Usability testing questions

It is very important to ask the right questions when conducting usability testing studies. The whole study stands and falls on one thing: If the questions are posed and answered correctly. Read along if you want to learn how to ask the right questions in usability testing.

Types of usability testing questions:

Screeners
Pre-study questions
Testing questions
Post-study questions

Let’s take a closer look at each of them:

Screeners

Screeners will help you to filter out respondents that are not relevant to the study.

Why is it necessary to ask questions before the actual test? Screeners’ job is to establish boundaries:

Who do you need for the test, and what type of respondents do you require?

What qualities should they possess?

You may only need to ask one question to discover the relevant responders. For example, if you are running a website that sells dog food, you can ask: do you have a dog? The answer is straightforward: yes or no. Some scenarios, on the other hand, need a more thorough screening of replies.

Pre-study questions

The major goal of the pre-test questionnaire is to learn about the respondents’ backgrounds. In moderated testing, you have the opportunity to get to know your testers and ask them questions about their present state or views. The purpose of a pretest is to collect qualitative data that will help you with the study analysis further on. Either a conversation (moderated testing) or a survey might be used for the pre-test (unmoderated testing).

You can ask about brand awareness or how users interact with the product by giving the following questions: Are you familiar with this brand? Have you purchased anything from this company before? How frequently do you buy dog food? And so on.

Study tasks and questions

The Unmoderated Testing research is made up of various tasks that responders must complete to complete the survey effectively. By properly planning your tasks, you will enhance the likelihood that your user study will yield a positive outcome. Respondents who are given well-defined tasks are more likely to try to execute them as naturally as possible.

Each of your tasks should be able to be traced back to its source, which should be one of the study objectives you’ve chosen. After all, the tasks determine which aspects of the website will be tested.

Let’s pretend for a moment that we have an e-commerce website with a shopping cart, and one of our goals is to see if visitors can add items to the basket. “You want to buy food for your dog, find and purchase the one you like”. This would be a great task for that matter.

When you’re planning, keep in mind that you’ll need to:

Create tasks that address your goals
Create tasks that help your cause
Make a list of doable tasks
Write tasks that don’t reveal the answer

Post-study questions

The tasks have been completed, and you now have the results of the tests in your hands. However, there can still be some unanswered questions. If you have the opportunity to contact respondents after the test, take advantage of it and ask them some questions. This is a fantastic technique to discover what the true perception of the work and design is. Allow time and room for them to voice their opinions, pros, and limitations with your product.

You can send questionnaires with open-ended questions after the unmoderated usability assessment. Ask something like:

What are your thoughts on the product?

Was it a simple task?

Would you tell your friends about the product?