Part 1 of a 3-Part Series on Crafting Effective UX Surveys
UX surveys are one of the most versatile tools in a UX researcher’s toolkit, capable of gathering valuable insights at scale. But let’s be realistic—crafting UX surveys that delivers high-quality data isn’t always a “walk in the park.” Whether you’re seeking data to detect patterns, gauge satisfaction/usability metrics, or simply gathering statistical evidence, there’s a lot that can go wrong if you don’t approach survey design with care and structure.
This first part of this 3-part series focuses on “The Must Do’s“—the essential steps and best practices to set up your survey for success. When done right, surveys provide clarity, direction, and a wealth of insights to guide your product and design decisions. Let’s dive into the key actions you should take when creating UX surveys.
Create a research brief
Before creating a survey, it’s critical to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve written down (even if you know it intuitively). Articulating this in a one-page research brief can act as your compass—it keeps your survey(s) aligned with your research goals and avoids unnecessary detours.
A good research brief should answer the following questions:
- What are the main research questions you want to answer, and why is this research required?
- Who are you targeting, and why are they the right audience?
- How will the data be used, and what insights are you driving toward?
- What’s the business driver behind this research? How will it inform your product strategy?
Writing a research brief forces you to identify and assess your assumptions and clarify your goals before diving into survey creation. Additionally, it ensures alignment with stakeholders who may have differing expectations.
Do discovery work as a primer
Discovery is an often overlooked step in survey creation. Before deciding what questions to ask, you need to do some groundwork to understand the context and nuances of your research area.
Start by collecting and reviewing existing artefacts, conducting exploratory interviews, and performing desktop research. This will help you frame your questions and avoid redundancy, ensuring your survey adds real value to your research process.
Choose the right type of survey to support your UX research goal
Your survey should align with the type of UX research you’re conducting. Is it part of foundational research, generative research, or evaluative research? Are you seeking deep quantitative insights (e.g., measurable behaviours, trends) or limited qualitative insights (e.g., nuanced user sentiments or suggestions for improvements)?
Knowing the purpose of your survey will shape its structure, question types, audience size, and analysis methods. Without this thought through initially and articulated to refer to during the entire process, your survey risks being unfocused and less impactful. Typically when working with teammates this risk becomes greater. It can be done on a digital wall (eg. Mural, Miro, etc.) readily accessible to help guide you and ultimately save time.
Decide on instrumentation and sample size
It’s important to think about survey platforms and participant recruitment early on. Will you use online tools & their services with pre-screened participants on tap to access, or will you recruit your own respondents yourself?
Additionally, aim for a sample size that’s large enough to capture the diversity of your target market but not so large that it becomes impractical or costly. Use online calculators or formulas to estimate the optimal sample size based on your population size, margin of error, and confidence level. All of the above affects budget & timeline. Thus, defining this in the initial steps is essential.
Screen test participants thoughtfully
In my opinion, crafting pre-screeners and screeners to find the right participants is already 50% of the entire survey process—it’s that critical. If you ask the wrong people the right questions, you’ll end up with wrong answers 100% of the time.
Here’s how to refine your participant screening process:
- Pre-screeners: These are used to weed out people who don’t meet basic criteria, such as those from unrelated industries or job roles.
- Mix in disqualifying/qualifying answers at a 5:1 ratio to avoid making the criteria too obvious
- Beware of “professional testers” who try to game surveys to earn money as a side hustle—this is a rampant issue online these days. They typically contaminate your data and can ruin your whole study if not careful
- Screeners: These go deeper, narrowing down participants based on goals, tasks, daily responsibilities, and nuanced attributes relevant to your research.
The quality of your survey data depends heavily on the quality of your participants. Invest time here—it will make all the difference. Having proto-persona boards is highly recommended to base your questions around. Refer to an earlier blog post for more using personas.
Draft, then refine survey questions carefully
- One of the most critical steps in survey design is crafting your questions. Strike the right balance between open-ended and close-ended questions. While multiple-choice questions are efficient, they can sometimes be limited to the answer options. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, allow respondents to express themselves freely. It invites users to share qualitative feedback that may uncover insights you hadn’t considered. This particularly useful near the end of the survey asking the participants observations or comments they’d like to share.
- Use clear and neutral language, avoid jargon, and ensure your multiple-choice options are balanced. Every question should have a clear purpose—if you can’t justify why a question is needed, leave it out.
Setting the foundation for survey success
When creating UX surveys, the key is to approach them with best practices and minimise bias creeping in. By following these “Must Do’s”—crafting a research brief, conducting discovery, defining your survey type, screening participants, and drafting thoughtful questions—you’ll set yourself up for success with higher fidelity of data for your overall UXR (UX Research).
Even the best-designed surveys can falter if they fall into common pitfalls. In the next two parts of this series, we’ll dive into “The Don’ts of UX Surveys.” Part 2 (coming up) will explore how to avoid leading and loaded questions that distort your data, and Part 3 will tackle common bias traps that can contaminate studies if left unchecked. Mastering the art of well-crafted surveys is the first step toward unlocking key quantifiable insights from surveys.
Designing UX Surveys That Work series:
- Part 1: Crafting Effective UX Surveys: The Must Do’s
- Part 2: The Don’ts in Survey Design: Eliminating Bias for Better User Insights
- Part 3: Avoiding Common Bias Traps in UX Surveys
Recommended further reading
- Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
- Surveys That Work: A Practical Guide for Designing and Running Better Surveys by Caroline Jarrett
- Survey Design Best Practices by Nielsen Norman Group
