7 Types of Website Usability Survey Questions to Ask in 2023

Don't judge a book by its cover;

but do judge a business by its website;

But wait, it's not us; it's Science. 

According to statistics by MovableInk - 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual, and,

People remember 65% of what they see, compared to ten percent of what they hear.

And if that data doesn't suffice, guess what cxl has to say - visual appeal can be assessed within 50 ms, suggesting that you have about 50 ms to make a good first impression with your website. 

Well, all this isn't here to scare you;

But when was the last time you checked your website's digital experience?

Let alone that, ever wondered how your users feel about it?

Read on as we answer,

How You Can Find out about your Website's User Experience?

User experience on a website refers to the kind of interface experience your website visitors and clients have, when they are browsing and/or navigating through your website via the website itself, a mobile app or while using the company's digital products or services. 

Quite naturally, the richness of user experience depends on a combination of various elements such as user interface, usability, content and visual appeal, navigation, accessibility, and more. 

There could be plenty of places on your website which could be key selling points, such as unique features, convincing prices, appealing content and visuals, but;

you could be missing out on actually selling those, simply if your users are having a hard time exploring them.

Having said this, who could you approach to enhance your website's user experience? No wonder, the user himself!

And in doing so, we are here to assist you!

Read ahead to discover,

The 7 Most Important Types of Questions to Ask In a Website Usability Survey

As mentioned already, website usability has several aspects to it. Therefore, you must consider all these aspects and create a balanced survey in order to gather actionable insights for designing or redesigning your website.

1. Design

This aspect relates to the color combination, themes, font size and color, as regards the website and its clickable elements. 

Evidently, it should be appealing, easy on the eye and most importantly, consistent throughout the website. 

The logo should be placed strategically wherever required. 

Also, the menu should be available without much hassle, from any point on the website.

The following questions can be asked with regard to design:

1. At first glance, were you able to make out what our product is, basis our website design?
2. Were the clickable elements/buttons easily identifiable?
3. Was the website color scheme and combination warm and appealing?
4. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the design consistency of our website?
5. Do you think the color scheme is representative of the product?
6. Does the logo of our website stand out to you?
7. Would you remember our website basis its aesthetic and design?
8. Would you remember our website basis our logo?
9. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to return to our website basis its design?
10. Could we have used other color schemes and themes to represent our brand better?

Survey Design Tip 1: Keep your survey short and simple. Too many questions are likely to bore the respondent.

2. Navigation 

This aspect relates to the interconnectedness, and the placement and positioning of the various elements facilitating this interconnectedness, throughout the website.

This includes links, accessibility to the main menu, homepage, contact information, search field, pagination, tags, breadcrumbs, etc.

The following questions can be asked with regard to navigation:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the ease with which you were able to move through our website?
2. If you visited a particular webpage on our website, could you reach our homepage easily, therefrom?
3. Could you easily navigate to our associated web pages from our homepage?
4. Do you think all the web pages are linked under the appropriate fields?
5. Did all the clickable links lead you to the appropriate information?
6. Were the back, forward and home buttons, accessible on all web pages?
7. Were you able to set your cookie preferences with ease?
8. Do you think our menu section covers all the relevant fields?
9. On a scale of 1-10, how easily could you reach the information you came looking for?
10. At any point in your browsing, did you feel the lack of any navigational element anywhere on the website?

Survey Design Tip 2: Keep your questions specific and easy to answer. Give a choice to agree or disagree, answer in yes or no, or define a scale.

3. Content and Visual Comprehensibility

Content is still the king; No wonder they invented ChatGPT. 

Not only is this important for user experience, but also for the Google crawlers to understand, rate and rank your website.

Your website and web pages should feature relevant, coherent and easily comprehensible information. 

Also, the visuals, graphics and imagery used, should be in accordance with the content.

The idea is to provide the user with the required and right information, in a quick yet interesting fashion.

The following questions can be asked with regard to content and visual comprehensibility :

1. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the relevance of the content you found on this page?
2. Did you find what you were looking for?
3. On a scale of 1-10, with how much ease could you find what you were looking for?
4. Were the infographics, tables, charts and images used on this page relevant?
5. Did this page's infographics, tables, charts and images help you understand the content better?
6. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the content on this page, as compared to your competitor's page?
7. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the presentation and format of the content on this page?
8. Do you think the content was explicit or confusing?
9. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to retain what you read on this page?
10. Based on your recent experience, would you prefer to visit our website for other content?

Survey Design Tip 3: Keep the wording simple and easy to understand. Users shouldn't have to invest too much time deciphering the question itself.

4. Performance and Compatibility

This aspect relates to your website's performance in terms of loading speed and device compatibility.

In the age of smartphones and tablets, it is only sensible to have your website optimized for all kinds of devices (Well, obviously not the fax machine).

Ideally, your website should load within 0-2 seconds of clicking.

Also, your website should function smoothly on all kinds of devices, following appropriate dimensions. 

