instead, cultivate an attitude of exploration and strive to dig deeper into user emotions, needs, and challenges.

Once you have a working hypothesis, identify your UX research objective . Your objective should be linked to your hypothesis, defining what your product team wants to accomplish with your research—for example, ' We want to improve our cart abandonment rates by providing customers with a seamless checkout experience.'

Now that you’ve formulated a hypothesis and research objective, you can create your general or 'big picture' research questions . These define precisely what you want to discover through your research, but they’re not the exact questions you’ll ask participants. This is an important distinction because big picture research questions focus on the researchers themselves rather than users.

A big picture question might be something like: ' How can we improve our cart abandonment rates?'

With a strong hypothesis, objective, and general research question in the bag, you’re finally ready to create the questions you’ll ask participants.

32 examples of inspiring UX research questions

There are countless different categories of UX research questions.

We focus on open-ended, ecommerce-oriented questions here , but with a few tweaks, these could be easily transformed into closed-ended questions.

For example, an open-ended question like, 'Tell us about your overall experience shopping on our website' could be turned into a closed-ended question such as, ' Did you have a positive experience finding everything you needed on our website?'

Screening questions

Screening questions are the first questions you ask UX research participants. They help you get to know your customers and work out whether they fit into your ideal user personas.

These survey question examples focus on demographic and experience-based questions. For instance:

Tell me about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

What does a typical day look like for you?

How old are you?

What’s the highest level of education that you’ve completed?

How comfortable do you feel using the internet?

How comfortable do you feel browsing or buying products online?

How frequently do you buy products online?

Do you prefer shopping in person or online? Why?

Awareness questions

Awareness questions explore how long your participants have been aware of your brand and how much they know about it. Some good options include:

How did you find out about our brand?

What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?

If you’ve visited our website multiple times, what made you come back?

How long was the gap between finding out about us and your first purchase?

Expectation questions

Expectation questions investigate the assumptions UX research participants have about brands, products, or services before using them. For example:

What was your first impression of our brand?

What was your first impression of X product or service?

How do you think using X product or service would benefit you?

What problem would X product or service solve for you?

Do you think X product or service is similar to another one on the market? Please specify.

Task-specific questions

Task-specific questions focus on user experiences as they complete actions on your site. Some examples include:

Tell us what you thought about the overall website design and content layout

How was your browsing experience?

How was your checkout experience?

What was the easiest task to complete on our website?

What was the hardest task to complete on our website?

Experience questions

Experience questions dig deeper into research participants’ holistic journeys as they navigate your site. These include:

Tell us how you felt when you landed on our website homepage

How can we improve the X page of our website?

What motivated you to purchase X product or service?

What stopped you from purchasing X product or service?

Was your overall experience positive or negative while shopping on our website? Why?

Concluding questions

Concluding questions ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For instance:

What are your biggest questions about X product or service?

What are your biggest concerns about X product or service?

If you could change one thing about X product or service, what would it be?

Would you recommend X product or service to a friend?

How would you compare X product or service to X competitor?

Excellent research questions are key for an optimal UX

To create a fantastic UX, you need to understand your users on a deeper level.

Crafting strong questions to deploy during the research process is an important way to gain that understanding, because UX research shouldn’t center on what you want to learn but what your users can teach you.

UX research question FAQs

What are ux research questions.

UX research questions can refer to two different things: general UX research questions and UX interview questions. 

Both are vital components of UX research and work together to accomplish the same goals—understanding user needs and pain points, challenging assumptions, discovering new insights, and finding solutions.

General UX research questions focus on what UX researchers want to discover through their study. 

UX interview questions are the exact questions researchers ask participants during their research study.

What are examples of UX research questions?

UX research question examples can be split into several categories. Some of the most popular include:

Screening questions: help get to know research participants better and focus on demographic and experience-based information. For example: “What does a typical day look like for you?”

Awareness questions: explore how much research participants know about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?”

Expectation questions: investigate assumptions research participants have about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What was your first impression of X?”

Task-specific questions: dive into participants’ experiences trying to complete actions on your site. For example: “What was the easiest task to complete on our website?”

Experience questions: dig deep into participants’ overall holistic experiences navigating through your site. For example: “Was your overall experience shopping on our website positive or negative? Why?”

Concluding questions: ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For example: “What are your biggest concerns about (x product or service)?”

What’s the difference between open-ended and closed-ended UX research questions?

The difference between open- and closed-ended UX research questions is simple. Open-ended UX research questions prompt long, free-form responses. They’re qualitative rather than quantitative and can’t be answered easily with yes or no, or a word or two. They’re easy to recognize because they begin with terms like how, why, what, describe, and tell me.

On the other hand, closed-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by rating or ranking options, or with just a word or two.

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30+ User Research Questions To Ask For Building Better Products

10 min read

30+ User Research Questions To Ask For Building Better Products cover

The right user research questions will help you collect relevant data about your target audience and make informed decisions to propel growth.

However, if done wrong, you risk encountering confusion and skewed results. This article serves as your guide to avoid such pitfalls by showing you:

  • How to craft your questions the right way and collect valuable feedback .
  • Examples of questions you can copy or tweak.
  • Best practices to adopt for effective results.
  • User research questions are quantitative or qualitative questions you ask users to uncover insights about their mental models, needs, behavior, and experience with your product.

Broadly speaking, you can trigger research questions to:

  • Understand user problems .
  • Uncover user preferences.
  • Gather information about the product experience.

Examples of user research questions to understand user problems:

  • What problems are you looking to solve with this product?
  • What is the main goal when completing [a task in the product]?
  • How hard is it to accomplish [task]?

Examples of problem research questions to understand user needs:

  • Describe the problem you are trying to solve as a [user persona].
  • What tasks do you accomplish during an average workday?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how difficult is it to accomplish [a task]?

Examples of UX research questions to improve user experience:

  • What were your initial expectations when you started using our product, and how did the actual experience compare?
  • How would you describe the organization and clarity of our menu and interface labels? Are there any terms or options that are unclear to you?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how was your experience with [task]?

Adopt these best practices to crush your UX research goals:

  • Ask concise questions and be specific.
  • Avoid asking leading questions so research participants can provide honest answers.
  • Use a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions for comprehensive insights.

Channels to collect UX research responses:

  • Use in-app user feedback surveys to gauge satisfaction.
  • Conduct user interviews to understand needs, preferences & experiences.
  • Carry out user testing to dig deeper into how users interact with your tool.
  • Effective user research hinges on employing the right questions, user interview strategies, and continuous experimentation to discover which techniques resonate best with your audience. Userpilot can help with that. Book a demo to learn more.

What are user research questions?

User research questions are quantitative or qualitative questions you ask users to uncover insights about their perception, needs, behavior, and experience with your product.

By analyzing the responses to these questions, you can make informed decisions about product design and development. Ultimately, research helps you build a product that users love, thereby driving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Types of user research questions

User research is as broad as it comes, but generally speaking, there are three categories when surveying SaaS users:

User research questions to understand the problems

The questions in this category help you uncover the pain points and challenges your ideal customers face.

By triggering these questions and analyzing responses from the research participants, you’re better positioned to make continuous iterations and ensure your product evolves to meet user needs.

Use this category of questions when you want to:

  • Brainstorm new product ideas .
  • Design a product sprint.
  • Design feature enhancements.
  • Improve product usability.

User research questions to understand user preferences

These questions enable you to glean proper information about your target audience . By asking them, you’ll know what makes your audience tick, the factors that influence their buying decisions, and what tasks they accomplish each day.

Trigger surveys about user preferences early in the product development stage to:

  • Design data-driven user experiences .
  • Identify features that will drive product adoption.
  • Understand the preferred pricing structure and your users’ WTP (willingness to pay).

User research questions about the product experience

The overall product experience shapes how users perceive your brand and determines whether they continue doing business with you. By conducting surveys about the user experience, you will uncover insights to:

  • Improve the product experience and usability .
  • Guide new features and enhancements.
  • Discover churn reasons .

Examples of user research questions to understand the problem

Trigger the questions below to gain insights into problems your users face and identify solutions that will improve their experience.

Qualitative research question examples

  • Can you describe a time when you were struggling to use [product/feature] and how you eventually overcame the challenge?
  • Are there any recurring issues or problems that, if resolved, would significantly enhance your overall satisfaction with our product?
  • What features or functionality are missing from our product that would make it more useful for you?

open-ended-user-research-questions

Quantitative research question examples

  • On a scale of 1 to 7, how challenging do you find [specific features of your product] to use?
  • How likely are you to recommend our product to others based on your current experience?
  • What is the likelihood that you will switch to a competitor product in the next six months?
  • How often do you have to contact our customer support team for assistance?
  • Indicate your level of agreement with the statement: “The current version of [product] adequately addresses my primary pain points.”

problems-user-research-questions

Examples of problem research questions to understand user needs

Curious about user needs, preferences, and willingness to pay? Trigger the following qualitative and quantitative survey questions at the right points in the user journey:

Qualitative research questions

  • What tasks do you accomplish in an average workday?
  • Can you describe one particular feature you find most valuable in a product like ours?
  • Are there any missing features you’ll be willing to pay extra for?
  • How do you currently address gaps or limitations in our product? Are there workarounds you’ve developed?
  • How important is mobile accessibility in your workflow, and what features would you consider essential for a mobile version of our product?
  • When it comes to integrations with other tools or platforms, which integrations would be most beneficial for your workflow?
  • What has been the biggest hurdle in using [feature]?

hurdles-customer-needs-and-preference

Quantitative research questions

  • What are the top three tasks you complete most often with our product? (List the most common tasks in your tool to make it easy for users to simply click an option)
  • To what degree do you value product updates and new feature announcements in maintaining your interest in a SaaS product?
  • How likely are you to consider upgrading to a higher pricing tier for access to premium features?
  • How much would you be willing to pay for a solution to [problem]?

pricing-question-quantitative

Examples of product research questions to improve user experience

Trigger the following to learn more about the user experience and identify ways to improve usability and retention.

Qualitative UX research questions

  • How can we improve your experience with the product?
  • Are there any features you rarely use, and if so, can you explain why?
  • Can you describe a time when you were struggling to use our product and how you eventually overcame the challenge?
  • Have you used similar products or competitors in our industry, and if so, what aspects of their user experience do you find better or worse than ours?
  • If you were to stop using the product, what would be the main reason?

user-experience-churn-reason-user-research-questions

Quantitative UX research questions

  • On a scale from 1 to 5, rate how easy it is to use [product].
  • How often do you encounter problems completing the following tasks with our product? (List the tasks)
  • On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?
  • How easy is it to find the information you need to complete tasks with our product?
  • Indicate your agreement with the statement: “My overall satisfaction with [product] has increased over time.” (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree)
  • How would you rate your overall experience with [product]?

product-experience-rating-user-research-questions

Best practices when conducting user research

To avoid distorting your research results, it’s important you choose your survey questions carefully. One word or phrase could influence user responses and give you inaccurate data.

Below are three best practices when rolling out user research questions:

Ask concise questions and be specific

Concise questions help participants clearly understand the information you’re seeking. They prevent confusion and ensure participants can provide relevant insights.

Stay away from product or industry jargon, as not all participants might be familiar with them.

That said, focus on asking specific questions—ideally, one idea per question. This makes it easier for users to respond, and it also helps you analyze better and faster.

Here’s an example of an incorrect survey question: “How satisfied are you with the ease of navigation and the responsiveness of customer support in our product?”

This question combines two distinct ideas—satisfaction with ease of navigation and satisfaction with customer support responsiveness—into a single question. Respondents may have differing opinions on each aspect, making it challenging to pinpoint specific areas for improvement. It also doesn’t allow participants to express nuanced feedback on each element separately.

Avoid asking leading questions

Leading questions are intentionally or mistakenly worded in a way that suggests or pushes respondents toward a certain answer.

Example: “Was the product very easy to navigate?”

This question is leading because it suggests a positive outcome and assumes agreement with the statement. Respondents may feel compelled to respond positively even if they don’t genuinely believe the product has easy navigation. This can introduce bias and result in inaccurate data.

A better phrasing would be, “How would you describe your experience with navigating the product?”

Let’s consider another example.

What do you think about the survey question below?

“Is feature A better than feature B? (Yes/NO)”

Leading or not?

Binary questions can be tricky because the phrasings inherently imply comparison; however, the above question is leading.

A better way to frame it for unbiased responses is to ask: “Do you prefer feature A or B?”

Unbiased survey question created with Userpilot.

Use a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions

This is known as mixed-method research, and experts use it to get both qualitative and quantitative feedback for better insights.

Closed-ended questions provide quantitative data that you can quickly analyze to generate actionable insights. On the other hand, open-ended questions offer qualitative feedback, uncovering the “why” behind quantitative responses.

When designing your survey, strike a balance between closed-ended and open-ended questions. Ensure closed-ended questions cover key metrics , while open-ended questions delve into user perceptions and experiences.

Sometimes, it’s effective to start with quantitative questions to gather baseline data and then ask open-ended follow-up questions to explore nuances and gather rich qualitative data.

For example, you can trigger an NPS survey that asks users on a scale of 1-10, how likely they are to recommend your new feature, then send a follow-up asking the reasons for their scores.

How to collect responses to user research questions

There are multiple user research channels. The ones you choose boil down to your audience and research goals. For SaaS participants, in-app surveys, user interviews, and usability tests work great.

Let’s go over them in detail.

Use in-app user feedback surveys to gauge satisfaction

Meet customers where they are with contextual in-app surveys that let you collect input on the spot. This real-time feedback is valuable for understanding immediate user experiences and satisfaction levels.

For instance, triggering a CSAT survey immediately after a user interacts with your new feature lets you get more accurate feedback compared to when you wait to ask them weeks later in a one-on-one interview.

By integrating surveys into your app, you engage users without requiring them to switch to a different platform. This convenience encourages higher participation rates.

Conduct user interviews to understand needs, preferences & experiences

When it comes to understanding user needs and preferences, interviews work better. They help you interact closely with the research participants, ask follow-up questions immediately, and generate in-depth feedback to uncover underlying motivations and reasons behind user behavior.

All these are critical to building products your users will love, especially when building an MVP to test with a new audience.

In addition, direct interactions foster empathy as you can observe non-verbal cues and emotions, gaining a holistic perspective on user experiences beyond what may be expressed verbally.

Carry out usability tests to dig deeper into product usability

Usability tests help you gauge how user-friendly your product is. The tests focus on understanding customer satisfaction with your tool and their perception of its value.

Usability tests help pinpoint specific areas of your product that may cause confusion or frustration for users. By observing users during tests, you’ll gain insights into their natural interaction patterns, allowing you to make adjustments that align with user expectations and behaviors.

Popular usability testing methods include guerilla testing, lab testing, and remote testing. The approach you choose depends on your audience and research objectives.

