How to Conduct a Survey?

When?

Surveys can be used any time in the product design process. The outcome of a survey is used based on which phase of the design process it is conducted in.

E.g. Screener survey is used for understanding user behavior and preferences before starting design

Product feedback is used after the product is ready or already available for the users. 

Getting Started

UX survey is a method to collect feedback from customers about their experience using a product. The insights gained from surveys help in understanding user behavior and make changes to improve the UX of the product.

Surveys can be conducted in-person or online depending on the intent and target users.

Survey includes 2 types of questions

1. Open: Where user describes their answer

2. Closed: Where user has to select one or more of the answer choices

How to?

1. Set Goal: Have a specific goal for the survey like finding details of target users or getting responses on new product release

2. Identify target audience: Determine the user group that you want to survey. This can be existing customers or potential users.

3. Specify: Define details like participants, sample size, channels of reaching out, budget, schedule etc.

4. Define the survey questions: Write down the questions for getting responses. Questions could be grouped or asked based on some qualifying conditions. Crate clear, concise, and focused questions that will help you achieve your goal.

5. Choose survey platform: Choose the appropriate survey tool based on your target audience and the type of survey questions.

6. Share: Share the survey with participants through email, social media, or other relevant channels with a timeline by which responses are expected.

7. Incentivise: Give incentives to people for participating like gift coupons, limited access to products or community etc. Incentive ensures that people participate with some seriousness.

8. Evaluate: Collect responses from all participants and monitor those responses. Ensure that you receive an adequate sample size. Identify patterns or trends in user feedback.

9.  Report: Create a report that summarizes the key findings and insights from the survey. Use the report to inform design decisions and improve the user experience.

10. Follow up: Thank the participants for their feedback and share the survey results with them. This helps build a positive relationship with your users and demonstrates that you value their feedback..

Types of Surveys

1. Qualitative survey: A survey that includes open questions.

2. Quantitative survey: A survey that includes more closed questions.

3. Screener: A survey in which an elimination question is asked that helps filter out or eliminate and identify relevant participants for further research.  It is used to understand user behavior and preferences before starting the design.

4. Customer Satisfaction: This survey helps evaluate customer’s satisfaction with a product. Users of a product are asked for feedback about different aspects of the product. The feedback is expected as a rating or multiple choices.

5. User Journey Experience: To get pointers from users for the overall user journey of the product.

6. SUS (System Usability Scale) Survey: This survey measures the usability of a product or service. It consists of a 10-item questionnaire that asks users to rate their level of agreement with various statements.

7. NPS (Net Promoter Score) Survey: This survey measures customer satisfaction by asking users how likely they are to recommend the product or service to others.

8. User Needs Survey: This survey helps identify user needs and pain points by asking open-ended questions about user experiences and preferences.

9. UX Benchmarking Survey: This survey helps measure the effectiveness of design changes over time by collecting feedback on specific design elements.

10. User Persona Survey: This survey helps create user personas by asking users about their goals, motivations, and behaviors.

11. Card Sorting Survey: This survey helps with information architecture and navigation design by asking users to group and categorize content or features.

12. A/B Testing Survey: This survey compares two versions of a product or service to see which one performs better based on user feedback.

Do’s & Don'ts

Templates 

• Survey & questionnaire templates & examples from Typeform <https://www.typeform.com/templates/c/surveys/?_gl=1*1rigk65*_up*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjw2OiaBhBSEiwAh2ZSP3CtfhhS0ta0M577W8i7oy_vJd5iMUOWthmil538h35co3afKQXutBoCqksQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds> 

• Get survey templates that are written by experts from SurveyMonkey <https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-templates/> 

Suggested Tools 

• Google Forms

• SurveyMonkey

• Typeform

• Optimal Workshop

References 

• 28 Tips for Creating Great Qualitative Surveys from NNGroup <https://www.nngroup.com/articles/qualitative-surveys/?ref=uxtools-challenges>

• This is all you need to know to conduct a UX Survey from UX Planet <https://uxplanet.org/this-is-all-you-need-to-know-to-conduct-a-ux-survey-50400af45920>

• How to Write (Better) Survey Questions: Systems for Collecting Clean and Meaningful Data from Dscout <https://dscout.com/people-nerds/how-to-write-better-survey-questions?ref=uxtools-challenges> 

• How to Conduct UX Research Surveys & the Best Questions to Ask from Miro <https://miro.com/guides/ux-research/surveys-questions> 

Other Related Best Practices

• Interviews 

• Basics of User Research