When Kraig Finstad (2010) developed the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX), his goal was to replace the ten-item System Usability Scale (SUS, a popular measure of perceived usability) with a shorter questionnaire that would (1) correlate highly with the SUS and (2) have item content related to the ISO 9241 Part 11 international standard,
We’ve written extensively about question types, the elements of good and bad writing, why people forget, and common problems with survey questions. But how do you get started writing questions? Few professionals we know have taken a formal course in survey development and instead rely on their experiences or best practices. Despite being called questions,
The UMUX-Lite is a two-item standardized questionnaire that, since its publication in 2013, has been adopted more and more by researchers who need a concise UX metric. Figure 1 shows the standard version with its Perceived Ease-of-Use (“{Product} is easy to use”) and Perceived Usefulness (“{Product}’s capabilities meet my requirements”) items. Figure 1: Standard
Crafting survey questions involves thinking first about the content and then about the format (form follows function). Earlier, we categorized survey questions into four content types (attribute, behavior, ability, or sentiment) and four format classes (open-ended, closed-ended static, closed-ended dynamic, or task-based). As with any taxonomy, there are several ways to categorize response options (e.g.,
In architecture, form follows function. In survey design, question format follows content. Earlier we described four classes of survey questions. These four classes are about the form, or format, of the question (e.g., open- vs. closed-ended). But before you can decide effectively on the format, you need to choose the content of the question and
When approaching a UX research project, one of the first things to consider is the method. And UX research has many methods. Methods can be categorized as quantitatively focused (e.g., A/B tests) or qualitatively focused (e.g., interviews). Most UX research methods can collect both qualitative and quantitative data. For example, surveys often collect both closed-ended
Surveys are an essential method for collecting data. But like all research methods, surveys have their limitations. Unless the survey is administered by a facilitator, a respondent has only the survey’s instructions, questions, and response options for guidance. Earlier we wrote about ways to improve the clarity of your questions and certain words to watch
Like in all research methods, many things can go wrong in surveys, from problems with sampling to mistakes in analysis. To draw valid conclusions from your survey, you need accurate responses. But participants may provide inaccurate information. They could forget the answers to questions or just answer questions incorrectly. One common reason respondents answer survey
When thinking about user experiences with websites or software, what is the difference between capabilities and functions? Is there any difference at all? In software engineering, a function is code that takes inputs, processes them, and produces outputs (such as a math function). The word capability doesn’t have a formal definition, but it most often
In UX research, both studies and surveys contain a lot of questions. Getting those questions right can go a long way in improving the clarity and quality of the findings. For example, we’ve recently written about how to make survey questions clearer. And while there are many stories of how the change of a single