User research isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing process of learning about users and making improvements.

Regularly conduct user research to keep track of changing customer needs and preferences. Doing this will save you from losing users to churn and ensure your product is competitive.

When you think about it critically, research boils down to asking the right questions. Your phrasing matters as much as the channels and timing. So, A/B tests different research questions to see which gives you better results.

Userpilot can help you trigger and analyze user research questions in-app. With our platform, you can:

  • Design different kinds of quantitative and qualitative surveys.
  • Segment users to determine who sees what.
  • Set event-based triggers so your surveys are contextual. For instance, you can set your surveys to be sent after a user interacts with a new feature. This way, only users who hit that goal will see your surveys.
  • A/B test different survey elements and get real-time results.

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UX Research Questions: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to designing a product or service, user experience (UX) research is critical in ensuring that it meets the needs and expectations of its intended audience. However, conducting user research is not as simple as just asking people what they want. To get the most valuable insights, you need to ask the right questions.

In this article, we will explore what User research questions are, why they are important, and how to create effective ones. From defining your research goals to selecting the best methodology, we will cover everything you need to know to conduct successful user research.

Table of Contents

What are ux research questions.

  • Why Are User Research Questions Important?
  • How to Formulate Effective User experience Research Questions
  • Examples of UX Research Questions by Methodology

UX research questions are specific inquiries used to gather information from users about their experiences, needs, and behaviors related to a product or service. These questions are designed to provide insights into various aspects of the user experience, such as ease of use, satisfaction, and overall usefulness.

UX research questions can take many forms, such as open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, or Likert scales. They can be included in any type of user research, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and usability testing.

Why Are UX Research Questions Important?

UX research questions are important for several reasons:

They help you understand your users. By asking the right questions, you can gain valuable insights into your users' needs, behaviors, and pain points. This information can help you develop a better product or service that meets their needs and expectations.

They can uncover hidden problems. Users may not always be aware of the issues they have with a product or service. By asking specific questions, you can uncover problems that they may not have thought to bring up themselves.

They provide data-driven insights. User research is crucial in making data-driven decisions. By asking the right questions, you can gather data that can be used to support your design decisions and validate your assumptions.

How to Formulate Effective User Research Questions

To formulate effective User research questions, follow these seven steps:

1. Define Your Research Goals

Before you start creating questions, it's essential to define your research goals. What do you want to learn from your users? What problems are you trying to solve? By defining your research goals, you can create questions that are relevant and targeted to your specific needs.

2. Choose the Right Methodology

There are several user research methodologies available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Before creating your questions, you need to select the appropriate methodology for your research goals. Some popular methodologies include online surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and usability testing.

3. Identify Your Target Audience

Different audiences have different needs and behaviors, so it's essential to identify your target audience before creating your questions. Who are you designing your product or service for? What are their demographics and psychographics? By identifying your target audience, you can tailor your questions to their specific needs and behaviors.

4. Consider the Context

The context in which users interact with your product or service can affect their experience. Before creating questions, consider the context in which users will be using your product or service. For example, if you're designing a mobile app, consider the different scenarios in which users might use it, such as on the go or at home.

5. Use Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions allow users to provide more detailed answers and insights. They also enable users to share opinions and experiences that you may not have thought of. When creating questions, try to include open-ended questions that encourage users to share their stories.

6. Avoid Leading Questions

Leading questions can bias users' responses and provide inaccurate data. Avoid questions that suggest a specific answer or imply a right or wrong response. Instead, create questions that are neutral and allow users to express their opinions freely.

7. Check for Clarity and Relevance

Before finalizing your questions, check for clarity and relevance. Make sure that users can easily understand your questions and that they are relevant to your research goals. If a question doesn't meet these criteria, rephrase or remove it.

Examples of User Research Questions by Methodology

To illustrate how UX research questions can be applied across different methodologies, we've provided some examples below:

Online Surveys

  • How often do you use [product/service]?
  • How would you rate your overall satisfaction with [product/service]?
  • Which features of [product/service] do you use the most?
  • What improvements would you suggest for [product/service]?

In-Depth Interviews

  • Can you walk me through how you use [product/service]?
  • What aspects of [product/service] do you find most frustrating?
  • What features would you like to see added to [product/service]?

Focus Groups

  • In what situations do you use [product/service]?
  • How does [product/service] compare to other similar products/services you've used?
  • What would make you more likely to recommend [product/service] to others?

Usability Testing

  • How easy was it to complete the task [related to product/service]?
  • Were there any points during the process that you found confusing or frustrating?
  • Was the information provided clear and easy to understand?

Effective user experience research questions are critical in providing valuable insights into users' needs, behaviors, and experiences. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create questions that are relevant, targeted, and unbiased, providing you with the data you need to make informed design decisions. Whether you're conducting an online survey or a usability test, asking the right questions is essential in creating a product or service that meets the needs and expectations of its users.

Are you overwhelmed by the complexity of UX research? UXSquid's automated user research interview and analysis tool and analysis got you covered.

Free resource - UX Research tool & template.

It takes just 2 minutes to sign up and get access to our user research template & tool in Excel, Word and PDF format.

UX Research Tool Template

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How to Craft the Best UX Research Questions

ux research questions to ask

In this blog post you will find:

Understanding ux research, brainstorm with other stakeholders, break down and categorize your ideas.

  • Introductory Questions

Questions about the problem

Questions about the product.

As a UX Researcher, engaging with customers and prospects is a critical part of your role. Mastering the art of asking effective UX research questions is essential. The right questions not only illuminate user needs but also safeguard against the costly mistake of developing a product that misses the mark.

This blog post is designed to guide you through identifying key questions for your UX research. It will provide you with a foundation of essential UX research questions and offer strategies to develop customized ones that align precisely with your specific research objectives.

Firstly, it’s important to grasp the true essence of UX Research. It goes beyond just gathering data; it’s about interpreting this data to drive informed decisions in product design and development.

ux research questions to ask

Tailoring UX Research Questions To Your Research Goals

Before crafting your questions, it’s crucial to define what you aim to learn from the research. Clear objectives will guide your questioning strategy. Whether it’s improving a specific feature or understanding overall user satisfaction, your goals should dictate the type of questions you ask. Let’s go over some actionable advice to define your research targets.

The primary objective of conducting UX Research is to provide insightful data that informs decision-making across various teams, including marketing, product and sales. Therefore, it’s essential to develop a hypothesis with each team member on board. Their insights will not only assist in more precisely defining the problem to be solved but also ensure that the UX research questions posed are on target. Their presence brings diverse perspectives and insights to the table.

After compiling a comprehensive set of UX research questions, it’s vital to categorize and prioritize them. This step is key in developing a structured approach to your UX research. In the following sections, we’ll suggest a framework for organizing your questions. Remember, this structure is adaptable and can be tailored to align with your specific research goals and the unique nuances of your project.

Types Of UX Research Questions

To get the insights you’re seeking, consider employing various types of questions in your research.

ux research questions to ask

Introductory questions

These are particularly useful for bridging any gaps that may remain after participants have answered initial screener questions or surveys. These questions aren’t just limited to the beginning of your research; they can be integrated throughout the process.

At this stage, the key is to encourage participants to speak freely. Opt for open-ended questions that stimulate conversation and allow for expansive answers. By taking this approach, you’ll effectively warm up the atmosphere and help the participant relax, which is crucial for unlocking a wealth of valuable insights.

Here’s a list of introductory UX research questions you can use: 

  • What does your typical day look like?
  • Can you walk me through how you interact with technology throughout your day, including any specific devices or platforms you frequently use?
  • Aside from your typical weekday, how do your weekends or non-working days differ in terms of activities and technology usage?
  • What factors most influence your decisions when choosing to use a particular app or website?
  • Could you tell me about your current role?
  • Could you describe any specific habits or preferences you have developed in your professional field?

These questions provide a richer context for understanding the participant’s daily life and interactions with the product or service being studied.

In this category of questions, the focus is on the problem that your product or service is designed to solve. You introduce this problem as the central topic of the study and explore the participant’s behaviors and habits related to addressing this issue.

For instance, if the application under study is a macronutrient tracking app, the problem topic revolves around weight loss and/or muscle growth. The questions, therefore, should be centered around these areas, aiming to understand how participants currently manage these challenges and how they perceive solutions offered by apps like yours. This approach helps in gaining insights into their needs, preferences, and potential barriers they face.

Here are a set of example questions:

  • What is the biggest challenge in counting your macronutrients?
  • What kind of workarounds have you figured out to make this easier?
  • Can you describe your dietary goals and how they influence your approach to macronutrient tracking?
  • What specific features do you look for in a tool or app for macronutrient tracking, and why are these features important to you?
  • Have you paid for tools to track your macronutrients?
  • What, if anything, would you change about other macronutrient tracking tools or apps you’ve used? 

At this point, probing questions like “why?” and “why not?” can uncover more profound understandings of the participant’s motivations as well.

In this phase, you present the product as a potential answer to their needs. It’s crucial to distinguish between gathering data before and after product usage within your research methodology.

Demonstrating a demo or prototype is an effective approach to elicit initial reactions. Prior to their usage of the product, consider asking questions such as:

  • Is there anything on the homepage that would stop you from exploring the website and the product further?
  • Based on your first look at our homepage, what are your initial thoughts on the design and ease of use of this product?
  • What feature or aspect of this product stands out to you as unique or different from others you’ve seen?
  • Considering your current habits and preferences, what might be a barrier for you in adopting this product?
  • What emotions or feelings does this product evoke in you upon first exploration?
  • Would you use this product today? Why or why not?
  • What would you pay to be able to use this product?

After allowing the participant to use the product or guiding them through several tasks, the following UX research tools questions are designed to elicit suggestions, ideas and feedback. These questions are best asked once the participant has had hands-on experience with the product, providing insights based on their actual usage:

  • Can you identify any specific features or functions of this product that particularly stand out to you?
  • Can you identify any specific features or functions of this product that could be improved?
  • What, if anything, did you find appealing about the product? Why?
  • How do you feel about the overall user experience provided by this product?
  • How does this product compare with other similar products you’ve used in terms of features and usability?
  • Would you keep using this product after what you’ve seen? Why or why not?
  • Based on your current experience, how do you perceive the long-term value of this product for your needs?
  • Did you have expectations about this product that have not been met?

In conclusion, the power of well-structured questions cannot be overstated. They are the tools that guide the path to creating products that resonate deeply with your audience. This guide on UX research questions has hopefully provided you with the knowledge of what questions to ask and when — the kind that lead to breakthroughs. Remember, every question should be a stepping stone towards creating a more intuitive, user-centered product experience.

While fundamental questions form the basis of UX research, advanced techniques can provide deeper insights. A platform like Userlytics helps you dive deep into user behaviors and preferences more effectively. See how our platform can help you get those insights you crave. If you would like to book a free demo, it’s right here .

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ux research questions to ask

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ux research questions to ask

9 UX Research Books for Designing Better Products

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Let’s say you’re developing a new website or mobile app. The exciting part of developing a visual identity is upon you and you’re hesitating between different fonts, colors, typographies, placements of buttons, etc. You choose the one that appears the coolest to you. After all, it’s your website or app, right? This is where the…  Read More » What Is Preference Testing And How to Do It Right?

The effectiveness of your UX research is deeply influenced by the relevance of your user testing participants. Imagine creating a blockbuster movie where the ensemble of actors, the narrative, and the screenplay must harmonize perfectly to craft something exceptionally good. In UX research, recruiting participants for a study who mirror your target audience is essential…  Read More » 9 Tips On How To Recruit Participants For A UX Study

In making great products and keeping users happy, there’s one golden rule: never stop learning. Enter: UX research books! User expectations shift as rapidly as the technological landscape, therefore staying ahead of the curve is crucial. Keeping your UX research skills sharp is important, and equipping yourself with the knowledge of the best UX research…  Read More » 9 UX Research Books for Designing Better Products

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35+ Excellent UX Survey Questions You Need to Ask

ux research questions to ask

If you invest a ton of resources and money into building a product solution, you should ensure that it agrees with the target audience. That’s what UX survey questions are for.

User experience survey questions help you explore what the targeted users like, what they don’t like, and what will make your products better. 

The biggest advantage of using UX surveys is they let you run research and optimization processes without disrupting the product cycle.

You can seamlessly integrate the feedback loop into your product stages and ensure the final product meets customers’ expectations.

The first step is to write effective questions. That’s where this blog comes into play.

We have created a comprehensive list of 25+ UX research survey questions to help design the perfect surveys and extract valuable insights from your users, stakeholders, and testers.

Let’s get started.

A Short Note on UX Survey Questions

UX survey questions are designed to extract feedback about the product from the intended and actual users. These questions assess the users’ product experience about different aspects like:

  • Product and Website Usability – How easy and intuitive it is for users to navigate and interact with the product.
  • Functionality – Insights on features and capabilities of the product.
  • Satisfaction – Gauges overall user satisfaction with the product, i.e., are users happy with their experience?
  • Visual Design – Feedback on the product’s appearance, layout, colors, and overall visual appeal.
  • Performance – Questions about the speed, responsiveness, and overall performance of the product.
  • Accessibility – Assesses whether the product is usable by individuals with disabilities.
  • Task Completion – Inquires about users’ success in accomplishing specific tasks or goals using the product.
  • Suggestions – Asks users to provide their thoughts, suggestions, and ideas for improvement.
  • Emotional Response – Asking questions about how users feel while using the product can provide insights into their emotional response and overall experience.
  • Competitive Analysis – Questions asking users to compare the product with similar ones they’ve used.

Here is a simple UX survey Nudge™ for collecting feedback from the app users:

ux research questions to ask

37 User Experience (UX) Survey Questions Examples to Ask Users

Before we get to the list, we have to put it out there: there is no magic list of UX survey questions that will help you get all the answers. Instead, you will have to create your own magic by using some great website user experience survey questions.

We have segmented this list into different types of questions for user experience surveys to make it easier for you to understand and use them. Let’s look at what questions to ask for user experience surveys.

UX Survey Questions – Research

  • What problems are you currently facing?
  • How often do you encounter this problem?

ux research questions to ask

  • What is the most frustrating part about this task?
  • Did you try any workarounds to help you with your problem?
  • How long did you spend on this problem?
  • Have you tried any other products/tools?

UX Survey Questions – Usability Testing

  • To what extent does this product match your expectations?
  • How do you think this product can help you?
  • What elements of this product are the most/least important to you?
  • What would you like to change about this product?
  • Is there anything more you would like us to add to this product?
  • What was the most difficult part about using this product?
  • How likely are you to recommend this product to your friends and colleagues?

ux research questions to ask

  • Did you find the navigation menu intuitive and easy to understand?
  • Were you able to quickly find what you were looking for?
  • Were there any specific tasks that you found challenging?
  • How quickly were you able to learn how to use the product?
  • Were instructions and information provided clear and easy to understand?

