UX2: Planning and running research
Surveys that give honest answers
🎯You'll be able to
Write clear, neutral survey questions, choose answer types, and report results with the number of responses.
🏠The everyday picture
"You enjoyed our food, didn't you?" gets a polite yes. "How was your meal?" with honest choices gets something you can use.
📘What it really is
- Ask about the past, not the future: "How did you book your last appointment?" beats "Would you use online booking?".
- One thing per question: "Was booking quick and easy?" asks two things.
- Neutral wording: no "don't you agree", no praise in the question.
- Balanced scales: for example, 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied), with every point labelled or the ends labelled clearly.
-
Answer options should cover every case without overlap: age bands 18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+; include "Other" or "Prefer not to say" where needed.
-
Short: every extra question loses some people. Ask only what you'll use.
- Who answers matters: a survey shown only to people who finished booking can't tell you about people who gave up.
- Report with the count: "95 of 120 respondents (79%) used a phone", and say who was asked.
- The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a widely used 10-question survey that gives a usability score from 0 to 100; many teams treat about 68 as average.
📝A worked example
Input: research/survey.csv (120 responses).
node -e "const r=require('fs').readFileSync('research/survey.csv','utf8').trim().split('\n').slice(1).map(l=>l.split(','));
console.log(r.length, r.filter(x=>x[2]==='mobile').length)"
Expected output: 120 95, so 95 of 120 responses (79%) were on mobile. Counting the biggest_problem column the same way gives
"finding a free slot" 38 times (32%), the most common answer.
🌍Where it's used
- Customer satisfaction surveys after a delivery or a support call.
- Public consultations on a new scheme or service.
- Product teams use SUS before and after a redesign to compare scores.
📝Case scenario
A food app asked "How much did you love our new menu?" with answers from "Liked it" to "Loved it". 94% "loved it" or "really liked it". Sales of the new items were flat. A neutral re-run with a balanced scale gave a much more mixed picture, which matched the sales.
🖱️Try it
Fix these questions: (a) "Don't you think booking online is easier?", (b) "Was the app fast and attractive?", (c) "Will you book online next month?". Success: each new version is neutral, asks one thing, and asks about past behaviour where possible.
⚠️Common mistakes
- Leading questions. Sign: the question suggests an answer. Fix: neutral wording and balanced options.
- Reporting percentages without the count. Sign: "79% use mobile". Fix: "95 of 120 respondents (79%)".
- Asking about the future. Sign: "Would you use…?". Fix: ask what they did last time.
🛠️For your project
Project 1's test 7 recomputes the survey's response count and mobile share from survey.csv and compares them with your findings.
✅Quick check
Why is "Would you use online booking?" a weak question?
Show the answer
People predict their own future behaviour poorly; asking what they did last time is more reliable.
What should every survey result include?
Show the answer
How many people answered, and who was asked.