What makes a user research question effective?

Open Question: We always ask open questions to the users. Ex: We should not ask "Did you like our product?". It is a closed question. Instead we have to ask, "What is your experience with our product?". Open questions can lead us to what users feel while using our product. Simple language: Questions should be simple and easily understandable to users. Avoid Personal Info: Asking personal questions to the users will make them feel hesitant to open up and uncomfortable. Better avoid deep personal questions. Don't lead participants to a particular answer. Be neutral in your questions. Don't ask big questions, split the question into multiples. Laddering Technique: Asking questions layer by layer.

User research questions are pivotal as they lay the groundwork for understanding user needs. Rephrasing questions to focus on feelings rather than binary responses 1. Refrain from questions with "yes" or "no" choices. 2. Prompt users to provide detailed feedback. For instance, instead of asking "Do you like it or not?", we could inquire, "What aspects of our product do you find appealing, and what areas do you think could be improved?" This approach prompts users to articulate their thoughts comprehensively, enabling us to gain deeper insights into their preferences and areas for enhancement. And questions like, "How do you feel about our product?" invites users to express their emotions, preferences, and concerns openly.

An effective user research question is clear, focused, and directly tied to the research goals. It should be open-ended to encourage detailed responses but specific enough to elicit relevant information. The question should be framed in a way that avoids leading the participant, allowing for unbiased insights. Additionally, it should be actionable, meaning the answers will provide insights that can directly inform design decisions or improvements. The best questions are those that dig deep into user motivations, behaviors, and pain points, revealing the "why" behind their actions.??

I’m going to piggy back off the person below (or above) me: open ended questions are of course your friend, but I’ve also seen people get caught up in it and forget that we need actionable data. I saw someone write an entire script with seemingly one thing in mind “my questions need to be as open ended as possible.” About 6 minutes he’s hitting our user with the 5 Why’s, almost didn’t want to jump in because I wanted to see how far this madness would go but I couldn’t. I pulled the interviewer aside and simply as “do YOU know why you’re asking these questions?” They told me “because I don’t want to lead the user.” And sure, we don’t want that but also want something out of this. They’re driving the car, but we’re giving them the track.

To avoid confusion: User research questions are not the questions you ask to your research participants. The first are the questions a team or organization has about their users, e.g. “How can we improve our product for first-time customers?”. These questions define the scope and goals of a study. They are very different from the questions you ask to the participants, e.g. in an interview. It requires effort to translate research questions into a study guide which includes the interview questions.

Also, to state what might be obvious to Researchers but not always obvious to the business: make sure your research question isn't actually a solution. Something like, "how do we make X better", is obviously vague but is also assuming X is the right solution. So focus on the problem that X is (or isn't) solving, and think about what you want to learn with research to determine what solution is best.

It's important to grasp the importance of user research questions. For example, in the context of developing a mobile banking app for young adults, it is important to to align your questions with the specific needs and behaviors of the target demographic. If we are making exploratory questions, you could ask about financial goals, challenges, and digital banking preferences. Descriptive questions could be focusing on the frequency of mobile apps usage. Evaluative would be about usability, appeal, and functionality of the features ensuring that they resonate with the needs of the users.

Agree this way Researchers will be able to easily understand the persona of the user. For Food Delivery App questions can be divided in this way; Exploratory: "How easy is it for users to order food? What are their main pain points?" Descriptive: "Which age groups use the app? What are their primary needs?" Evaluative: "Do users find the app easy to use and secure? Do they feel safe while using it?"

I agree, we should be specific when asking questions about user behaviors, needs, preferences, pain points, and experiences, we can generate insights that lead to informed assumptions or hypotheses about user motivations or the potential success of certain product features or improvements. For instance, if your research question revolves around understanding why users prefer a particular feature, the insights gathered might lead to hypotheses about the underlying motivations driving that preference. These hypotheses could then be tested or validated through further research or experimentation.

Reconhe?o a importancia de variedade de perguntas. Utilize de perguntas abertas para explorar a perspectiva do usuário de maneira mais livre, permitindo insights inesperados. Enquanto as perguntas fechadas fornecem dados quantificáveis, e perguntas de escala ajudam a medir níveis de satisfa??o. Com uma variedade de perguntas, podemos abordar e oferecer uma vis?o mais abrangente das necessidades do usuário.

One of the most important criteria of a user research is to not force the user to come to answers that aligns with the product features that you are thinking to build. The ability to let the user be in the comfort of their user experiences and be able to talk openly about it makes a user research very effective. It lets you to discover the real user problems worth solving and the correct solutions to be built.

Stakeholder intake interviews are a nice way to ensure the research questions are effective and the research study fulfilled its goals. When a stakeholder comes to you as a researcher posing a research question, you aim to understand the colleagues question behind their question. It can be an informal conversation identifying the “why” behind the stakeholders questions and ultimately helping them to be successful. Laura Faulkner has a nice framework for the stakeholder intake interview.

A key aspect of crafting these questions lies in understanding why users behave or feel a certain way, as this insight lays the groundwork for understanding how to address their needs effectively. A clear understanding of the "why" empowers us to navigate the "how" with greater ease and effectiveness. For Instance: Understanding why consumers prioritize sustainability in their purchasing decisions allows businesses to determine how to incorporate eco-friendly practices effectively into their products and operations.

