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How to write effective UX research questions (with examples)
Collecting and analyzing real user feedback is essential in delivering an excellent user experience (UX). But not all user research is created equal—and done wrong, it can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and non-actionable results.
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You need to ask the right UX research questions to get the valuable insights necessary to continually optimize your product and generate user delight.
This article shows you how to write strong UX research questions, ensuring you go beyond guesswork and assumptions . It covers the difference between open- and close-ended research questions, explains how to go about creating your own UX research questions, and provides several examples to get you started.
Use Hotjar to ask your users the right UX research questions
Put your UX research questions to work with Hotjar's Feedback and Survey tools to uncover product experience insights
The different types of UX research questions
Let’s face it, asking the right UX research questions is hard. It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice and can leave even the most seasoned UX researchers drawing a blank.
There are two main categories of UX research questions: open-ended and close-ended, both of which are essential to achieving thorough, high-quality UX research. Qualitative research—based on descriptions and experiences—leans toward open-ended questions, whereas quantitative research leans toward closed-ended questions.
Let’s dive into the differences between them.
Open-ended UX research questions
Open-ended UX research questions are exactly what they sound like: they prompt longer, more free-form responses, rather than asking someone to choose from established possible answers—like multiple-choice tests.
Open questions are easily recognized because they:
Usually begin with how, why, what, describe, or tell me
Can’t be easily answered with just yes or no, or a word or two
Are qualitative rather than quantitative
If there’s a simple fact you’re trying to get to, a closed question would work. For anything involving our complex and messy human nature, open questions are the way to go.
Open-ended research questions aim to discover more about research participants and gather candid user insights, rather than seeking specific answers.
Some examples of UX research that use open-ended questions include:
Usability testing
Diary studies
Persona research
Use case research
Task analysis
Check out a concrete example of an open-ended UX research question in action below. Hotjar’s Survey tool is a perfect way of gathering longer-form user feedback, both on-site and externally.
Pros and cons of open-ended UX research questions
Like everything in life, open-ended UX research questions have their pros and cons.
Advantages of open-ended questions include:
Detailed, personal answers
Great for storytelling
Good for connecting with people on an emotional level
Helpful to gauge pain points, frustrations, and desires
Researchers usually end up discovering more than initially expected
Less vulnerable to bias
Drawbacks include:
People find them more difficult to answer than closed-ended questions
More time-consuming for both the researcher and the participant
Can be difficult to conduct with large numbers of people
Can be challenging to dig through and analyze open-ended questions
Closed-ended UX research questions
Close-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by ranking or rating, or with a single word.
They’re easy to recognize because they’re similar to classic exam-style questions.
More technical industries might start with closed UX research questions because they want statistical results. Then, we’ll move on to more open questions to see how customers really feel about the software we put together.
While open-ended research questions reveal new or unexpected information, closed-ended research questions work well to test assumptions and answer focused questions. They’re great for situations like:
Surveying a large number of participants
When you want quantitative insights and hard data to create metrics
When you’ve already asked open-ended UX research questions and have narrowed them down into close-ended questions based on your findings
If you’re evaluating something specific so the possible answers are limited
If you’re going to repeat the same study in the future and need uniform questions and answers
Wondering what a closed-ended UX research question might look in real life? The example below shows how Hotjar’s Feedback widgets help UX researchers hear from users 'in the wild' as they navigate.
The different types of closed-ended questions
There are several different ways to ask close-ended UX research questions, including:
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys
CSAT surveys are closed-ended UX research questions that explore customer satisfaction levels by asking users to rank their experience on some kind of scale, like the happy and angry icons in the image below.
On-site widgets like Hotjar's Feedback tool below excel at gathering quick customer insights without wreaking havoc on the user experience. They’re especially popular on ecommerce sites or after customer service interactions.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys
NPS surveys are another powerful type of (mostly) closed-ended UX research questions. They ask customers how likely they are to recommend a company, product, or service to their community. Responses to NPS surveys are used to calculate Net Promoter Score .
NPS surveys split customers into three categories:
Promoters (9-10): Your most enthusiastic, vocal, and loyal customers
Passives (7-8): Ho-hum. They’re more or less satisfied customers but could be susceptible to jumping ship
Detractors (0-6): Dissatisfied customers who are at a high risk of spreading bad reviews
Net Promoter Score is a key metric used to predict business growth, track long-term success, and gauge overall customer satisfaction.
Pro tip: while the most important question to ask in an NPS survey is readiness to recommend, it shouldn’t be the only one. Asking follow-up questions can provide more context and a deeper understanding of the customer experience. Combining Hotjar Feedback widgets with standalone Surveys is a great strategy for tracking NPS through both quick rankings and qualitative feedback.
Pros and cons of closed-ended research questions
Close-ended UX research questions have solid advantages, including:
More measurable data to convert into statistics and metrics
Higher response rates because they’re generally more straightforward for people to answer
Easier to coordinate when surveying a large number of people
Great for evaluating specifics and facts
Little to no irrelevant answers to comb through
Putting the UX researcher in control
But closed-ended questions can be tricky to get right. Their disadvantages include:
Leading participants to response bias
Preventing participants from telling the whole story
The lack of insight into opinions or emotions
Too many possible answers overwhelming participants
Too few possible answers, meaning the 'right' answer for each participant might not be included
How to form your own UX research questions
To create effective UX questions, start by defining your research objectives and hypotheses, which are assumptions you’ll put to the test with user feedback.