UX Survey Questions – Interaction Design

  • What are you trying to accomplish on this screen?
  • How would you rate the interface design of the website/app?
  • Do the menu items make sense?
  • Is the position of this element appropriate?
  • What can we do to simplify this design?
  • Is there anything you would like us to remove?
  • Does the screen layout look organized to you?
  • Is there anything you would like us to add to this screen?
  • How would you like to rate the overall navigation experience?

ux research questions to ask

UX Survey Questions – Visual Design

  • Do you like how the page looks?
  • Does the color scheme look appropriate?
  • How would you rate the overall aesthetics of the product?

ux research questions to ask

  • Are there any visual changes that you would like us to make?
  • Please rate the overall visual appeal of this page?

UX Survey Questions – Stakeholder Reviews

  • Does this product/service solve your user’s problems?
  • To what extent are your users satisfied with the offering?
  • Does the product meet all your requirements?

ux research questions to ask

  • To what extent does the product reflect the brand image?
  • Was the product able to meet the defined goals?

User Experience (UX) Survey Templates: Jumpstart Your Survey Creation

You have two solid options on the table. First, there’s the hands-on approach—crafting UX surveys from the ground up using the questions provided earlier. Alternatively, you can jump right into action with Qualaroo’s UX survey templates.

These templates are incredibly versatile, allowing you to fine-tune them to align with your brand’s personality. Adjust the branding, play with fonts and colors, and decide which questions make the cut or get the boot.

Consider this pro tip: spice up those surveys by adding a few extra questions from the above list. It allows you to give your UX surveys an extra layer of depth.

And here’s the magic touch – these survey templates are equipped with conditional logic . It means you can dive deep into the minds of your customers, extracting more nuanced feedback.

So, whether you’re going the DIY route or opting for the shortcut with these UX survey templates, you’ve got the tools to gather feedback that goes beyond good – it’s downright impressive.

ux research questions to ask

How to Create a UX Survey Using Quality Questions

Crafting a UX survey is an iterative process. Listen to your audience, let their insights guide you, and continuously evolve your questions to refine the feedback. Here are a few general steps to design UX questions to ask users:

Lay the Foundation with Clear Objectives

Start with putting the campaign goal at the center of your UX questionnaire design. What are you trying to achieve from the exercise?

Are you seeking to enhance product or website usability , measure customer satisfaction , or explore new features? Each audience, be it customers, prospects, or users, should be asked tailored questions that align with your objectives.

For example, if the objective is to improve the usability, then you can ask website usability survey questions such as:

On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy was it to find the information you were looking for on our website?”

Then add a follow-up open-ended question to explore the reason behind the user rating.

In the same way, you can add the following question to gauge what information/features are missing to improve the usability further.

Mix Open and Closed-Ended Questions

Balance closed-ended UX questions with open-ended ones. While closed-ended questions provide quantifiable data, open-ended questions offer qualitative insights.

A strategic blend provides a comprehensive picture of user experience and lets you listen to their minds without restricting them to predefined answer options. 

For example:

Closed-ended – How would you rate the loading speed of our mobile app?

Open-ended – Please describe any difficulties you encountered while using our app.

In this example, you can first segregate the users based on their ratings and then use the open-ended feedback from users who gave lower ratings to identify the user issues with the app.

Visualize the User’s Journey

Another way to design your UX survey questions is to map the user journey across the product and find the bottlenecks.

Then, use it to craft the UX survey design and flow. Start by measuring the initial impressions, delve into interactions, and conclude with satisfaction metrics.

This dynamic approach crafts a holistic narrative.

Initial Impression – What were your first thoughts when you landed on our homepage?

Interaction – Did you find it easy to customize your profile settings?

Satisfaction Metric – On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our website to a friend?

ux research questions to ask

Seek Inspiration from Other UX Survey Examples

If you get stuck in a creative whirlpool, explore existing UX survey question examples for inspiration.

You can search for the UX survey examples online to understand the type of questions to use, their sequence, and the answer choices. 

Then, Tweak and personalize these questions to suit your campaign objectives. 

You can also avoid manual efforts by using a user experience survey tool like Qualaroo that provides built-in professional survey templates to help you get started.

Each template is a complete survey based on a particular scenario designed to extract targeted insights from the audience.

Just pick the relevant template and start customizing the questions and themes to suit your content. Once you are ready to go, you can launch the UX survey.

ux research questions to ask

It saves a ton of time and effort, so you can focus on working on the feedback rather than designing the UX survey from scratch.

Test for Clarity and Simplicity

The quality of insights you get depends on the questions you ask, so they must be clear and understandable.

Here are tips to improve the UX questionnaire’s clarity for the users:

  • Avoid Jargon and Complex Terms – Make sure that the survey speaks the language of your participants. Skip the jargon and opt for words everyone can relate to.

Unclear question – “Assess the UI’s perceivable usability in the context of multivariate user interactions.”

Clear and Simple – “ Rate how easy it is to use the website’s different features.”

  • Avoid long-winded questions that can lead participants down a confusing rabbit hole. Keep it snappy and on point.

Unclear – “On a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 indicating not at all likely and 7 indicating extremely likely, how probable is it that you would not consider potentially using our service in the future?”

Clear and Simple – “How likely are you to use our service in the future? (1 = Not Likely, 7 = Extremely Likely)”

  • Avoid double negatives , which may be misinterpreted, leading to inaccurate feedback data. Imagine you’re explaining a route: “Don’t turn left” might be misinterpreted.

Unclear – “Would you not be dissatisfied with the absence of a chat feature?”

Clear and Simple – “Would you like a chat feature?”

For more tips, check our detailed blog on types of survey errors you need to avoid.

Work on Survey Structure

Structuring a survey well is extremely important if you want your participants to stay interested and not leave in the middle. 

When a survey is well structured, it provides a seamless experience to the users and also makes it easier for them to comprehend the intent behind the survey.

A good way to structure your survey questions for user experience is by asking the simplest questions in the beginning and making your way to the more complex questions later in the survey.

But remember, complex questions don’t mean you make your questions difficult to understand. Keep it simple at all times.

You can easily create a diverse survey structure by using multiple different question types from your survey maker tool. 

ux research questions to ask

For instance, Qualaroo features 12+ question types built into the survey creator to help you create diverse and engaging surveys at all times. These questions include:

Here’s something you may also like: Likert Scale Surveys: Why & How to Create Them (With Examples)

Ask UX Questions That Never Miss The Mark

User experience, mobile app, or website usability survey questions are great for gaining actionable insights into your product’s or website’s usability and the overall user experience. 

Not just that, these surveys also give an excellent opportunity to work on problem areas in your user experience and make it better for improved conversions. 

It’s pretty straightforward as well – you just have to ask the right UX survey questions the right way by pairing your surveys with the right feedback tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are 5 good survey questions.

Here are five good UX survey questions:

  • How would you rate the overall usability of our product/service on a scale of 1 to 10?
  • Which specific features do you find most valuable/useful in our product/service? Please describe why these features stand out to you.
  • On a scale of 1 to 5, how visually appealing do you find the design of our product/service?
  • Were there any aspects of our product/service that were confusing or hard to understand? If yes, please provide details on what you found confusing and any suggestions for improvement.
  • How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague, based on your current experience, on a scale of 0 to 10?

How can mobile app surveys benefit businesses and marketers?

Mobile app surveys provide insights for improving products, enhancing user experience, guiding marketing strategies, and increasing customer loyalty.

What types of feedback can be collected through mobile app surveys?

Mobile app surveys can collect feedback on usability, feature preferences, bugs, user satisfaction, and demographic information

Are there any best practices or tips for implementing mobile app surveys successfully?

Consider these best practices:

  • Timing: Prompt users for feedback at appropriate moments within the app.
  • Keep it short: Limit the number of questions to maintain user engagement.
  • Clear language: Use simple, concise language in questions and response options.
  • Incentives: Offer small rewards or discounts to encourage participation.
  • Analyze and act: Collect and analyze data, then implement improvements based on findings.

What is the aim of a mobile app?

The aim of a mobile app is to provide a specific functionality, service, or information to users through their mobile devices, often enhancing user experience, convenience, engagement, and specific actions.

Qualaroo Editorial Team

About the author

Qualaroo editorial team.

The Qualaroo Editorial Team is a passionate group of UX and feedback management experts dedicated to delivering top-notch content. We stay ahead of the curve on trends, tackle technical hurdles, and provide practical tips to boost your business. With our commitment to quality and integrity, you can be confident you're getting the most reliable resources to enhance your user experience improvement and lead generation initiatives.

Effective UX Research: User Research Questions To Ask for Improving User Experience

Not user acquisition or user retention; the most crucial thing for your business is user experience. As per statistics , every $1 invested in user experience can yield $100 in return. Now, if the return on investment is so high, this aspect demands attention.

Behind a remarkable user experience lies deep and precise user research. No matter if it is attitudinal research or behavioral research, the type of questions plays a pivotal role. Among surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other research methods, questions crafted for the users should be accurate and result-yielding.

The questions should be easily comprehensible and should not cause any miscommunication or confusion. Let's dive into this comprehensive blog and learn about different user experience research questions.

What are User Research Questions?

Many of us confuse user interview questions with user research questions. One thing I need to clarify here is that both of them are different.

A user research question helps you clearly understand the scope and benefit of the study. User research questions can help you select the right method, get the right user insights, and use them to make correct decisions.

For a researcher, it can be challenging to think and curate user research questions. However, a good user research question can be distinguished based on three primary factors.

  • It has to be SPECIFIC so that you know when you have found the answer.
  • Keep it PRACTICAL so that you can answer it with the available resources and time.
  • It has to be ACTIONABLE so that the answers to that question can help you in your decision-making process.

Types of User Research Questions

Primarily, user research questions can be divided into two categories.

  • Open-ended user research questions

These questions are categorized under qualitative research and have a more elaborate response from the user.

  • Closed-ended user research questions

Unlike open-ended questions, these questions do not require an elaborative response but only a yes/no rating or a multiple-choice response from the user.

Besides, these user research questions can be classified based on numerous aspects, such as the objective, research scenario, point in the product journey, and more.

These are the types of user research questions based on the objective! 

  • Questions about the problem

Based on the problem of the users, the user research questions can be

  • What are users’ pain points?
  • What task are they trying to complete?
  • What solution do they want?
  • Questions about the Needs and Motivations

These questions help you understand the needs and motivations of the users. Through these questions, you will know what makes your audience tick and the aspects that influence their buying decisions.

  • How do you currently address gaps or limitations in our product? 
  • Are there any missing features you’ll be willing to pay extra for?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how difficult is it to accomplish a task in the app?
  • Questions about the product experience

These questions help in improving product experience and usability.

  • What were your initial expectations when you started using our product?
  • What has been the biggest hurdle in using the product?
  • Can you describe a time when you were struggling to use our product and how you eventually overcame the challenge?

Check out how attitudinal and behavioral research vary from each other!

Closed Ended User Experience Questions

Closed-ended user experience questions are best to test your assumptions and get concrete answers to the questions. The answers to closed-ended questions are not elaborate but short. Research participants can answer with one word, in yes or no, multiple choice, etc.

These questions are classified under quantitative user research, where users have multiple choices to opt from. Sometimes, closed ended questions can be leading questions, too.

Some examples of research question examples for this are

  • Do you have a good experience with the website or app?
  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your user experience?

Closed ended questions are useful in various types of user research methods. Ideally, they are used in surveys !

  • Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys help analyze user satisfaction by allowing users to share their experience on a certain kind of scale. It can be a rating scale from 0 to 10 or an expression scale from happy to angry.

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

In a net promoters score survey, the participants are asked to mark their likelihood of recommending the product or service to their friend. It is a rating scale from zero to 10.

The benefits of closed-ended questions

  • Easier and faster to analyze and present data in attitudinal research .
  • You can conduct a session of closed-ended questions with multiple people.
  • Less challenging to filter the data.
  • Higher response rate due to straightforward questions and options.

Drawbacks of closed-ended questions

  • You may miss out on the emotions and opinions of the participants.
  • There are chances of social bias.
  • Sometimes, there can be limited choices in answers.

Open Ended User Experience Questions

Open-ended user research questions are the ones that are aimed to dive deep into a user's thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. These questions are in the form of what, how, why, describe, etc.

They are classified under qualitative research and let the user speak freely about everything concerning the question.

An example of an open-ended question is,

  • Tell me how you came to know about her product.
  • Walk me through your last Friday night outing!

The responses to these questions will be more comprehensive and will help you understand the mental models of the user.

You can use open-ended questions for several types of UX research methods, such as dairy studies, usability testing, persona research, etc.

The benefits of open-ended questions

  • You can probe open-ended questions to get a more detailed perspective of the user.
  • They help to connect with the user at any emotional level
  • Limited social bias
  • They help uncover suggestions, user feedback, pain points, etc.

Drawbacks of open-ended questions

  • It is a time-consuming research method.
  • The analysis of open-ended questions can be tough.
  • It is challenging to conduct with a large number of people.

Guidelines for Creating the Right UX Research Questions

The questions you ask for your user research project lay the ultimate foundation for the quality of data that you collect. Ultimately leading to a good or a great product in the end.

Keeping this in mind, it is supercritical to design user research questions in a way that you learn what you want to learn. Here are some of the finest tips and guidelines to create the right user research questions.

  • Start with a Clear Objective

 “People with goals succeed because they know where they're going.” — Earl Nightingale.

The same thing is true for a user research study. Before you craft the research questions, it is crucial to know several aspects, such as pain points and challenges, short-term and long-term priorities of the business, and the ultimate goal of the business.

After all, you have to align all these factors while crafting the questions to get the desired answers.

  • Stay neutral

Bear in mind that whenever you are conducting user research, keep yourself neutral . It means you should never favor any one opinion over the other. For example, if your question is, which user interface is good, A or B? Never ask the participant how much they like A.

Instead, go for which one you like and what's the reason for it. Avoiding any leading questions can eliminate the bias factor from the conversation.

  • Take it one question at a time.

Probing the participant with a question with multiple elements or multiple questions at the same time can somehow affect their answers. Instead, focus on asking one question at a time. So, for example, if I ask how do you feel about the display rate and brightness nits of your phone?

These two questions are very closely related, and the output from the user can merge, leading to an improper answer. Instead of this, I can ask how you feel about the display rate of our phone. This will provide a more clear answer!

  • Ask open-ended questions

Many of the researchers prefer open-ended questions to close-ended ones. Why? One thing about closed-ended questions is that you don't get to understand the deep emotions and opinions of the user. Another thing is that the response to closed-ended questions can be biased.

Open-ended questions can help you dig deep into the participants' minds. These questions can trigger the participant to share the experience, behavior, and other details that you may miss with closed-ended questions.

Know about Product Market Fit Survey Questions here!

