UX survey questions: 35 examples, plus the standard questionnaires (SUS, SEQ, UMUX-Lite)
UX survey questions
✓ measure the experience, then ask why
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TL;DR
A UX survey measures how people experience a product: whether they can do what they came to do, how easy it felt, and what got in the way. Use a standard questionnaire when you need a score you can compare over time (SUS for the whole product, SEQ after each task, UMUX-Lite when you only have room for two questions), then add one or two open questions to find out why.
Below are the standard questionnaires and 35 example questions grouped by research stage. Pick the stage you are in, take five to ten questions, and cut anything you will not act on.
When a survey is the right UX method
Surveys tell you how many and how much. They are the right tool when you need to measure something across a large group, track a score between releases, or check whether a problem you heard about in interviews is common. They are the wrong tool for understanding why someone struggled; for that, watch them in a usability test or talk to them.
The strongest UX programs pair the two: a survey shows where the score dropped, and a handful of sessions with the people who gave low scores shows what happened.
Standard UX questionnaires
Standardized questionnaires have fixed wording and scoring, which is what makes their scores comparable across products, releases and teams. Change the wording and you lose the benchmark.
Questionnaire | Questions | When to use it | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| System Usability Scale (SUS) | Questions10 statements, 5-point agreement scale | When to use itAfter a test session, or periodically for the whole product | What you getA 0 to 100 score; 68 is the average across 500 studies |
| Single Ease Question (SEQ) | Questions1 question, 7-point scale | When to use itStraight after each task in a usability test | What you getTask-level ease you can compare between tasks |
| UMUX-Lite | Questions2 statements, 5 or 7-point agreement scale | When to use itIn-product or anywhere space is tight | What you getA short measure of usefulness and ease |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | Questions1 question, 0 to 10 | When to use itRelationship tracking, not task-level usability | What you getLoyalty trend; needs an open follow-up to explain it |
System Usability Scale (SUS)
SUS was published by John Brooke in 1986 and is still the most widely used usability questionnaire. It has 10 statements, alternating positive and negative, each answered on a 5-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. To score it, subtract 1 from each odd-numbered answer, subtract each even-numbered answer from 5, add the results and multiply by 2.5. The average across 500 studies is 68, according to MeasuringU, so anything above that is better than average.
The SUS survey template has all 10 statements set up.
Single Ease Question (SEQ)
The SEQ is one question asked after each task: “Overall, how difficult or easy was the task to complete?”, answered on a 7-point scale from very difficult to very easy. Average scores sit between about 5.3 and 5.6, per MeasuringU's data. A task that scores well below that is the one to look at first.
UMUX-Lite
UMUX-Lite is two statements: “[This product's] capabilities meet my requirements” and “[This product] is easy to use”. It is short enough to run inside a product or at the end of another survey, and it covers usefulness as well as ease, which SUS mostly does not.
UX survey questions by research stage
Discovery: understanding needs and context
- What were you trying to get done the last time you used [product]?
- How often do you need to do [task]? (Daily, weekly, monthly, less often)
- What tools do you currently use for [task]? Select all that apply.
- What is the most frustrating part of [task] today?
- How much time did [task] take you last week?
- What have you tried to make [task] easier?
- Who else is involved when you do [task]?
Usability: after a task
- Overall, how difficult or easy was the task to complete? (Very difficult to very easy)
- Were you able to complete the task? (Yes, partly, no)
- How confident are you that you completed it correctly? (Not at all confident to very confident)
- What, if anything, was confusing?
- Where did you expect to find [item]?
- What would you change about this step?
Usability: after the whole session
- The 10 SUS statements, or the 2 UMUX-Lite statements
- Which part of the experience was the hardest?
- Which part was the easiest?
- Is anything missing that you expected to find?
- How does this compare with the way you do it today? (Much worse to much better)
Onboarding and first use
- How easy was it to get started? (Very difficult to very easy)
- How long did it take before [product] was useful to you?
- What, if anything, nearly stopped you from finishing setup?
- Was there anything you had to look up or ask someone about?
- What did you expect to be able to do that you could not?
Feature feedback
- Have you used [feature] in the last 30 days? (Yes, no, not sure)
- How useful is [feature] for your work? (Not at all useful to extremely useful)
- What do you use [feature] for?
- What, if anything, would make [feature] more useful?
- If [feature] were removed, what would you do instead?
Navigation and content
- Did you find what you were looking for today? (Yes, partly, no)
- What were you looking for?
- How easy was it to find? (Very difficult to very easy)
- Which words on this page, if any, were unclear?
If navigation keeps coming up, a survey will tell you that people are lost but not where. A tree test pins down which labels and branches are causing it.
Overall experience
- How likely are you to recommend [product] to a colleague? (0 to 10)
- What is the main reason for your score?
- What is one thing we could change that would make [product] easier to use?
Tips for better UX surveys
- Ask about a task straight after it happens. Ratings collected days later measure memory, not experience.
- Keep standard questionnaires word for word. A reworded SUS is no longer comparable with anyone else's SUS.
- Pair every score with one open question asking why, and read those answers before you read the averages.
- Ask about past behavior, not predictions. “Would you use this?” produces optimistic answers that do not hold up.
- Survey the right people. Answers from your own active customers mean more than answers from a general panel for most product questions.
- Plan the follow-up. Ask at the end whether people are open to a short call, so a low score can become an interview.
Running UX surveys in Great Question
In Great Question you can send a survey to your own customers from your participant panel, filter who receives it by the attributes you already hold, and use skip logic to route people based on their answers. Results show a chart for every question.
When a score needs explaining, invite the people behind it to an interview or an unmoderated usability test from the same platform. For the wording side, see our examples of good and bad survey questions and the guide to survey question types.
Frequently asked questions
What are good UX survey questions?
Good UX survey questions ask about a specific, recent experience: “Overall, how difficult or easy was the task to complete?”, “What, if anything, was confusing?” and “Were you able to do what you came here to do today?” Pair each score with an open question asking why.
What is the difference between SUS and SEQ?
SUS is a 10-statement questionnaire about the whole product, usually asked at the end of a session. SEQ is a single question asked after each task. Use SEQ to find which task is hardest, and SUS to track the overall experience over time.
What is a good SUS score?
The average SUS score across 500 studies is 68, according to MeasuringU. A score above 68 is better than average; well below it suggests real usability problems worth investigating with a usability test.
How many questions should a UX survey have?
As few as the decision needs. After a single task, one or two questions is enough. A post-session survey with SUS plus two open questions is 12. Longer surveys get fewer completed responses and shorter open answers.
