Day 1: Guide to creating an effective user research survey

Are research surveys that important?

Today, I start off with research surveys. UX research is the systematic study of target users and their requirements to add realistic contexts and insights to the design process. This is an important part of a product cycle, whether we are launching a new product, adding a feature, or improving an already existing one.

We have qualitative and quantitative research, and today I learned about quantitative. To maximize the quality of responses I would get and give the participants a good experience, I need to adhere to the following:

  1. Asking the right questions

  2. Understanding the problem

  3. Building the missing link

  4. Launch and repeat

N/B: We are only taking 1 and 2.

  1. Ask the right questions: For me to understand people's current state and the change they desire, my questions have to be clear, and I have to ask the right people the right questions. Creating my survey would have to come right after I have identified the following:
  • Where people are today: The solution they currently use, the cost (not just money, time perhaps)

  • Roadblocks: what are their concerns, the questions that linger in their minds, their objections, their worries?

  • Where they want to be: what drives a person, their core values, and their goals. I want to know the reality of where they want to be in the future.

After coming to terms with the aforementioned, I will craft the questions that will be used in my survey.

Tips for forming questions

  1. Phrase questions in the first person with a number attached to them to avoid bullet-point responses.

  2. When creating a solution for a new product, always put an obstacle question in a survey.

  3. Use "What do you think of Y" instead of "Why do you like Y"

  4. Use "How would you rate product Y" instead of "What do you really love about product Y"

  5. Platforms; Google Forms, Survey Gizmo, Typeform.

Key Takeaways

The magic is in how the questions are phrased. Once the responses are gotten I have to immerse myself in the data, which in turn can be used as marketing copy that isn't driven by hypothetical guesses or phrases.

References

Thank you for reading my article.