  • Be Specific and Concrete

It doesn't matter if you are researching a product, brand, or service; you need to be specific and concrete in asking questions. Curate your questions in a way that when the participant answers, you know that you have got the answer. Moreover, it is also necessary to tune some follow-up questions to get concrete info. related to your research goals.

Keep the participants motivated with empathy, leading them to share more concrete user insights.

  • Help users find their own voice.

The motive of your research is to obtain honest answers from your participants. Therefore, you need to make your participants comfortable by expressing empathy. Try not to disturb them while they are talking, maintain eye contact, engage in frequent nodding, and smile when the participants smile.

All these aspects prove that you are actively listening and are actually interested in your participant’s views. It will help them express their opinions and feelings freely.

Best Examples of Questions for User Experience Research

As we have unraveled all the critical aspects of User experience research questions, let's take a look at some examples of the same.

  • Expectation questions

There are a number of points in a user journey. Expectation questions are asked at the beginning stage of the product or service development process. These are some of the primary examples of questions you should be asking.

  • How do you think this product will solve your issue?
  • Have you seen any other products similar to ours in the market?
  • What was your first impression of our product?
  • Task-specific questions

These questions directly relate to the tasks involved in your service or product. The following questions are the best examples of the same.

  • How fast was the checkout procedure on our website?
  • Was it difficult for you to browse products in the app?
  • What aspects of our app led to difficulty?
  • Experience questions

These testing questions relate to how the user felt. Here are some examples!

  • How did you feel when you first saw the landing page?
  • What made you purchase the X product?
  • How do you think the X page can be improved?
  • Awareness questions

By asking these core questions, you will understand how much time the user knows about your brand.

  • Have you visited our website before?
  • What made you come back to our website?
  • How did you come to know about our brand?
  • Screening questions

Screening questions are those UX interview questions that help you know about the participant and if they fit in the user persona.

  • How old are you?
  • How frequently do you make purchases on the web?
  • Tell me about your typical day routine.

Crafting the right user experience questions is not a walk in the park. It can be challenging, especially if you want to compete in a cut-throat market. You need the best tools at your disposal, along with qualified and adept researchers.

As far as the tools are concerned, there are many of them on the market. However, I recommend the user research tools by Qwary. Their set of user research tools can help you research the users and market to the core. So, get in touch now !

  • What are UX research questions?

User research questions are aimed to understand a participant’s opinions, beliefs, and thoughts related to a brand, its product and services. These questions can be open-ended or closed-ended based on the nature of data that is required to be collected.

  • What questions to ask about user experience surveys?

A user experience survey will contain questions related to UX. Some of them can be

  • Why did you decide to buy this product?
  • Is there anything missing in this product?
  • What is the best thing that you like in this product?
  • What are the leading questions?

Leading questions are designed in a way that participants provide the response that is expected or wanted from them. They are aligned to get the desired result.

  • What are the three basic research questions?

The three basic research questions are descriptive, relational, and casual research questions.

An experience management platform that allows you to take control of your customer and employee feedback, giving you the power to learn from every conversation. Qwary enables companies to have an unbiased conversation with its customers/employees and make data-driven decisions with simple, friendly & engaging surveys over the web, via text messages, Alexa survey skill, or Facebook messenger. Dive deep into the data and understand otherwise hidden trends with Qwary's advanced analytics.

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ux research questions to ask

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How to Ask UX Research Questions

In this part of the guide we are going to explain what makes good ux research questions, as well as how and when to ask them..

ux research questions to ask

Last update 11.10.2023

The key to an insightful study is a set of carefully thought-through questions that correlate to your project’s goals. Today we’ll take a look at 4 common types of UX research questions and their examples.

Why is it important to ask good UX research questions?

UX research questions are one of the key parts of your research, and when used right can bring out all the important details you miss during the study itself. They help you gather additional information, allow testers to share their opinions and concerns and are just a great way of gathering feedback before, during and after the study.

We recommend to plan out your questions ahead and include them into your UX research plan . This way you can make sure to not forget anything and won’t change the questions going from one participant to another. 

A great advantage of UX research tools like UXtweak is that they allow you to insert those questions during the study setup process, no matter what UX research method you choose. 

This comes in handy especially when conducting an unmoderated user test, with no researcher present to ask the questions. This saves you tons of time as there is no need to prepare a separate questionnaire each time and send it out to the participants before and after the study.

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Types of UX research questions

There are different types of questions you may want to ask depending on the part of the study you’re in, the goals of your research etc. However, the questions also differ in their subject. 

Some of them will be questions about the participants themselves. You might want to know their background before the study, get to know them better in order to understand how they think and approach certain tasks dealing with your product. 

There are also questions concerned about the problem you’re trying to solve. These are usually asked at the earlier stages of user research, during its generative phase. They are focused on uncovering the pain-points and the needs of your future users in relation to the digital product you’re creating. How can it make their lives easier? Which one of their problems is it going to solve and how?

The last group of questions are those about the product. With their help you can find out more about users’ thoughts on product’s design, usability and functionality. Those questions will help to figure out if you’re actually solving the user’s problem and discover ways in which you can do it even better.

During the different stages of your study you’ll need to ask different questions so let’s take a look at the 4 different question types based on the stages of your UX research:

Pre-study questions

Intra-study questions, post-study questions.

Screening questions are essential in most of the UX research studies as they help to filter out the respondents that are not representative of your target audience. This is important in order to not skew the results analytics later on. One screener is usually more than enough but in some cases your study might need more. 

Write your screening questions with the target audience in mind. For example, if you’re testing an e-commerce clothing store your participants should definitely have an experience of purchasing clothes online. 

A screener question filters out your respondents

A good question in that case would be:

How often do you shop for clothes online?

  • C) Every couple of months
  • D) Hardly ever

In an online UX research tool like UXtweak, you can set up that the participants who choose options D or E will be redirected to the thank you page and the tool will not let them complete the study.

Before the study is the perfect time to get to know your respondents better, ask questions about their demographics, background with the product and any kind of previous experiences related to the study. 

Following up on our example with an online clothing store, here are some examples of pre-study questions:

  • What is your current occupation? 
  • How often do you shop online?
  • Are you familiar with this brand?
  • When you shop online, what is the most important feature for you to have on the website?
  • What other websites do you usually buy from? What do you like/dislike about them?

The purpose of intra-study questions is to get additional information about users actions and decisions during the test and motivate them to verbalize their opinions. Here, you can ask them to explain why they took a certain action, get feedback on specific features of the product and get their honest opinion on what they’d wish to improve.

Examples of intra-study questions:

  • What did you expect to happen when clicking on this item?
  • How hard was it for you to complete the task? (1 = very difficult, 5 = very easy)
  • What is your opinion on the product’s design?
  • Do you find this feature helpful or unhelpful?
  • What do you think of …
  • If you were looking for …, where would you expect to find it?

UX research post study question

After the study you can ask about the participant’s overall impressions of the test and the product, their opinion on the task difficulty. Ask if they’d use that product in real life or if they would recommend it to a friend. It’s also a perfect time to ask them questions that would generate new ideas for improvement. 

Examples of post-study questions:

  • What is your overall impression of the test?
  • How would you rate the difficulty of using this app on a scale? (1 = very difficult, 5 = very easy)
  • What did you like the most/the least about the app?
  • Did you feel confused at any point? If so, explain what happened.
  • On the scale from 1 to 5 (1 = very satisfied, 5 = very dissatisfied) how would you rate your experience with the product?
  • Is there anything a product lacks in your opinion?
  • If you could add one feature, what would it be?

In case you are interested in learning more about all of these types of questions and hearing useful tips on when to ask them, we recommend you to watch a video from our YouTube channel where we discuss it all:

Check out our list of best UX Research tools where we explain the pros and cons of each tool and help you choose the best one for your research!

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UX Research Plan

Ux research methods, topics: ux research basics.

  • 01. UX Research Basics
  • 02. Remote User Research
  • 03. UX Research Plan
  • 04. UX Research Questions
  • 05. UX Research Methods
  • 06. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research
  • 07. UX Research Process
  • 08. UX Research Report
  • 09. UX Research Framework
  • 10. UX Research Presentation
  • 11. UX Research Bootcamp

ux research questions to ask

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User-experience research methods are great at producing data and insights, while ongoing activities help get the right things done. Alongside R&D, ongoing UX activities can make everyone’s efforts more effective and valuable. At every stage in the design process, different UX methods can keep product-development efforts on the right track, in agreement with true user needs and not imaginary ones.

In This Article:

When to conduct user research.

One of the questions we get the most is, “When should I do user research on my project?” There are three different answers:

  • Do user research at whatever stage you’re in right now . The earlier the research, the more impact the findings will have on your product, and by definition, the earliest you can do something on your current project (absent a time machine) is today.
  • Do user research at all the stages . As we show below, there’s something useful to learn in every single stage of any reasonable project plan, and each research step will increase the value of your product by more than the cost of the research.
  • Do most user research early in the project (when it’ll have the most impact), but conserve some budget for a smaller amount of supplementary research later in the project. This advice applies in the common case that you can’t get budget for all the research steps that would be useful.

The chart below describes UX methods and activities available in various project stages.

A design cycle often has phases corresponding to discovery, exploration, validation, and listening, which entail design research, user research, and data-gathering activities. UX researchers use both methods and ongoing activities to enhance usability and user experience, as discussed in detail below.

Each project is different, so the stages are not always neatly compartmentalized. The end of one cycle is the beginning of the next.

The important thing is not to execute a giant list of activities in rigid order, but to start somewhere and learn more and more as you go along.

When deciding where to start or what to focus on first, use some of these top UX methods. Some methods may be more appropriate than others, depending on time constraints, system maturity, type of product or service, and the current top concerns. It’s a good idea to use different or alternating methods each product cycle because they are aimed at different goals and types of insight. The chart below shows how often UX practitioners reported engaging in these methods in our survey on UX careers.

The top UX research activities that practitioners said they use at least every year or two, from most frequent to least: Task analysis, requirements gathering, in-person usability study, journey mapping, etc., design review, analytics review, clickable prototype testing, write user stories, persona building, surveys, field studies / user interviews, paper prototype testing, accessibility evaluation, competitive analysis, remote usability study, test instructions / help, card sorting, analyze search logs, diary studies

If you can do only one activity and aim to improve an existing system, do qualitative (think-aloud) usability testing , which is the most effective method to improve usability . If you are unable to test with users, analyze as much user data as you can. Data (obtained, for instance, from call logs, searches, or analytics) is not a great substitute for people, however, because data usually tells you what , but you often need to know why . So use the questions your data brings up to continue to push for usability testing.

The discovery stage is when you try to illuminate what you don’t know and better understand what people need. It’s especially important to do discovery activities before making a new product or feature, so you can find out whether it makes sense to do the project at all .

An important goal at this stage is to validate and discard assumptions, and then bring the data and insights to the team. Ideally this research should be done before effort is wasted on building the wrong things or on building things for the wrong people, but it can also be used to get back on track when you’re working with an existing product or service.

Good things to do during discovery:

  • Conduct field studies and interview users : Go where the users are, watch, ask, and listen. Observe people in context interacting with the system or solving the problems you’re trying to provide solutions for.
  • Run diary studies to understand your users’ information needs and behaviors.
  • Interview stakeholders to gather and understand business requirements and constraints.
  • Interview sales, support, and training staff. What are the most frequent problems and questions they hear from users? What are the worst problems people have? What makes people angry?
  • Listen to sales and support calls. What do people ask about? What do they have problems understanding? How do the sales and support staff explain and help? What is the vocabulary mismatch between users and staff?
  • Do competitive testing . Find the strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ products. Discover what users like best.

Exploration methods are for understanding the problem space and design scope and addressing user needs appropriately.

  • Compare features against competitors.
  • Do design reviews.
  • Use research to build user personas and write user stories.
  • Analyze user tasks to find ways to save people time and effort.
  • Show stakeholders the user journey and where the risky areas are for losing customers along the way. Decide together what an ideal user journey would look like.
  • Explore design possibilities by imagining many different approaches, brainstorming, and testing the best ideas in order to identify best-of-breed design components to retain.
  • Obtain feedback on early-stage task flows by walking through designs with stakeholders and subject-matter experts. Ask for written reactions and questions (silent brainstorming), to avoid groupthink and to enable people who might not speak up in a group to tell you what concerns them.
  • Iterate designs by testing paper prototypes with target users, and then test interactive prototypes by watching people use them. Don’t gather opinions. Instead, note how well designs work to help people complete tasks and avoid errors. Let people show you where the problem areas are, then redesign and test again.
  • Use card sorting to find out how people group your information, to help inform your navigation and information organization scheme.

Testing and validation methods are for checking designs during development and beyond, to make sure systems work well for the people who use them.

  • Do qualitative usability testing . Test early and often with a diverse range of people, alone and in groups. Conduct an accessibility evaluation to ensure universal access.
  • Ask people to self-report their interactions and any interesting incidents while using the system over time, for example with diary studies .
  • Audit training classes and note the topics, questions people ask, and answers given. Test instructions and help systems.
  • Talk with user groups.
  • Staff social-media accounts and talk with users online. Monitor social media for kudos and complaints.
  • Analyze user-forum posts. User forums are sources for important questions to address and answers that solve problems. Bring that learning back to the design and development team.
  • Do benchmark testing: If you’re planning a major redesign or measuring improvement, test to determine time on task, task completion, and error rates of your current system, so you can gauge progress over time.

Listen throughout the research and design cycle to help understand existing problems and to look for new issues. Analyze gathered data and monitor incoming information for patterns and trends.

  • Survey customers and prospective users.
  • Monitor analytics and metrics to discover trends and anomalies and to gauge your progress.
  • Analyze search queries: What do people look for and what do they call it? Search logs are often overlooked, but they contain important information.
  • Make it easy to send in comments, bug reports, and questions. Analyze incoming feedback channels periodically for top usability issues and trouble areas. Look for clues about what people can’t find, their misunderstandings, and any unintended effects.
  • Collect frequently asked questions and try to solve the problems they represent.
  • Run booths at conferences that your customers and users attend so that they can volunteer information and talk with you directly.
  • Give talks and demos: capture questions and concerns.

Ongoing and strategic activities can help you get ahead of problems and make systemic improvements.

