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Survey

Please note: This content reflects industry best practices. We’ve provided links to third-party resources where appropriate.

What It Is

A survey is a set of questions that you use to collect data from your current or target audience. Surveys can help you understand who your users are, what they think about a product, and/or what issues they encounter. They’re a quick and easy way to get data.

A survey is only as effective as the questions asked. To get a holistic view of your user’s experience, you can ask two types of questions:

  1. Open question: Gathers qualitative data through free-response questions, such as a comment box or a text field.
  2. Closed question: Gathers quantitative data and is easily visualized through graphs and charts. These can be collected through multiple choice, rating scale, and/or ranking order questions.

You can ask both types of questions in a single survey to achieve your research goals. Only include questions that will provide actionable insights. Concise surveys will help you avoid survey fatigue and improve the completion rate.

Here are some common types of closed questions that capture customer satisfaction metrics:

  • Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Measures how satisfied your customers are with your products.
  • Net promoter score (NPS): Asks customers how likely they are to recommend your product to others.
  • ​​​​​​​System usability survey (SUS): Collects feedback about usability components, typically on a 7-point scale.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Read more about customer satisfaction metric scales here.​​​​​​​

When To Use It

  • After conducting product training, you’d like to gather feedback about its effectiveness for future improvements.
  • After a new release and/or new product, you want to measure customer satisfaction and assess areas for improvement.
  • To track your net promoter score over time and benchmark customer satisfaction.

How It Works

Duration of test: No more than 20 minutes

Suggested number of participants: 10+

  • For close-question surveys, aim for 30 or more participants to reduce the margin of error.
  • If you want more insights, consider an interview instead.

Steps:

  1. Develop a research plan and identify your participant pool.
  2. Write clear and specific survey questions. Check out our tips on asking good questions.
  3. Distribute your survey via email or survey tools.
    • Survey platforms include UserZoom and Microsoft Forms.
    • Use our recruitment email template.
    • Keep your survey open for 5 to 10 business days.
    • Send out a reminder 1 or 2 days before the end date if responses are low.
  4. Organize and synthesize the data collected from your survey.
    • Collate your quantifiable data into something that’s more easily consumable for your report, like charts and graphs.
    • Consider conducting a thematic analysis, where you assign themes and identify patterns to synthesize your qualitative data.
  5. Communicate the results.
    • Share the outcomes of your survey along with actionable insights for your stakeholders.
    • Consider also sharing a high-level report with your participant pool for transparency and to encourage their participation in future studies.

      See survery example here.

Tips

  • Keep it short. A long survey reduces response rates and decreases validity.
  • Only ask demographic questions that are contextually, culturally, and socially relevant to your research goal and that provide valuable insight about attitudes and goals when overlaid with survey data.
  • Try to include both open- and close-ended questions for a holistic view.
  • Use at least a 5-point scale when asking participants to provide a rating. It tends to be a good balance of options, while optimizing reliability.
  • Check out our tips on asking good questions.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Outcomes

  • Qualitative data, such as insights about behaviors, attitudes, and/or opinions
  • Quantitative data, like CSAT, NPS, and SUS

Resources

UX Research Plan (Template)

View

Email Recruitment (Template)

View

Research Results Report (Template)

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Learn More

Questions or feedback? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or contact the Contact the Infor Design UX Insights team at uxinsights@infor.com.