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.
Conclusion
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!
FAQs
- 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?
And more!
- 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.