  • Find allies . It takes a coordinated effort to achieve design improvement. You’ll need collaborators and champions.
  • Talk with experts . Learn from others’ successes and mistakes. Get advice from people with more experience.
  • Follow ethical guidelines . The UXPA Code of Professional Conduct is a good starting point.
  • Involve stakeholders . Don’t just ask for opinions; get people onboard and contributing, even in small ways. Share your findings, invite them to observe and take notes during research sessions.
  • Hunt for data sources . Be a UX detective. Who has the information you need, and how can you gather it?
  • Determine UX metrics. Find ways to measure how well the system is working for its users.
  • Follow Tog's principles of interaction design .
  • Use evidence-based design guidelines , especially when you can’t conduct your own research. Usability heuristics are high-level principles to follow.
  • Design for universal access . Accessibility can’t be tacked onto the end or tested in during QA. Access is becoming a legal imperative, and expert help is available. Accessibility improvements make systems easier for everyone.
  • Give users control . Provide the controls people need. Choice but not infinite choice.
  • Prevent errors . Whenever an error occurs, consider how it might be eliminated through design change. What may appear to be user errors are often system-design faults. Prevent errors by understanding how they occur and design to lessen their impact.
  • Improve error messages . For remaining errors, don’t just report system state. Say what happened from a user standpoint and explain what to do in terms that are easy for users to understand.
  • Provide helpful defaults . Be prescriptive with the default settings, because many people expect you to make the hard choices for them. Allow users to change the ones they might need or want to change.
  • Check for inconsistencies . Work-alike is important for learnability. People tend to interpret differences as meaningful, so make use of that in your design intentionally rather than introducing arbitrary differences. Adhere to the principle of least astonishment . Meet expectations instead.
  • Map features to needs . User research can be tied to features to show where requirements come from. Such a mapping can help preserve design rationale for the next round or the next team.
  • When designing software, ensure that installation and updating is easy . Make installation quick and unobtrusive. Allow people to control updating if they want to.
  • When designing devices, plan for repair and recycling . Sustainability and reuse are more important than ever. Design for conservation.
  • Avoid waste . Reduce and eliminate nonessential packaging and disposable parts. Avoid wasting people’s time, also. Streamline.
  • Consider system usability in different cultural contexts . You are not your user. Plan how to ensure that your systems work for people in other countries . Translation is only part of the challenge.
  • Look for perverse incentives . Perverse incentives lead to negative unintended consequences. How can people game the system or exploit it? How might you be able to address that? Consider how a malicious user might use the system in unintended ways or to harm others.
  • Consider social implications . How will the system be used in groups of people, by groups of people, or against groups of people? Which problems could emerge from that group activity?
  • Protect personal information . Personal information is like money. You can spend it unwisely only once. Many want to rob the bank. Plan how to keep personal information secure over time. Avoid collecting information that isn’t required, and destroy older data routinely.
  • Keep data safe . Limit access to both research data and the data entrusted to the company by customers. Advocate for encryption of data at rest and secure transport. A data breach is a terrible user experience.
  • Deliver both good and bad news . It’s human nature to be reluctant to tell people what they don’t want to hear, but it’s essential that UX raise the tough issues. The future of the product, or even the company, may depend on decisionmakers knowing what you know or suspect.
  • Track usability over time . Use indicators such as number and types of support issues, error rates and task completion in usability testing, and customer satisfaction ratings, to show the effectiveness of design improvements.
  • Include diverse users . People can be very different culturally and physically. They also have a range of abilities and language skills. Personas are not enough to prevent serious problems, so be sure your testing includes as wide a variety of people as you can.
  • Track usability bugs . If usability bugs don’t have a place in the bug database, start your own database to track important issues.
  • Pay attention to user sentiment . Social media is a great place for monitoring user problems, successes, frustrations, and word-of-mouth advertising. When competitors emerge, social media posts may be the first indication.
  • Reduce the need for training . Training is often a workaround for difficult user interfaces, and it’s expensive. Use training and help topics to look for areas ripe for design changes.
  • Communicate future directions . Customers and users depend on what they are able to do and what they know how to do with the products and services they use. Change can be good, even when disruptive, but surprise changes are often poorly received because they can break things that people are already doing. Whenever possible, ask, tell, test with, and listen to the customers and users you have. Consult with them rather than just announcing changes. Discuss major changes early, so what you hear can help you do a better job, and what they hear can help them prepare for the changes needed.
  • Recruit people for future research and testing . Actively encourage people to join your pool of volunteer testers. Offer incentives for participation and make signing up easy to do via your website, your newsletter, and other points of contact.

Use this cheat-sheet to choose appropriate UX methods and activities for your projects and to get the most out of those efforts. It’s not necessary to do everything on every project, but it’s often helpful to use a mix of methods and tend to some ongoing needs during each iteration.

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Fundamentals

The Art of Asking Effective UX Research Questions

Photo of Phil Hesketh

Written by: Phil Hesketh

Published on: 18 May, 2023

Running an effective UX research study relies on your ability to create questions for your participants that drive meaningful results for your organization.

In this article, we’ll be looking at the best question types, what makes a good or bad question, and some examples you can use in your research studies.

What is a UX research question?

A UX research question is designed to help your researchers gather insights about user behavior, thoughts, experiences, pain points, and preferences when you’re conducting user research studies. They are used for user research interview questions, user testing, surveys, and other situations where researchers need to observe behaviors or get feedback during a research study.

Well-crafted questions are concise and clear, and each question should speak to a specific aspect of the user experience.

Responses to these questions will help your UX team and wider organization to uncover meaningful data about how to improve your products, services, and design.

What makes a good UX research question?

In the world of UX, there tend to be good and bad UX research interview questions. A bad question is one that won’t give you much useful feedback from users, whereas a good question will give you insights that you can take action on to improve your user experience and product.

Bad UX research questions:

“Yes” or “no” questions. Closed ended questions like these prevent your participants responding in detail and giving you more meaningful feedback. However, they do come in handy in certain circumstances. We’ll talk about this further down

Leading questions that encourage the answers you want to hear. These can compromise the objectives of your study. For example “How much do you love using our new checkout page?”

Questions that might send users off on another tangent that isn’t relevant to your study

Ambiguous or broad questions that lead to confusion and different interpretations among your participants. For example “What do you think about our product?”

Combining multiple questions into one. This can make it difficult for users to give you a focused response.

For example, “What were the problems you encountered during onboarding, and how did you overcome them?”. Complex questions like these should be split up and presented as separate questions

Questions that assume participant behaviors and preferences without allowing them to give you their perspective. For example “How often do you use our board feature for your project management?”

Jargon and complex language should be avoided. Questions like “How did you perceive and approach the microinteractions in our UI?” can be confusing for participants to understand, and should be reframed in simple terms.

Good UX research questions:

Are clear, concise, and accessible

Use simple language that is an 8th grade level

Focus on a specific objective

Are unbiased and centered on the participant’s perspectives and experiences

How do you write a UX research question?

When you’re designing your research questions, it’s best to  start with your objectives  and the assumptions you want to test, and work backwards.

Once you’ve decided what you want to learn from your study, what you’re trying to achieve as an end goal, and what your research methods will be, it’s much easier to create big-picture questions that help you move towards creating the questions you’ll ask your users.

Your questions should help you explore a range of user behaviors, challenges, and needs as you carry out your study. For example:

Are you aiming to find out about key problems users have with your product?

Do you need to find out more about who uses your product, and how they’re using it?

Do you want to learn how users experience your product?

Do you just need some quick answers to verify previous findings?

Let’s take a look at these in more detail.

Open ended questions

Open-ended UX research questions help you discover more about your participants, and gather detailed responses about their experiences with your product.

These questions can’t be easily answered with a couple of words, and are useful when you’re running things like usability tests or task analysis.

Starting your questions with words like these ensure you get free-form feedback from your users that can move you towards testing your hypotheses:

How did you…

Describe how…

Tell me more about…

While the questions are great for getting more in-depth responses, they can also have a few drawbacks for researchers. Sifting through free-form responses can take a long time, especially if you have a large research panel — and many participants can find these types of questions difficult to answer in detail.

Closed questions

We mentioned above that “yes/no” questions aren’t that helpful in many UX research instances. But they do have their place!

If you have a huge participant pool, or you want more statistical responses, close-ended UX research questions can work well, as there are limited possible answers. They’re also perfect if you’re running  NPS  or  CSAT  surveys.

Participants can typically respond to these by:

Giving a yes or no reply

Checking a box in a multiple-choice list

Using a single descriptive word

Selecting a rating from a short list of options

If you’re using closed questions, it’s a good idea to have an option like “other” “neutral” or “none of the above” to ensure you’re not forcing your participants to choose an unsuitable answer for them in order to move to the next question.

Screening questions

Screeners are often used as a prelude to UX research studies. They help you filter for your most ideal users so you can get higher quality responses during your study.

These questions are designed to qualify/disqualify people so you can move the right people onto your research panels. For example:

How often do you use the internet?

How frequently do you shop online?

Do you use software tools for project management?

Questions about your users

These questions can help you to understand more about your users, such as who they are, what their pain points are, what they like/dislike, and their more general wants and needs.

Digging into these insights can help you create a better product by giving you more background around your users’ demographics, habits, and attitudes towards product adoption.

You might include questions like “What does a typical weekday look like for you?” or “What type of tools do you usually use to perform [task]”

Questions about pain points

To create a product that successfully solves problems for your users, you first need to understand what those actual (not assumed) problems are.

Questions around pain points help you validate concepts, test new features, and refine existing features. For example:

What was the key challenge you were facing when you went looking for a product like ours?

What other solution or alternative did you use to try and solve this problem?

Can you recall a time when you wished [product/service] had a specific capability?

What was the need or pain point behind this desire?

Are there any tasks or features in [product] that you find overly time-consuming or confusing?

Awareness questions

These help you tap into your users’ relationship with your brand. Some examples of questions like these are:

How did you first hear about our product?

How did you discover our website?

If you visited our website a few times, what made you keep coming back?

How long did it take you to purchase something from our website after your first visit?

Experience questions

Experience questions make a good follow up to your awareness questions. They move further along the customer journey and look at what happened after a user first learned about your product.

These might include questions such as:

What were your first impressions of our website?

When you were on our website, what motivated you to take the free trial?

Was there anything in particular that caused you to abandon your purchase at checkout?

Expectation questions

These investigate the thoughts and assumptions your participants have when they first use your products. To tap into these valuable insights, you can ask questions like:

What was your impression of our onboarding process?

How did you think using our new feature would benefit you?

What were your first thoughts when you were moving through our product dashboard?

Do you feel our product is similar to anything else on the market?

Task-driven questions

These can fall into a general category of asking how participants would perform a certain task, or they can be more specific (e.g. in an interactive user testing environment).

Task-related questions help your researchers find problems with workflows and interfaces, validate your design concepts, and pinpoint any other blocks that might stand between your product and a user having a good experience with it.

Examples of these questions might be:

Go to the dashboard and upload your profile picture

From the homepage, log into our application

How would you go about performing [specific task] ?

What do you expect to happen if you click [specific button in the app]?

Product questions

These questions are fairly straightforward, and can be related to things like usability, design, how users feel when they’re on your app or website, and what people feel could be improved.

They’ll help you get a better idea of which features to focus on, which elements could be altered to improve user experience, and whether your designs are appealing or not.

For example:

How would you feel if you had to navigate through this product by yourself?

How did you find the product navigation in terms of ease of use?

Did you run into any problems installing our app?

What are your overall feelings about using our product?

What appeals/doesn’t appeal to you visually?

Why do you think somebody would use this specific feature?

Do you feel you can trust this product?

What’s the most you’d be willing to pay for this feature?

Dig deeper with follow-up questions

Many of the user research interview questions you ask might reveal an interesting fact that you want to explore further. This is where having a few “dig deeper” questions at your side can come in handy to help you get more inside the mind of your users.

Sometimes even a simple “why?” as a follow-up can be enough to get you a more comprehensive response.

As examples:

User: I felt the layout was very confusing

Follow up: What was it about the layout that you found confusing?

User: This new feature isn’t something I’d personally use

Follow up: What makes you not want to use the new feature?

User: I wasn’t expecting the dashboard to be so difficult to get set up

Follow up: How were you expecting the dashboard setup to work as a new user? \

User: I’m not a fan of the colors here

Follow up: What is it about the colors that you don’t like in relation to this feature?

Always make sure your follow-up questions are open-ended to give your participants the room they need to talk more about their experiences and thoughts.

Closing questions

Having a closing question at the end of your user interviews gives your participants the opportunity to give some final feedback on your product. This last question can often reveal new insights, or reframe some previous insights in a different light.

If you were recommending our product to a friend or colleague, what would you tell them about it?

Do you feel this product was made for you?

If you could change one thing about our checkout page, what would it be?

What’s the one thing you like most about our product?

What’s the one thing you dislike most about our product?

Wrapping up

To create a fantastic UX experience for your customers, you need to understand who your users are, how they experience your brand or product, and the exact problems you’re trying to solve for them.

A key part of your success will hinge around crafting effective UX research questions that help you eliminate all the guesswork and create a product your customers truly want.

With Consent Kit, you can quickly set up UX research questions for your studies that have accessibility, consent, and security features built-in, as well as keeping you compliant with data and privacy regulations.

Try it free for 14 days , or get in touch for a  personalized demo .

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How to Define UX Research Questions in Each Phase of Your Project

Questionmark

It is commonly accepted that research studies should begin with research questions, yet there is surprisingly little information on exactly how to define them. While it might seem obvious, writing effective research questions does take some practice. In this article, we’ll offer guidance on what research questions might look like in each phase of the design process and provide examples with a case study.

First of all, what are research questions?

Also referred to as objectives or goals, research questions state what you hope to learn from your investigation. They should not be confused with the actual questions you plan to ask users (which aim to obtain information that will answer your research questions but need to be formulated differently to do so).

Generally speaking, the more specifically you can define your goals, the more effective your results will be. If you plan a usability test starting from a broad question like “What do users think of my redesign?”, you are likely to get vague input on a wide range of issues. Focusing in on certain features and tasks will provide more concrete, useful data.

The type of questions you ask will change as you advance through the design process; we define three key phases of research: strategic, exploratory, and evaluative. Another way of thinking about these phases is described by UX research expert Tomer Sharon as research into user needs, user wants, and product usability.

ux research questions to ask

As we walk through the phases, we will use a fictitious language-learning startup called Langzoo to provide examples.

The categories

In the beginning a project, you will have strategic or formative research questions. This is when you are looking for opportunities by investigating what users need. Both qualitative and quantitative research can be useful in this phase, and a range of methods might be employed.

Imagine that Langzoo already has one successful consumer app and now plans to launch a B2B product to sell to schools. Before they design anything, they need to understand where the most relevant opportunities lie. They define the following strategic research questions to guide initial user interviews:

What does the process for planning a course look like? Who is involved?

What kind of materials do teachers prefer to use? Why?

How do language schools incorporate tools into their teaching process?

What tools do language schools currently use? What pain points do they have with them?

Although the questions are wide-ranging, each individual question is specific and focused. They seek information about the goals and pain points of the target audience that will enable Langzoo to make strategic decisions about what they will create.

Exploratory

The exploratory phase of user research comes when you are already working with an idea and need more input to round out the details. This often means testing early prototypes to validate your concept and get a feel for which areas to develop further.

