What Are UX Surveys and How to Use Them (+Templates)

UX surveys are a crucial part of user experience research. They offer a line of communication between you and your users, providing insights into what's working well, what could be improved, and where opportunities for innovation lie.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to create effective UX surveys and explore their importance, benefits, and best practices. 

Plus, we’ll provide some templates so you can start sending your own UX surveys and collecting precious user feedback in no time at all.

What is a UX survey? 

UX surveys seek to understand the user's experience—how easy or difficult it is for the user to interact with a product, whether it's a website, an app, or a particular feature.

They dive into the specifics of the user’s interactions, asking questions about a wide range of usability factors, such as design, interface, or navigation.

UX surveys are not just about finding problems; they are an essential tool for understanding how to provide better solutions. They enable the collection of data that is both qualitative (e.g., user opinions and suggestions) and quantitative (e.g., ratings for satisfaction or ease of use). 

Why are UX surveys important?

The importance of UX surveys cannot be overstated. They offer a direct line to your users' thoughts, providing invaluable insights that can drive product development. 

Since they’re easy to run, they’re an incredibly cost-effective way to gather actionable feedback. 

By understanding how users perceive and interact with a product or service, you can 

• identify the pain points your users face 
• prioritize design improvements based on the problems you identified
• stay user-centric by constantly collecting and incorporating user feedback
• reduce churn and increase user retention by proactively finding and fixing issues
• increase conversions and improve overall business performance by learning what stops your customers from making a purchase
• boost user engagement by understanding what captures your users’ attention
• facilitate better communication between your users and designers, fostering collaboration.

To get the most out of your UX surveys, it’s always a good idea to use a tool that will automate the distribution process, helping you to reach a large number of users quickly and efficiently.

Survicate, for instance, allows you to set up surveys once and enjoy continuous feedback. Plus, you can run surveys at any point across the user journey.

UX survey templates

UX surveys come in different forms, each with its specific purpose and application. Here are templates you can use right away to start measuring your user experience.

Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX)

This standardized UMUX Lite survey template uses a 5-point scale to rate various aspects of user experience with your website or product, including ease of use, usefulness, and satisfaction.

Consisting of concise and easy-to-answer questions, this survey will give you a good idea of what's working and what's not, so you can make the necessary tweaks and changes to make your users happier. 

To interpret the results, start by calculating the average score for each statement. For instance, if 10 participants responded to the survey and rated a statement with scores of 4, 4, 5, 3, 5, 4, 5, 3, 4, and 5, then the average score would be 4.2.

Once you’ve worked out the average score for each statement, you can interpret the results based on the scale used. Usually, an average score of 4 or above indicates good usability and a positive user experience, while an average score below 4 indicates room for improvement.

User Effort Score (UES)

A variation of the Customer Effort Score survey, the User Effort Score measures how easy or difficult it is for users to interact with your product or service. 

It consists of a simple 5-point Likert scale and a follow-up question that asks the user to elaborate on their choice. 

There is a strong correlation between user effort and loyalty. Users who can accomplish tasks easily are more likely to be satisfied and continue using your product or service, while those who have to exert high effort are more likely to switch to a competitor.

Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire (SUPR-Q UX)

SUPR-Q is used to measure the quality of users’ experience with a website or app and identify key areas for improvement. 

As a standardized survey, it allows you to compare your results to a database of scores from hundreds of other websites. This gives you an idea of how your website or app stacks up against others.

SUPR-Q has been academically validated, which means you can trust the results it produces. 

User onboarding

A user onboarding survey is usually sent out shortly after a user signs up or starts using your product or service. 

Its purpose is to gather feedback on their initial experience, including ease of use, level of satisfaction, and areas that need improvement.

It’s a good idea to include a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions so you can get a comprehensive understanding of your users' experience. 

Clarity of UX copy

The language used in your product (product copy) plays a critical role in how users understand and interact with it. 

A product copy clarity survey can help determine if users understand the instructions, labels, and descriptions within your product.

Clear, engaging product copy can guide users through your product more effectively, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. 

Remember that users from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds might interpret the same copy differently. What’s more, the tone and language of your copy play a huge role in how users perceive your brand. 

When should you send UX surveys?

The timing of your UX surveys can be critical and it varies depending on your specific objectives. Here are some situations when you should consider sending a UX survey.

During product development

If you're in the process of developing a new product or feature, it might be beneficial to send out a UX survey to gather insights and feedback. This can help you ensure that the final product aligns with user expectations and needs.