Use this tried-and-tested formula to create research hypotheses by filling in the blanks according to your unique user and business goals:
We believe (doing x)
For (x people)
Will achieve (x outcome)
For example: ' We believe adding a progress indicator into our checkout process (for customers) will achieve 20% lower cart abandonment rates.'
Pro tip: research hypotheses aren’t set in stone. Keep them dynamic as you formulate, change, and re-evaluate them throughout the UX research process, until your team comes away with increased certainty about their initial assumption.
When nailing down your hypotheses, remember that research is just as much about discovering new questions as it is about getting answers. Don’t think of research as a validation exercise where you’re looking to confirm something you already know. Instead, cultivate an attitude of exploration and strive to dig deeper into user emotions, needs, and challenges.
Once you have a working hypothesis, identify your UX research objective . Your objective should be linked to your hypothesis, defining what your product team wants to accomplish with your research—for example, ' We want to improve our cart abandonment rates by providing customers with a seamless checkout experience.'
Now that you’ve formulated a hypothesis and research objective, you can create your general or 'big picture' research questions . These define precisely what you want to discover through your research, but they’re not the exact questions you’ll ask participants. This is an important distinction because big picture research questions focus on the researchers themselves rather than users.
A big picture question might be something like: ' How can we improve our cart abandonment rates?'
With a strong hypothesis, objective, and general research question in the bag, you’re finally ready to create the questions you’ll ask participants.
32 examples of inspiring UX research questions
There are countless different categories of UX research questions.
We focus on open-ended, ecommerce-oriented questions here , but with a few tweaks, these could be easily transformed into closed-ended questions.
For example, an open-ended question like, 'Tell us about your overall experience shopping on our website' could be turned into a closed-ended question such as, ' Did you have a positive experience finding everything you needed on our website?'
Screening questions
Screening questions are the first questions you ask UX research participants. They help you get to know your customers and work out whether they fit into your ideal user personas.
These survey question examples focus on demographic and experience-based questions. For instance:
Tell me about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?
What does a typical day look like for you?
How old are you?
What’s the highest level of education that you’ve completed?
How comfortable do you feel using the internet?
How comfortable do you feel browsing or buying products online?
How frequently do you buy products online?
Do you prefer shopping in person or online? Why?
Awareness questions
Awareness questions explore how long your participants have been aware of your brand and how much they know about it. Some good options include:
How did you find out about our brand?
What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?
If you’ve visited our website multiple times, what made you come back?
How long was the gap between finding out about us and your first purchase?
Expectation questions
Expectation questions investigate the assumptions UX research participants have about brands, products, or services before using them. For example:
What was your first impression of our brand?
What was your first impression of X product or service?
How do you think using X product or service would benefit you?
What problem would X product or service solve for you?
Do you think X product or service is similar to another one on the market? Please specify.
Task-specific questions
Task-specific questions focus on user experiences as they complete actions on your site. Some examples include:
Tell us what you thought about the overall website design and content layout
How was your browsing experience?
How was your checkout experience?
What was the easiest task to complete on our website?
What was the hardest task to complete on our website?
Experience questions
Experience questions dig deeper into research participants’ holistic journeys as they navigate your site. These include:
Tell us how you felt when you landed on our website homepage
How can we improve the X page of our website?
What motivated you to purchase X product or service?
What stopped you from purchasing X product or service?
Was your overall experience positive or negative while shopping on our website? Why?
Concluding questions
Concluding questions ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For instance:
What are your biggest questions about X product or service?
What are your biggest concerns about X product or service?
If you could change one thing about X product or service, what would it be?
Would you recommend X product or service to a friend?
How would you compare X product or service to X competitor?
Excellent research questions are key for an optimal UX
To create a fantastic UX, you need to understand your users on a deeper level.
Crafting strong questions to deploy during the research process is an important way to gain that understanding, because UX research shouldn’t center on what you want to learn but what your users can teach you.
UX research question FAQs
What are ux research questions.
UX research questions can refer to two different things: general UX research questions and UX interview questions.
Both are vital components of UX research and work together to accomplish the same goals—understanding user needs and pain points, challenging assumptions, discovering new insights, and finding solutions.
General UX research questions focus on what UX researchers want to discover through their study.
UX interview questions are the exact questions researchers ask participants during their research study.
What are examples of UX research questions?
UX research question examples can be split into several categories. Some of the most popular include:
Screening questions: help get to know research participants better and focus on demographic and experience-based information. For example: “What does a typical day look like for you?”
Awareness questions: explore how much research participants know about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?”
Expectation questions: investigate assumptions research participants have about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What was your first impression of X?”
Task-specific questions: dive into participants’ experiences trying to complete actions on your site. For example: “What was the easiest task to complete on our website?”
Experience questions: dig deep into participants’ overall holistic experiences navigating through your site. For example: “Was your overall experience shopping on our website positive or negative? Why?”
Concluding questions: ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For example: “What are your biggest concerns about (x product or service)?”
What’s the difference between open-ended and closed-ended UX research questions?
The difference between open- and closed-ended UX research questions is simple. Open-ended UX research questions prompt long, free-form responses. They’re qualitative rather than quantitative and can’t be answered easily with yes or no, or a word or two. They’re easy to recognize because they begin with terms like how, why, what, describe, and tell me.
On the other hand, closed-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by rating or ranking options, or with just a word or two.
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