In Langzoo’s case, let’s imagine strategic research revealed that most language schools in the target market had struggled to incorporate technology-based tools at all due to the piecemeal nature of teaching materials. The schools tended not to work from any one source but take material from a variety of books and websites. Teachers preferred to work this way because they could tailor material to each class. But it also caused them difficulty because students had trouble keeping track of everything.

This pain point gave Langzoo the idea to develop a product that, rather than attempting to replace existing sources, would provide a better way to manage outside materials by serving as a kind of project management software. They call this idea "Jira for language learning" and develop an early prototype. They plan usability testing based on the research questions:

Does the concept resonate with our target audience?

What kind of collaboration features (if any) would be useful?

What do teachers want to see in their course overview dashboard?

These questions differ from the previous phase because they are directly related to Langzoo’s design – they explore the concept and features at a high-level, investigating what appeals to users, to make sure the product is on the right path.

Evaluative research looks at how well your design performs. It begins once you have the first version of your product and should continue as an ongoing measurement of the metrics that are important for your business. Usability testing and analytics are the most common methods for answering evaluative research questions.

In this phase, the Langzoo team have used the feedback from their exploratory research to develop a beta version of their new B2B product. This is a working product they are preparing to pilot with the first interested clients. They plan a round of evaluative usability testing to check how their design performs and identify any revisions they might need to make before the pilot. They define the research questions:

How long does it take users to join and set up a new project? Do they feel this is too long?

Does the list or grid layout perform better for giving an overview of course materials?

Do the statuses (to do, in progress, finished, and to review) fit users’ mental models?

As you can see, these questions are the most specific yet. They zero in on particular aspects of the design the Langzoo team is concerned about, to get data that will directly inform whether something should be changed.

Getting started

So, where are you in the design process? What do you hope to learn from your research, and what decisions will it enable you to make?

If the answers to these questions aren’t clear to you, it might be a sign that you aren’t prepared to plan user research yet. Take a step back and talk to your stakeholders about the objectives behind the product or feature to be researched. Find out where they have knowledge gaps that need to be filled in order to proceed, and define your questions from there. If the stakeholders are not sure what they want to know, start by reviewing any existing data to identify areas for improvement.

We hope these phases help clarify the subject of research questions. If you still have doubts, we’re here to help!

Yannis Karampelas

April 03, 2019

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User research questions you should be asking.

ux research questions to ask

User research is one of the most valuable tools for understanding customer behaviors, needs, motivations, preferences, wants, and interactions with your products and brand.

Through a handful of market research techniques like observation, task analysis, and eliciting direct customer feedback through interviews, brands can glean valuable insights that help fine-tune their user experience.

While there are several different methodologies for capturing user insights, this article will review how to talk to users directly to effectively capture the most productive and telling data.

This post will cover:

  • How to create questions for your user interviews
  • Basic question format
  • User research question examples from Sarah Doody and the team at Fuel Cycle

If you’re looking to polish your user research interviewing techniques, read on.

Best practices for creating user research questions

Conducting an effective and thorough interview takes hard work and planning. Here’s the good news. When you know how to create your questions, you can rest assured your results will be beneficial.

Here’s a quick 5-step formula you can follow every time you need to create questions for UX research .

1. Start by defining broader themes

The first step is to identify what you want to learn from the interview. The best way to figure out what you want to know is to brainstorm themes of interest.

Since you will ultimately share your results with your market research, product, and marketing teams, it’s helpful to have a representative from each of these teams in the brainstorming session.

2. Break down your questions to make them answerable

Once you have identified possible and broad themes, it’s time to delve deeper. As you browse through your list of ideas, you’ll notice there are several differences between each one.

Break down each theme and identify questions that align with the overall goal of the research.

Write down any question that comes to mind, even if you don’t think it’s a good question.

3. Don’t ask questions that will influence the answer

The next step in the process is to take a closer look at your questions and throw out any questions that aren’t working.

It’s especially important to get rid of any questions that are biased or that influence the answer. Remember, you want to get raw and honest answers from your research participants, so don’t ask any leading questions.

For example, you may want to know how a customer felt when using a particular product or exploring an interface. A proper question would be, “how did you feel when adding items to your shopping cart?” An example of a leading question would be “how happy/anxious did you feel when adding items to your shopping cart?”

Good questions don’t make assumptions. They elicit honest answers.

4. Ask about specific examples

Sometimes it’s difficult for research participants to communicate how they feel about the usability of a product, service, or user interface.

Prepare a series of questions that will help you overcome this potential obstacle. Asking for participants to talk about a specific experience in the past that relates to your question will help them remember and provide more accurate answers to your questions.

5. Ask open-ended questions

When it comes to interviewing participants, it’s essential to remember that all customers’ opinions and experiences are valuable. But, not all customers are comfortable in an interview setting.

For some participants, you may ask a question. They will understand the general idea and offer a complete example. Other participants may be more comfortable with yes/no responses.

To avoid the yes/no responses, craft your questions so they are open-ended. Prepare a list of follow-up questions to open-ended answers that help guide less talkative respondents to open up more.

It doesn’t matter what you are trying to learn from your customers. If you follow this format when creating your questions, you’ll increase your chances of getting excellent customer feedback.

Basic question formats

A typical interview lasts between 30-60 minutes and consists of a series of different types of questions.

Here is an overview of the basic questions you should ask in your interviews as well as some on-point examples, many provided by research from Sarah Doody .

1. Customer introduction questions

You will probably already have the necessary demographic information on your participants, but that doesn’t mean you know everything you need to know about your customers. You’ll also want to ask questions that help you understand things you need to know that you didn’t get from the screening application.

Questions include:

  • What does your typical weekday look like?
  • When do you usually first use the (product/user interface in question) on a typical day?
  • Tell me about your role at your company? In your family? Etc.
  • How is this (product/user interface) relevant to your life daily?
  • Tell me about (any hobbies that may relate to your questions).
  • Any lifestyle questions that are related to your topic/product.

Asking customer introduction questions can help you further segment your customer responses and get a better idea of who your customers are. It can also help them open up and get more comfortable in the interview setting.

2. Topic-specific questions

These questions will take up the bulk of your interview. They will help you understand the motivations, needs, and wants of customers as well as learn more about the problem you are trying to solve.

  • What’s your relationship like with (topic)?
  • How do you currently go about (problem/task)?
  • How much time do you typically spend on (problem/task)?
  • How much time would you be willing to spend on (problem/task)?
  • How important is saving time to you on (problem/task)?
  • Do you experience any obstacles with (problem/task)? Tell me more.
  • Tell me about the last time you tried to (problem/task)?
  • Do you like anything about how you currently (problem/task)? If so, what? If not, why?
  • What are you currently doing to make this (problem/task) easier?
  • How does this (problem/task) impact other areas of your life/work?
  • What other products or tools have you tried out to help with (problem/task)?
  • Have you paid for any of these other products or tools?
  • How did you hear about these other products or tools?
  • What is the most significant pain point related to (problem/task)
  • Why do you keep doing (problem/task)?
  • Why is (problem/task) important to you?
  • Have you created any workarounds that have to help you? Tell me more.
  • What are the hardest and easiest parts about (problem/task)?
  • What do you like or dislike about these other products or tools?
  • Are you looking for a solution or alternative for (problem/task)? 

You don’t have to ask all of these questions, but ask the ones that will give you a better idea of how you can adjust your product or solution to meet user needs more effectively.

3. Product opportunity questions

Once you have an idea of how a customer interacts with your product or interface or what problems they are experiencing, it’s time to get more specific feedback. If you plan to demo a product or interface, these questions will help you understand user reactions.

  • What do you think of this product?
  • How do you think you would feel if you had to navigate this product alone?
  • What appeals and doesn’t appeal to you visually?
  • Do you notice any potential problems with this product? If so, what?
  • Do you think someone would use this product?
  • Why do you think someone would/would not use this product?
  • Can you see yourself ever using this product? If so, why? If not, why?
  • Do you think this product is going to help you? If so, how?
  • Would you use this product today?
  • Do you think you can trust this product? Why or why not?
  • What might keep people from using this product?
  • What’s the most you would be willing to pay for this product?
  • What do you think is a fair price for such a product?
  • Does this remind you of any other products? If so, which ones and why?

Don’t be afraid to ask respondents to elaborate on answers to these questions. Answers to these questions are the meat and bones of your research.

4. Product reaction questions

Sometimes it is valuable, even necessary, to have your respondents use your products and then ask questions after they have done some exploring.

  • What’s most appealing/least appealing about this product?
  • What’s the easiest/hardest part about using this product?
  • Was there anything surprising or unexpected about this product?
  • Was there anything missing from this product that you expected?
  • Would you keep using this product after what you saw today? If not, what would need to change so that you would use it?
  • How would you improve this product?

Again, don’t be afraid to ask to follow up questions until you have a clear understanding of what your customers think, value, and want.

Get help with organizing your user research!

Now that you know how to craft the perfect questions for your user research, it’s time to get started. For more information about how to create the ideal interview, and for a more in-depth look into a tool that will help you code, organize, and analyze all your quantitative and qualitative data, check out Fuel Cycle !

ux research questions to ask

Author: Victoria Shakespeare

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ux research questions to ask

UX Research Questions

  • Modern science relies on research problems, questions, hypotheses, experiments, replication of research, and meta-analysis.

Research methods, UX research, and usability testing (qualitative research, quantitative methods) are based on research questions.

To conduct UX research is, first and foremost, to ask good research questions.

  • Relevant problems and research questions are the starting point and form the horizon of our knowledge of the world and phenomena.

Problems and research questions organize knowledge and establish research trends for years to come (including within User Experience research), bringing to life entire schools of research or more detailed approaches.

They are simply necessary.

This is no different in the field of UX Research — the academic studies conducted within the broader field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) — and the more business-oriented, pragmatic ones.

In this article, we will look at the "scientific background," how knowledge is created, how research is born, and what role research questions play in investigation, definition, discovery, and understanding.

We will highlight best practices regarding the formulation of research questions. We will also show the differences between research problems and research questions and between research questions and research hypotheses.

At the end, we will present examples of research questions. In particular, we will focus on the research questions posed in the context of User Experience.

If you are interested in qualitative research, quantitative research, UX audits, usability testing, benchmarking, A/B testing, or other types of UX research  (e.g., eye-tracking). You definitely also need to know about the issue of research questions.

In the following article, you can find everything you wanted to know about research questions but were afraid to ask.

We invite you to read on!

Do you want to perform UX Research?

What are research questions?

A research question is a question around which research is focused. It organizes it, structures it, and directs it. It is influenced not only by the research problem but also by choice of research method.

Research questions are the foundation, and as such, they are the starting point and the point of arrival because every study, on the one hand, uncovers something, reveals something, and allows for a better understanding. On the other hand, it points out the "unknown" area and subsequent research problems and inspires new research questions and hypotheses. The cyclical nature of this process is the essence of science. It is the driving force behind the development of the world of knowledge.

John W. Creswell, in his book " Research Design. Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches ," starts by distinguishing between research questions in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods because of their differences.

In qualitative methods:

  • Research questions are posed, but no assumptions are made (the study is conducted without expectations), or hypotheses (no predictions are made that take into account variables and statistical tests)
  • Questions are posed in the most general way possible
  • Research questions are asked in two forms — in the form of a main question, and additional questions
  • Researchers seek to know as many factors as possible that can influence and condition a given phenomenon.

The purpose of posing research questions (including in the design process) in qualitative research is to "discover," "explain," or "explore" also during usability testing (e.g., of mobile apps for the target audience).

Goals of research questions

Catherine Marshall and Gretchen B. Rossman, in their book " Designing Qualitative Research ," distinguished and divided research questions in qualitative research into:

  • Contextual questions that seek to describe the nature of what already exists
  • Descriptive questions which try to describe a phenomenon
  • Emancipatory questions that aim to generate knowledge that will help people engage in social action, especially for those who are underprivileged
  • Evaluative questions that assess the effectiveness of existing methods or paradigms
  • Explanatory questions that seek to explain a phenomenon or explore the causes and relationships of what exists
  • Exploratory questions, which deal with lesser-known areas of a given topic  (e.g., the different viewpoints represented by different target groups)
  • Generative questions that aim to provide new ideas to develop theories and activities
  • Ideological questions that are used in research aimed at developing specific ideologies of a stance.

In quantitative research:

  • Very detailed research questions are posed (regardless of who we want to study)
  • Research questions are much more specific
  • Hypotheses are made on the basis of a small number of variables
  • Having expectations is common
  • Quantitative hypotheses are used to capture the relationship between variables.

An important characteristic of questions in quantitative research is their precision.

  • Quantitative questions cannot be answered in the affirmative ("Yes") or negative ("No"); hence we cannot use words such as "is," "are," "do," or "does."

As Imed Bouchrika notes in his article " How to Write a Research Question: Types, Steps, and Examples ," quantitative research questions can be divided into three types: descriptive, comparative, and relationship research questions.

Descriptive Research Questions usually start with the interrogative word "what" and are intended to provide answers to a single variable.

Comparative Research Questions aim to discover differences between groups where a given variable occurs.

Relationship Research Questions investigate and define trends and interactions between two or more variables.

In mixed methods:

  • Specific research questions that are appropriate for mixed research methodology should be used
  • Both quantitative and qualitative research questions are used.

We should also add Uwe Flick's remarks that he made in his book " Designing Qualitative Research. " According to him, the success of research depends on the quality of the research question, which should be clear and emphatic.

We will write in a moment about the ways of formulating research questions.

The quality of the research question determines what data we will collect and what aspects and problems will be analyzed and interpreted. According to Uwe Flick, a good research question defines the scope of necessary data that cannot be omitted from the research process.

How to formulate research questions?

Formulating research questions and asking research questions (e.g., during user interviews) are two of the most critical issues addressed when discussing the researcher's workshop.

A properly posed question makes it clear what we want to study — and, indirectly — why we want to study it.

Research questions, including UX research questions, should be:

  • Clear , the more detailed and specific the question, the easier it will be to understand and identify what problem it indicates and what its scope is
  • Concise , a research question should be appropriately balanced in terms of length. It should be long enough not to leave out any important issues and brief enough not to lose its point and clarity
  • Complex , so that the simplification expressed in the answers "Yes/No" is not possible
  • Argumentative so that they open a discussion rather than offer definitive conclusions
  • Focused on a given problem and thus, they should be devoid of any digressions and unnecessary elements
  • Realistic and rational so that it is possible to conduct research within the given time, context, budget, logistics, and organizational frame.

