A good design team knows that collecting data about users’ needs and behaviours are essential to leading a successful design project. In fact, V51 Consulting always recommends exploring users’ feedback before, during and after a design project. It is a well-known methodology called ‘User-Centered Design’ (UCD).
Surveys are one of the most common UCD techniques to explore when you need to gather user feedback. Fortunately, several CMS platforms have out of the box features to explore surveys. For example, SharePoint provides a powerful solution for surveys and quick polls, where administrators can create, manage and summarize results. Check the end of the article for links on how to build them in SharePoint.
However, we have observed that some teams feel worried about how to efficiently plan and conduct surveys. In any case, this is a good feeling. If we do not follow some core principles, it is easy to end up with inaccurate or useless data, which will delay or sometimes negatively impact the design solution.
Follow below are some valuable resources to help plan your next surveys. If your team is more concerned about how to write an effective questionnaire, we recommend watching the video below created by Kenneth Fernandes, from Ellon University Poll:
If the questions are related to planning not only surveys but user research in general, we recommend following a straightforward and process promoted by Jason Husser:
Surveys can be confusing to execute the first few times, but they are an essential tool for clarifying hypothesis, goals, and requirements. The effort makes sense, because surveys are usually a fast and easy way to conduct user research, and are also available in different CMS platforms. We hope to have given you an excellent introduction for exploring surveys. Good luck!
Need some help?
Sounds like a strategy you could use but need some help? V51 Consulting specializes in Intranets and can help you achieve your goals. Contact us for details.
Related materials
Surveys Design Essentials by Elon University Poll
Creating Surveys in SharePoint 2013