After major updates

Whenever you release a significant update, redesign, or new features, it's a good idea to send out a survey. This will help you understand how users are responding to these changes and whether they're finding them beneficial.

Periodically for benchmarking

Sending out regular UX surveys can help you track how user satisfaction changes over time. This is particularly useful for identifying trends, gauging the impact of changes, and benchmarking your performance against industry standards.

After an interaction

Send a survey immediately after a user interacts with your product or service, for instance, following a purchase, an interaction with your customer service, or completing a  specific task on your site or app. The feedback they will provide will often be more accurate and detailed because the experience is fresh in their mind.

When the churn rate increases 

If you notice that your user churn rate is increasing or user engagement is decreasing, it's time to send out a UX survey. This can help identify any usability issues or areas of dissatisfaction that are driving users away.

Before a major update

If you're considering a significant change or decision related to your product or service, sending a UX survey can provide valuable insights that inform your decision-making process.

Whenever you decide to run a UX survey, remember to thank your users for taking the time to fill it in.

Best practices for creating effective UX surveys 

Creating effective UX surveys is an art that involves striking a balance between asking the right questions and respecting the respondent's time and effort. Here are some best practices to consider when creating UX surveys.

Defining clear objectives

What exactly do you wish to learn from the responses? Are you trying to understand the user experience on your website, gauge user satisfaction with a product, or gain insights into why users are abandoning their shopping carts? Defining clear objectives at the onset ensures that your survey is aligned with your goals, and provides a roadmap for designing your survey questions.

Crafting relevant and concise questions

Once you've defined your objectives, it's time to craft your survey questions. The questions should be directly aligned with your objectives, and as specific as possible to yield actionable insights. Your respondents should be able to understand the questions easily without having to guess what's being asked.

To make sure your questions provide you with the data you need, it’s a good idea to use a survey tool that offers templates optimized for a satisfactory response rate, such as Survicate.

Mixing up question types

While crafting your survey, consider using a mix of question types to keep the survey engaging and collect different types of data. For instance, closed-ended questions such as multiple choice or Likert scale questions can provide quantitative data that's easy to analyze and compare. On the other hand, open-ended questions allow users to express their thoughts freely, providing valuable qualitative insights.

For instance, Survicate’s Voice of Customer survey template consists of a series of questions of different types, such as the standard NPS rating-scale question, a Likert scale, and an open-ended question that aims to collect qualitative responses. You can modify the template to suit your needs:

Prioritizing user anonymity

To get honest and unfiltered feedback, you need to assure your users that their responses will be anonymous and used solely for the purpose of improving user experience. 

Keeping it short and simple

User time is precious, and long surveys can feel overwhelming or boring, leading to higher dropout rates and survey fatigue. Aim to keep your survey short and simple, preferably under 10 minutes to complete. Every question you include should serve a purpose. If it doesn't directly relate to your objectives, it's probably best to leave it out.

One way to ensure that all survey questions are relevant to the respondents is by using skip logic. This is a mechanism that allows for designing a survey in a way that previous answers impact what questions follow. 

Ordering questions logically

The order of questions in your survey can impact the responses you get. It's usually best to start with general questions and gradually move to more specific ones. 

Warm up respondents with simple and less personal questions before moving on to more complex or sensitive topics. This can help to build rapport and increase the completion rate of the survey.

Providing an incentive

Although not always necessary, providing a small survey incentive can boost survey completion rates. This could be a discount, access to premium content, or entry into a prize draw. It serves as a token of appreciation for the user's time and effort.

Analyzing and acting on the data

Now, the real work begins—analyzing the survey response data. Look for trends, patterns, and outliers in the responses. What are users saying about their experience? What areas of your product or service need improvement? This is the time to interpret the data and translate it into actionable insights.

However, the process doesn't end there. The real value of a UX survey lies in how you use the insights to improve the user experience. Share the results and your analysis with your team, and use the feedback to inform your decision-making process. It's also important to close the feedback loop with your respondents by letting them know that their feedback was valuable and is being used to make improvements.

How to use Survicate to send UX surveys

UX surveys open the door to understanding user behavior, identifying pain points, and gathering actionable insights that can shape your product or service. 

To start exploring your user experience with UX surveys, simply sign up for a 10-day free trial account and pick from over 400 ready-to-use templates. 

With Survicate, you can also connect with your favorite third-party tool to seamlessly share the data and analyze your results in one place. Keep testing, iterating, and delighting your users with Survicate!