Most often, research questions are aimed at the following objectives:

  • Description
  • Exploration
  • Explanation
  • Testing, including usability testing

In the case of description and exploration, most often, a research question takes one of the following forms:

  • What are the characteristics of X? (for example, a user interface )
  • How does X change over time? (for example, users and their expectations)

In the case of explanation and testing, a research question, most often, takes one of the following forms:

  • What is the relationship between X and Y? (for example, visible during eye-tracking studies with users)
  • What role does X play in Y? (for example, a mobile application in the user's life)

In the case of evaluation and action, a research question, most often, takes one of the following forms:

  • What are the advantages of X? (for example, graphical user interface)
  • How effective is X? (for example, usability testing of digital products for a user)

Imed Bouchrika, quoted above, provides a very practical method for checking whether a research question is relevant.

A research question must meet five fundamental criteria.

It must be:

  • Feasible — both in terms of realism, which we already mentioned, and limitations of the researcher themselves, whether they can face the challenge
  • Interesting and/or useful — especially in the case of UX research questions regarding usability. The practical dimension of the knowledge obtained during the research is vital — although science should not have boundaries, not everything is worth knowing. Anti-awards are the best example of this (for instance, Darwin Awards)
  • Novel — it should bring something new to the subject, to the knowledge about the problem in question
  • Ethical — it cannot violate legal norms, informal social norms as well as rules, ethical norms that apply to researchers
  • Relevant — novelty and freshness are important, but it is equally essential that the research provides value not only to the researcher but also to all or at least the majority of stakeholders.

Questions and research problems

A research problem is a much broader concept than a research question.

It is defined as a problem, issue, phenomenon, or mechanism that must be investigated, described, explained, understood, categorized, and embedded in the structure of existing knowledge.

UX research question

As a part of research problems, research questions are formulated to concretize the research problems.

In the field of social sciences, six types of research problems are distinguished:

  • Theoretical

A research problem simply defines what we still do not know and what we should find out because of various objectives and benefits (teleological and practical).

  • A research problem focuses on pointing out what we already know and, even more importantly, what we still do not know.

Research problems have two sources:

  • Heterogeneous — it is a reality itself in which something feels incomprehensible and needs explanation.
  • Autogenic — it is a community of scientists who, based on the subject literature, see gaps in the knowledge that need to be filled.

Moreover, research problems based on the criterion of their usefulness and the purpose of the study can be divided into:

  • Theoretical research problems — these are basic problems that are solved to develop research and provide tools for solving practical problems.
  • Practical research problems — their purpose is primarily to realize important social goals; they are intended to improve the functioning of the social world (e.g., more useful user interfaces).

Research questions and hypotheses

While the research questions and hypotheses may look no different to a layperson at first glance, they are not the same.

Andrzej Jankowski, in his study " Jak stawiać hipotezy i pytania badawcze? Teoria, wyjaśnienia, przykłady " (How to write hypotheses and research questions? Theory, explanations, examples) defines a research hypothesis as a statement in which a supposition is expressed about (operation, structure, influence, dependence) some phenomenon, which should be confirmed or disproved by statistical analysis.

Hypotheses organize quantitative research, define its scope, and provide a link between theory and research methods and research as such.

A research problem, research hypotheses, and research questions are the triad (UX research is no exception) that forms the core of any study.

We can organize these three key elements of every research (including User Experience research) according to the criterion of their generality, and thus:

  • A Research problem is the most general
  • Research questions are more specific
  • Hypotheses are the most concrete.

We should also add that research hypotheses are made for a particular purpose — namely so that they can be confirmed or refuted with the help of statistical tools and methods.

Hypothesis verification — if it is methodologically correct and no error has been made — means that we have (relative) certainty that a supposition is "true" or "false."

The relationship does or does not occur.

That said, the certainty level depends on the generality of the hypothesis itself.

As a rule, the more specific, concrete, and narrow the hypothesis, the more reliable the result of its verification (positive or negative).

Research questions, User Experience research — examples

We can find the best examples of research questions by reading research reports. It is also worth practicing posing research questions because it is very easy to make mistakes, especially if we are a novice researcher.

For example, a research question — formulated for quantitative research — that is too general, vague, or unspecific might read as follows:

How do people react to the interface?

The question is too general because it operates with a category of people that cannot be studied. It is physically, time-wise, organizationally, financially, logistically, etc., impossible to study several billion people.

The question is unclear, as it is unknown to whom and to what it refers.

It is unclear what type of reaction is of interest to the researcher. For example, whether they mean emotional, behavioral, conscious, involuntary, or automatic reactions.

The question is also unclear because it does not specify the concept of an interface. What kind of device is this interface on?

On what application? What type of interface? Reaction to which interface element is going to be measured?

Finally, the question does not imply the importance of the problem. It is impossible to deduce why such a problem is worth the effort.

Two approaches to UX research

The above research question, in order to sound much more concrete, understandable, clear, and realistic, should read like this:

In what time can American men between the ages of 25 and 30 find an ADDE chair in Ikea's online store using an internal search engine?

In qualitative research, research questions are often formulated to explore, evaluate, probe, discover, and describe users' expectations, impressions, and problems.

For example:

How would you rate your shopping experience in Ikea's online store?

Express your opinion using a scale of 1-10, where a rating of 1 means Very Bad Experience and 10 means Fantastic Experience.

How strongly do you agree with the following statement: "The ordering process at the Ikea store was easy."

Express your attitude with one of the statements from the following scale:

  • I strongly disagree
  • I neither agree nor disagree
  • I strongly agree

Of course, this is only a small sample of research questions. Depending on the research method, the purpose of the study, the research problem, the methodology, and the respondents, they will vary considerably.

UX Research Questions. Summary

  • How to formulate research questions — the purpose of posing research questions in qualitative research is to "discover," "explain," or "explore."
  • Research questions can be divided into descriptive, comparative, and relationship questions.
  • Research questions should be formulated in a clear, concise, complex, argumentative, realistic, and rational manner.
  • A research problem is a much broader concept than a research question and is defined as a problem, an issue, a phenomenon, or a mechanism that needs to be investigated, described, explained, understood, categorized, and embedded in the structure of existing knowledge.
  • A research problem, hypotheses, and questions are the triad that forms the core of any study.
  • The research process and the design process are intertwined, and their common link is precisely the research questions.

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  • Research questions and types of hypotheses. What can we expect and how to define our predictions?

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ux research questions to ask

Home Market Research

Top 17 UX Research Software for UX Design in 2024

ux research software

Are you a UX designer looking for the best tools to enhance your research process and create exceptional user experiences? Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of the top UX research software that will help streamline your workflow, gather insights, and ultimately improve your design decisions.

These tools automate boring tasks, find important information, and make it easy to share with your team. But with so many options out there, it’s hard to know which ones to choose. That’s where you come in! 

This blog’ll show you the 17 best UX research Software and how they can make your job easier. Let’s dive in and make your customers even happier.

What is UX Research?

UX research, short for User Experience research, is a systematic investigation method used to understand users’ behaviors, needs, motivations, and preferences when interacting with a product or service. 

The primary goal of UX research is to gather insights that inform the design and development process, ensuring that the final product meets the users’ expectations and provides a positive experience.

UX research involves various methods and techniques, including surveys, interviews, usability testing, user observations, and analytics analysis. By employing these UX research methods, user researchers aim to uncover pain points, identify areas for improvement, validate design decisions, and ultimately create user-centered solutions that enhance the overall experience.

User research plays a crucial role in guiding product development by helping teams empathize with users, understand their needs, and ultimately deliver intuitive, useful, and enjoyable products.

What is UX Research Software?

UX Research software are applications, platforms, and services designed to assist UX researchers in understanding how users interact with digital products. They help researchers gather feedback, analyze data, and interpret user behavior to inform design decisions. These tools encompass a wide range of functionalities, including:

  • Survey platforms for collecting feedback, 
  • Usability testing software for evaluating interface usability, 
  • User interview tools for conducting qualitative research, 
  • Analytics and data visualization tools for analyzing user data, 
  • Prototyping and wireframing tools for testing design concepts. 

Additionally, feedback collection systems, participant recruitment platforms, and remote user testing platforms play essential roles in streamlining the research process. By leveraging these tools, UX researchers can gather actionable insights and create user-centered products that meet the needs of their target audience.

Why does UX Research Software Matter?

  • Getting to Know Your Users: User research software helps companies learn all about their users—what they like, what they don’t, and what makes them happy. 
  • Making Things Easier to Use: user research Software help find those frustrating bits by watching how people use products and pointing out where things could improve. This helps companies fix problems and make products easier to use for everyone.
  • Coming Up with Cool Ideas: UX research software helps companies develop new ideas for improving products. By listening to users and examining other companies’ actions, they can generate cool new features or ways to improve things.
  • Avoiding Mistakes: UX research Software help avoid those mistakes by checking if ideas are good before spending lots of time and money on them. This saves companies from making big blunders and helps them make smarter choices.
  • Working Together: UX research Software help teams collaborate by sharing what they find and discussing ideas. This way, everyone can be on the same page and make products that users will love.

What tools do UX Researchers Use?

UX research software users utilize diverse tools to facilitate user experience research, each serving specific functions tailored to uncover insightful data and enhance UX. Below are some commonly used tools:

  • User and Usability testing tools: A usability testing tool assists in evaluating the ease of use of products and features.
  • User interview tools: These enable live interviews to gather direct feedback from users.
  • Participant recruitment tools: These aid in finding suitable participants for research interviews.
  • Information architecture testing tools: These assess website layout and user navigation expectations.
  • Product analytics tools: These provide data on user interactions with websites.
  • User survey and feedback tools: These allow for creating surveys to gather user feedback and insights.

Top 17 UX Research Software for Your Research Design

User experience (UX) research is crucial for creating products and services that meet the needs and expectations of users. Having the best user research Software is essential to conduct effective UX research. Here, we’ll explore the top 17 UX research Software that can streamline your research design process:

1. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a versatile and best UX research software that empowers researchers to gather valuable insights from users to enhance product experiences. With its advanced survey logic and customizable templates, QuestionPro simplifies the process of creating surveys tailored to specific research objectives. Despite some advanced features requiring additional payment, QuestionPro remains a powerful tool for conducting comprehensive UX research.

Why it is unique:  

  • QuestionPro stands out for its advanced survey logic, customizable templates, and real-time analytics, making it ideal for gathering detailed feedback.
  • Powerful data analysis capabilities help decision-making.
  • Advanced reporting options for in-depth analysis.
  • Collaboration features for team research projects.
  • Multilingual surveys for global reach.
  • Mobile app for on-the-go survey management.
  • Advanced features may require more effort and resources to be effectively used.

Pricing: 

  • QuestionPro offers various pricing plans, starting at $99 monthly. Higher-tier plans offer additional features and customization options, and pricing is adjusted accordingly.

2. Typeform

Typeform is known for its visually appealing and interactive survey forms. With features like a conversational form interface and conditional logic, Typeform allows researchers to create personalized user interactions.

Why it is unique: Its seamless integration with various tools and platforms, extensive customization options for branding, and analytics dashboard for tracking responses make it a preferred choice for researchers.

  • Higher pricing for advanced functionalities.
  • Visual style may not suit all use cases.
  • Advanced logic for personalized interactions.
  • Seamless integration with various tools and platforms.
  • Extensive customization options for branding.
  • Analytics dashboard for tracking responses effectively.
  • Interactive question types for engaging surveys.
  • The basic plan starts at $25 per month.

3. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that provides various tools for user research, survey creation, and data analysis. Its customizable survey templates and robust data analysis tools make it a favorite among researchers.

Why it is unique: The platform offers advanced survey logic and customization options to tailor surveys to specific research objectives. SurveyMonkey also provides robust data analysis tools, enabling researchers to gain insights from survey responses.

  • Customization options may be limited.
  • Support resources could be more comprehensive.
  • User-friendly interface for survey creation.
  • Diverse template library for various research needs.
  • Advanced survey logic enhances data quality.
  • Integration with other productivity tools.
  • Powerful data analysis capabilities aid decision-making.
  • The Premier Annual plan starts at $99 per month.

4. Lookback

Lookback specializes in remote user research, interviews, and usability studies. It’s remote usability testing capabilities and screen and audio recording provide comprehensive insights into user behavior.

Why it is unique: Lookback offers real-time observation for live feedback and collaboration features for team projects.

  • Higher pricing compared to some competitors.
  • Customer support response times may vary.
  • Remote testing with screen and audio recording.
  • Real-time observation for live feedback.
  • Unlimited participants for broader insights.
  • Collaboration features for team projects.
  • Integration with various prototyping tools.

Pricing:  

  • Starts at $25 per month for the Basic plan.

5. Userzoom

Userzoom offers an enterprise-level user research platform with tools for usability testing, surveys, and analytics. Its comprehensive suite of UX research Software, including user testing and benchmarking, makes it ideal for large-scale projects.

Why it is unique : The platform offers journey mapping for visualizing user experiences and advanced analytics for in-depth insights.

  • Enterprise-level pricing may not be feasible for small-scale projects.
  • Initial setup and training may require time and resources.
  • Moderated and unmoderated usability testing with real users.
  • Journey mapping for user experience visualization.
  • Advanced analytics for detailed insights.
  • Integration with popular analytics platforms.
  • Contact sales for pricing details.

Figma is a collaborative interface design tool that allows teams to create, prototype, and collaborate on designs in real-time. Its real-time collaboration, prototyping, and design systems make it a valuable tool for UX researchers and designers.

Why it is unique: Figma’s cloud-based platform enables easy access and design sharing, while its integrations with other tools enhance workflow efficiency.

  • Prototyping features facilitate iterative design processes.
  • The cloud-based platform allows for seamless access and design sharing.
  • Integrations with other tools enhance workflow efficiency.
  • Version history and commenting streamline feedback.
  • Responsive design capabilities for multiple devices.
  • Limited offline functionality compared to some desktop design tools.
  • Performance may lag with large and complex designs.
  • Custom pricing based on business size and needs.

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that enables teams to collaborate, plan, and organize projects and tasks. Its customizable workspace, database management, and collaboration tools make it ideal for organizing research materials and findings.

Why it is unique: Notion provides a flexible and customizable solution for researchers to effectively organize, collaborate, and manage their UX research projects.

  • Versatile task management capabilities streamline project management.
  • Document sharing and editing for team collaboration.
  • Limited formatting options compared to dedicated document editors.
  • Performance issues with large databases or complex projects.
  • Mobile app functionality may be limited for some features.

8. Hotjar 

Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback tool that helps researchers understand how users interact with their websites. Its features, such as heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys, provide valuable insights into user experience.

Why it is unique: Hotjar offers invaluable insights into user experience through a range of features, including heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys.

  • Feedback polls prompt users for input on specific elements or actions.
  • Integration with other analytics tools enhances data analysis capabilities.
  • Visitor recordings
  • Limited functionality for complex UX analysis.
  • Data privacy concerns may arise with session recordings and user feedback.
  • The business plan starts at $80 per month.

9. Userlytics

Userlytics is a user testing tool that enables researchers to conduct remote usability tests and interviews. Its screen recording, webcam recording, tree testing, and task-based testing features make it easy to gather feedback from users.