Las preguntas siempre deben ser lo más neutrales posible, de forma que el usuario no tenga la percepción de que existe una respuesta correcta o deseable. Por ejemplo, a la hora de obtener información acerca de lo intuitivo que es un producto, plantear cuestiones que parezcan atribuir la responsabilidad al usuario (preguntarle si entiende algo), puede inducir a repuestas involuntariamente sesgadas que contaminen la información.

Focus on using unbiased questions when interviewing participants to avoid leading or influencing them toward a particular response, allowing for more accurate and objective data collection.

In my experience, try picking out similar scale for all quantitative questions. This helps finding co-relation across the survey & your insights are not high level anymore but very granular & potentially help you dig out the nuances.

Para elaborar, busco chamar toda a equipe e adoto uma abordagem mais colaborativa, onde envolvo membros de diferentes equipes para garantir que as perguntas abordem aspectos técnicos, de usabilidade e emocionais. Além disso, reviso as perguntas para assegurar que se alinhem aos objetivos específicos da pesquisa, garantindo uma coleta de dados mais valiosa e direcionada.

Conducting research involves addressing existing problems by aligning stakeholders' perspectives. To ensure effective collaboration, preparing stakeholders by clearly defining the research topic upfront is crucial. Subsequently, conducting research involves narrowing the scope and available resources, and aligning them with the defined topic. Choosing the appropriate research format, such as evaluation or descriptive, facilitates gathering relevant insights. Revision and continuous testing refine the questions, ensuring they are humble and formal, fostering an environment conducive to gathering valuable user insights.

Start with a research plan: This is a document that helps you outline the research goals, how the data will be used, the tools and methods utilized, the timeline of the study, and how the findings will be delivered. I treat the development of these documents as a very collaborative process. I use the research plan as a way to bring my stakeholders into the planning process, to ensure we are in alignment on goals, scope, and outcomes. By having a firm understanding of what decisions your stakeholders are looking to make you'll be better informed about what research method and approach to take.

Structuring research questions can be tricky. Here's some tips and sample wording to get you started: 01 Use appropriate language: If speaking to external customers, avoid using internal language and jargon that may not be familiar to them. 02 Avoid leading questions: It's human nature to be agreeable. Avoid framing questions in a way that suggests to the participant that you are looking for validation of a particular answer. EG Instead of this: “Did you like the color of the product?” Do this: “What were your thoughts on the product's color?” 03 Ask open-ended questions: These promote storytelling and provide you with rich context. EG “In as much detail as you can, tell me about your experience with x..?”

After hours of preparation, we often feel relieved when gathering user feedback. However, human memory is fallible, risking crucial details being forgotten. Notes are invaluable, capturing responses, tones, and expressions critical for UI design. Reviewing notes afterwards aids memory recall, ensuring no important insights are overlooked. Thorough note-taking is thus essential for crafting truly user-centric designs.

One thing I like to do during interviews is to ask participants about concrete events in the past. For example, instead of asking “How would you go about buying a new fridge?” which poses the risk of participants imagining how they would do it and being lead by biases, I ask “Tell me about the last time you bought a new fridge.” This tends to provide much more reliable and detailed answers.

A common mistake is conducting an interview and asking questions to confirm one's hypotheses instead of actively listening. Questions should be open, simple, and free of specialized language, arranged from general to specific. Other good practices include: -Creating a safe space, so the respondent feels they are not being interrogated or judged. Even a short small talk at the beginning and informing that there are no right or wrong answers can be helpful. -Openness and curiosity - it's valuable to be like a child who doesn't know but wants to find out. -Paraphrasing the respondent's statements to show that we are listening but also to ensure we understand correctly. -Asking for specific examples/referring to specific situations.

Silence is golden. Ask your open ended question, then wait... don't fill in the blanks... don't help out the user with pointers... wait for them to start talking... even if they haven't fully understand what you want from them, they will often talk about something useful that you haven't thought about that will surprise you. Don't rush to the next question, give them time to expand on their initial point

Beside how we craft the question to extract the right answer, the whole background context is playing a crucial role. In my experience, the better we understand and own the background problem, the sharper the question will be. This is beyond just the objective of the research or business, but the whole context. So it's tricky and I think it highly relates with soft skill. Also that's why in my opinion ux researcher needs to act and learn to be more than just "work as a ux researcher".

To craft effective user research questions, consider the research type (qualitative or quantitative), ensure questions are open-ended (qualitative) or closed-ended (quantitative), avoid bias, and ensure relevance to research objectives.

Remain neutral Be careful when conducting the interview, not to react too emotionally. It is a fine art to acknowledge a participant's response rather than reacting as you would in a social setting. This can prompt the participant to exaggerate their experience or share more about the experiences that are getting a reaction from you, which can result in skewed data and/or data gaps. Similarly, it's also important to keep a neutral, open mind when conducting your synthesis. Looking for data that confirms a hypothesis and disregarding data that invalidates that hypothesis is a form of confirmation bias. It's important to look a the data holistically and let patterns emerge.