This means the content shouldn't get cut, the scrolling function is smooth and the website doesn't crash when used on any of the devices in question. 

Pro Tip: Run a quick and free technical SEO audit for your website to find out more about this!

The following questions can be asked with regard to performance and compatibility:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate our website's mobile experience?
2. Did the page you click on load quickly enough?
3. Did you have to wait too long before you got to your desired page?
4. Could you access and use our website's mobile version as easily as the desktop version?
5. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to visit our mobile version?
6. Would you rather use our website's mobile or desktop version?
7. Did all our website features work as efficiently on your mobile device as they do on your desktop?
8. Was there any element of this website that the desktop version featured, but the mobile version didn't?
9. How was your scrolling experience on the mobile version of our website?
10. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the smoothness of the mobile version of our website?

Survey Design Tip 4: Make sure you ask only one question at a time; the more direct a question is, the simpler it is to answer.

5. Payments and Subscriptions

If your website offers products, services and subscriptions, which require fetching payments from your users, then facilitating safe, secure, transparent and prompt transaction methods is your prime responsibility.

Your website should enable the use of more than one popular payment method.

Also, if any third-party redirects are in practice, their credibility and trustworthiness should not be under question. 

The following questions can be asked with regard to performance and compatibility:

1. Were you able to find your preferred payment method with ease?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how secure and confident did you feel when entering payment details?
3. Did you think the payment process was adequately transparent?
4. Did you get a payment confirmation after completing your payment?
5. On a scale of 1-10, with how much ease were you able to set up a default payment method?
6. Were the options for saving or not saving your card details clearly visible?
7. Were you able to switch to your preferred currency with ease?
8. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the steps (Eg., entering OTP no.) followed throughout the payment process?
9. Is there any payment method you would want us to integrate with?
10. On a scale of 1-10, how easily were you able to access your invoices, transaction IDs and order history, from your account?  

Survey Design Tip 5: Make sure the user's responses are saved; in the event that the user wasn't able to complete the form in one go, they would be happy to return if their previous responses have been recorded and they don't have to repeat the entire process. 

6. Accessibility

Accessibility isn't just about the inclusion of the specially abled.

It is, infact, about introducing ease of use, for one and all. 

This involves working with features such as font, color, contrast and brightness adjustments, structured headings, usage of alt text and closed captions, etc.

The following questions can be asked with regard to accessibility:

1. Were the website accessibility features such as font, contrast and brightness adjustments, easily and readily available?
2. Did all the website's images, graphics and non-text elements have alt text?
3. Did the alt texts have a sufficient and easily understandable description as regards their respective elements?
4. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the keyboard-only navigation experience on our website?
5. Did the page structure and layout help you reach your desired information easily using assistive technology?
6. Do you think icons and clickable elements were sizable?
7. Were closed captions provided for video content?
8. Were all closed captions, subtitles and text captions synchronized with their respective dynamic content?
9. Do you think the page can be navigated through regardless of whether or not specific colors are identifiable to some? 
10. Were the downloadable files featured on the website, created in a way so as to maximize their usability for the specially abled?

Survey Design Tip 6: Consider providing your survey fillers rewards, offers and incentives. It doesn't have to be extravagant; reward points, discounts, social media mentions, etc., act as feasible rewards and help make your users feel valued.

7. General/Miscellaneous

This aspect deals with the overall website experience.

You may use these questions to gather data about the general user experience throughout their session.

You may also take this section as the opportunity to collect valuable suggestions and feedback from your users about anything related to your website.

The following questions can be asked under this field:

1. How did you find our website?
2. Did you find what you were looking for on this page with ease?
3. What would you improve about our website?
4. Would you like to be a part of our program to test the improvements to the existing features on our website?
5. Would you recommend our website to your social circle?
6. Did you face any challenges while using our website or its general features?
7. Do you have any suggestions, feedback and reviews for us?
8. What could we have done better or differently, to serve you better?
9. Was your experience with us memorable enough to make you remember us?
10. At last but not the least, on a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to revisit us? 

Survey Design Tip 7: Take a pre-test of your survey. Proofread it for any mistakes and corrections. Also, send it to 5-10 close associations of yours, and gather their unbiased feedback on your survey, before you release it to your users.

For more survey tips, check this out!

Did you know: You could create NPS survey on your website to gain better insights into customer loyalty and satisfaction?

Click here to take a preview and create yours now!

Conclusion

Website Usability Surveys are the quintessential means of gathering data about your website user experience and turning them into actionable insights.

At Formester, you can accomplish this in 3 simple steps:

1. Create a create a free survey account on Formester

2. Head over to our Templates section to customize a result-driven survey form

Pro Tip on What To Include: Feel free to take inspiration from this blog!

3. Publish the survey form, get submissions, analyze your data and you are ready to design, redesign or optimize your website

Still not sure about your survey form?

At Formester, we deliver you the best-in-class survey forms;

so you can deliver the best-in-class website user experience!