Why it is unique: Userlytics offers an analytics dashboard for insights into user behavior and feedback and mobile device testing for comprehensive insights. 

  • Remote testing capabilities facilitate access to diverse user demographics.
  • The Analytics dashboard offers insights into customer feedback.
  • User testing on mobile devices for comprehensive insights.
  • Pricing may be prohibitive for small-scale projects or individual researchers.
  • Limited customization options for test setup and execution.

10. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a comprehensive experience management platform that offers tools for conducting online surveys, gathering feedback, and analyzing data. Its advanced survey logic, customization options, and powerful data analysis tools make it popular among researchers.

Why it is unique: Qualtrics offers a versatile solution for researchers to gather actionable insights and improve product experiences.

  • Integration with CRM and other systems streamlines data management.
  • Powerful data analysis capabilities enable in-depth insights and reporting.
  • Text and sentiment analysis for qualitative data.
  • Limited support for complex survey designs or experimental setups.
  • Customization options may be restricted for certain features or question types.

Maze is a user-testing platform that allows researchers to create and run usability tests on prototypes and live websites. Its analytics dashboard, user insights, tree testing, and collaboration features make it easy to gather actionable feedback from users.

Why it is unique: Maze offers streamlined setup processes for creating and launching usability tests and customizable test flows for different user scenarios.

  • The streamlined setup process for creating and launching usability tests.
  • Customizable test flows for different user scenarios.
  • Unlimited projects and collaborators for scalability.
  • User journey mapping for a holistic understanding.
  • prototype testing
  • Limited support for advanced testing methodologies.
  • Support documentation may be lacking for troubleshooting.
  • Starts at $99 per month for the Starter plan.

Loop11 is a remote ux research Software that enables researchers to conduct usability tests, surveys, and card-sorting studies. Its robust analytics, customizable tasks, and participant recruitment features make it a valuable UX research platform.

Why it is unique: Loop11 offers collaborative analysis for team collaboration, benchmarking against industry standards, and card sorting studies for information architecture testing.

  • Collaborative analysis for team collaboration.
  • Benchmarking against industry standards.
  • Card sorting studies for information architecture testing.
  • Limited customization options for test setups and participant recruitment.
  • Some features may require upgrading to higher-tier plans.

13. UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub is a remote user testing platform that offers tools for conducting quick design feedback tests, preference tests, and first-click tests. Its fast turnaround time, diverse panel of participants, and intuitive interface make it easy to gather user insights.

Why it is unique: UsabilityHub offers researchers a convenient solution for gathering valuable feedback and improving product experiences.

  • Quick and easy setup for running design feedback tests.
  • A diverse panel of participants ensures access to varied demographics.
  • Multilingual support for global research.
  • Some features may be restricted to higher-tier plans.

14. User Interviews

User Interviews is a platform for recruiting participants for user research studies and interviews. Its diverse pool of participants, customizable screening criteria, and scheduling tools make it easy to find and schedule research participants.

Why it is unique: User Interviews offers flexible participant compensation options, automated email reminders for scheduling, and detailed participant profiles for screening.

  • Flexible participant compensation options.
  • Participant management dashboard for easy tracking.
  • Automated email reminders for scheduling.
  • Detailed participant profiles for screening.
  • Limited customization options for participant recruitment and screening.
  • Participant availability may be limited in certain demographics or regions.

15. Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop is a comprehensive UX research Software designed to facilitate various research methodologies, including card sorting, tree testing, and first-click testing. With its intuitive interface and customizable features, Optimal Workshop streamlines the research process, enabling researchers to gather actionable insights efficiently.

Why it is unique: Optimal Workshop stands out for its comprehensive suite of research methodologies, intuitive interface, and advanced analytics capabilities.

  • Card sorting, tree testing, and first-click testing.
  • Advanced analytics and visualization features
  • Flexible study customization options
  • Occasional technical bugs may impact user experience.

16. UXtweak

UXtweak is a user research platform offering a range of tools for conducting usability testing, card sorting, and tree testing. With its intuitive interface and customizable study setups, UXtweak makes it easy for researchers to gather actionable insights and improve the user experience.

Why it is unique: UXtweak provides a seamless user experience testing environment with features like heatmaps, session recordings, and task analysis, allowing researchers to gain a deeper understanding of user behavior.

  • Intuitive interface for easy study setup and management.
  • Comprehensive usability testing tools, including heatmaps and session recordings.
  • Advanced analytics and visualization features for in-depth insights.
  • Limited customization options for certain study types.

17. UserTesting

UserTesting is a remote user research platform that enables researchers to conduct usability tests, interviews, and surveys with real users. With its diverse panel of participants and advanced analytics, UserTesting provides valuable insights into user behavior and preferences.

Why it is unique: UserTesting offers a wide range of study types, including moderated and unmoderated tests, allowing researchers to choose the best method for their research objectives. Additionally, its robust analytics and reporting features make it easy to derive actionable insights from consumer feedback.

  • A diverse panel of participants for access to varied demographics.
  • Wide range of study types, including moderated and unmoderated tests.
  • Advanced analytics and reporting features for actionable insights.
  • Customization options may be limited for certain study types.
  • Contact them for their pricing details.

How to utilize QuestionPro as Your UX Research Software? 

Utilizing QuestionPro as your UX research Software offers a versatile platform for conducting user research activities to enhance user experiences. Here’s how you can leverage QuestionPro effectively:

  • Survey Creation

Use QuestionPro’s intuitive interface to create customized surveys tailored to your research objectives. Design survey questions that gather insights into user preferences, behaviors, and satisfaction levels related to your product or service.

  • Participant Recruitment

Utilize QuestionPro’s participant recruitment tools to reach your target audience and gather diverse feedback. Implement screening criteria to ensure that participants match the demographics and characteristics relevant to your research.

  • Usability Testing

Leverage QuestionPro’s capabilities for conducting usability tests to evaluate the ease of use and effectiveness of your product’s interface. Create tasks and scenarios for participants to complete while observing their interactions with the interface.

  • Feedback Collection

Deploy feedback surveys using QuestionPro to gather user input regarding your product’s specific features, designs, or functionalities. To gather qualitative and quantitative data and feedback, utilize various questions, including open-ended, multiple-choice, and Likert scales.

  • Custom Reporting

Use QuestionPro’s reporting capabilities to generate custom reports and visualize survey data effectively. Create charts, graphs, and heatmaps to communicate research findings clearly and compellingly to stakeholders and team members.

  • Iterative Research

Conduct iterative research cycles using QuestionPro to continuously gather feedback and make iterative improvements to your product or service. Incorporate feedback into design iterations, allowing for user-centered design principles to guide product development.

  • Multilingual Surveys

Expand the reach of your research efforts by deploying multilingual user surveys using QuestionPro’s multilingual support. Reach users in different regions and language preferences to gather diverse perspectives and insights.

  • Collaboration

Use QuestionPro’s collaboration features to collaborate with team members and stakeholders throughout the research process. Share survey designs, reports, and insights with team members to foster collaboration and alignment on research goals and findings.

These top 17 UX research software tools offer a comprehensive range of features and functionalities to streamline your research design process and gather valuable insights into user behavior. Whether you’re conducting usability tests, surveys, or interviews, these tools will help you create exceptional user experiences and drive product success.

Before deciding, consider your research needs, budget, and team requirements. QuestionPro is an excellent choice for UX research due to its advanced features, easy integration, and user-friendly interface. 

Whether it’s surveys, usability tests, or market research, QuestionPro has the tools you need to gather insights and enhance user experiences. If you’re looking for a UX research Software, give QuestionPro a try! Contact us for a free trial or more information.

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IMAGES

  1. How to Write Effective UX Research Questions (With Examples)

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  2. 7 Questions to Ask Yourself when Choosing a UX Research Methodology

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  3. UX Research Cheat Sheet

    ux research questions to ask

  4. User Interview Questions. A quick guide (and helpful chart) for…

    ux research questions to ask

  5. A 7 Step Adaptable UX Research Process

    ux research questions to ask

  6. 13 UX Research Interview Questions That Will Help You Find the Best

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VIDEO

  1. Let's Do Secondary Research (UX Case Study

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  3. UX Research Course

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  5. Questions to ask in a UX Writing interview

  6. Module 1 The role of UX research || Conducting UX Research #naanmudhalvan #uxdesign

COMMENTS

  1. The Best User Research Questions (+ How to Ask Them)

    To get the right insights, you need to ask the right questions. Here's the best user research questions to start gathering feedback right away. Lorelei Bowman. Content Editor at Maze. Knowing the right user research questions to ask is vital to the success of your UX research. Research is an invaluable source of input for product development ...

  2. How to write effective UX research questions (with examples)

    WattBuy Director of Design. Open-ended research questions aim to discover more about research participants and gather candid user insights, rather than seeking specific answers. Some examples of UX research that use open-ended questions include: Usability testing. Diary studies. Persona research. Use case research.

  3. PDF STARTER QUESTIONS FOR USER RESEARCH

    Asking open ended questions is critical to keeping the conversation going and creating opportunity for the person to tell you stories about their life that could lead you to critical insights and ideas. • Don't try to ask all of these, prioritize based on your research goals. • For each answer, be sure to ask "why" or "why not" to ...

  4. 30+ User Research Questions To Ask For Building Better Products

    TL;DR. User research questions are quantitative or qualitative questions you ask users to uncover insights about their mental models, needs, behavior, and experience with your product. Broadly speaking, you can trigger research questions to: Understand user problems. Uncover user preferences. Gather information about the product experience.

  5. The Top UX Research Questions You Need to Ask

    5. Use Open-Ended Questions. Open-ended questions allow users to provide more detailed answers and insights. They also enable users to share opinions and experiences that you may not have thought of. When creating questions, try to include open-ended questions that encourage users to share their stories. 6.

  6. How to Craft the Best UX Research Questions

    Types Of UX Research Questions. Introductory Questions. Questions about the problem. Questions about the product. Conclusion. As a UX Researcher, engaging with customers and prospects is a critical part of your role. Mastering the art of asking effective UX research questions is essential. The right questions not only illuminate user needs but ...

  7. 35+ Excellent UX Survey Questions You Need to Ask

    Performance - Questions about the speed, responsiveness, and overall performance of the product. Accessibility - Assesses whether the product is usable by individuals with disabilities. Task Completion - Inquires about users' success in accomplishing specific tasks or goals using the product. Suggestions - Asks users to provide their ...

  8. 13 Critical UX Questions to Ask at the Beginning of a Project

    Let go of the fear to ask your team questions. Get your team together regularly. Be the one to initiate the conversation. Be an active participant, facilitate the discussion so voices are heard, and be the best listener in the room. This is the approach to take if you want to build products that change people's lives.

  9. Effective UX Research: User Research Questions To Ask for Improving

    What are UX research questions? User research questions are aimed to understand a participant's opinions, beliefs, and thoughts related to a brand, its product and services. These questions can be open-ended or closed-ended based on the nature of data that is required to be collected. What questions to ask about user experience surveys?

  10. How to Ask UX Research Questions

    How to Ask UX Research Questions In this part of the guide we are going to explain what makes good UX research questions, as well as how and when to ask them. Author: Daria Krasovskaya. Reviewed by: Marek Strba. Last update 11.10.2023. The key to an insightful study is a set of carefully thought-through questions that correlate to your project ...

  11. UX Research Cheat Sheet

    User-experience research methods are great at producing data and insights, while ongoing activities help get the right things done. Alongside R&D, ongoing UX activities can make everyone's efforts more effective and valuable. ... Ask for written reactions and questions (silent brainstorming), to avoid groupthink and to enable people who might ...

  12. How to ask UX research questions

    Use neutral language: Be mindful of the words you use when asking questions. Avoid using language that might be interpreted as negative, judgmental, or loaded. Instead, use neutral language that allows users to express their own thoughts and feelings. 4. Avoid asking multiple questions at once: It's important to ask one question at a time in ...

  13. Best questions to ask in UX research projects

    Well-crafted questions are concise and clear, and each question should speak to a specific aspect of the user experience. Responses to these questions will help your UX team and wider organization to uncover meaningful data about how to improve your products, services, and design. What makes a good UX research question?

  14. Just a Bunch of Example UX Research Questions

    2. Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels. I find that even though I'm quite familiar with and comfortable conducting research during the UX process, I still draw a blank somedays. This is a list (and ...

  15. 98 Questions UX Designers Must Ask

    98 Questions UX Designers Must Ask. For a UX Designer, it's easier when you start with the answers. The ability to ask meaningful questions is a fundamental yet often overlooked skill in the UX Designer's toolkit. I've begun to notice a clear correlation between the number of questions a designer asks throughout the process and the ...

  16. 8 Key rules of asking questions in UX Research and beyond

    7. Never interrogate the user. Survey questions, and more importantly user interviews should never feel like an interrogation. They should not be a bombardment of questions where the user feels trapped in a corner while we extract all the information from them. Instead they should be kept casual and conversational.

  17. How to Define UX Research Questions in Each Phase of Your Project

    Focusing in on certain features and tasks will provide more concrete, useful data. The type of questions you ask will change as you advance through the design process; we define three key phases of research: strategic, exploratory, and evaluative. Another way of thinking about these phases is described by UX research expert Tomer Sharon as ...

  18. User Research Questions You Should Be Asking

    Here's a quick 5-step formula you can follow every time you need to create questions for UX research. 1. Start by defining broader themes. The first step is to identify what you want to learn from the interview. The best way to figure out what you want to know is to brainstorm themes of interest. Since you will ultimately share your results ...

  19. Top UX Research Interview Questions to Ask Users

    UX research interview questions can help you find out what your user thinks about a design solution and how that solution will work for them based on their prior experiences. The point is to ...

  20. 7 discovery questions that will work for almost any design project

    Attendees were asked to think of useful questions to ask key stakeholders. Many of the questions were very specific. Targeted questions are great for getting more detail about problems we already know (or suspect) exist. But as UX researchers, we need to be open to uncovering unknown problems. This is when broad open-ended questions are useful.

  21. UX Research Questions

    Research methods, UX research, and usability testing (qualitative research, quantitative methods) are based on research questions. To conduct UX research is, first and foremost, to ask good research questions. Relevant problems and research questions are the starting point and form the horizon of our knowledge of the world and phenomena.

  22. How to Interview UX Researchers: Questions to Ask

    1 Experience and portfolio. One of the first things you should ask the UX researcher is about their previous projects and how they approached them. You want to see examples of their work that ...

  23. Top 17 UX Research Software for UX Design in 2024

    Starts at $25 per month for the Basic plan. 5. Userzoom. Userzoom offers an enterprise-level user research platform with tools for usability testing, surveys, and analytics. Its comprehensive suite of UX research Software, including user testing and benchmarking, makes it ideal for large-scale projects.