User testing survey

Usability testing is all about getting real people to interact with a website, app, or other product you've built and observed their behavior and reactions.

To get the most accurate and actionable results from any usability test, you must ask the right questions first. This user testing survey template will help you determine the best questions to incorporate into your user testing process. This template uses questions taken from our usability testing guide—start by reading this guide first.

With this survey, you'll learn:

• Understand how your product works

• Learn if users can complete the actions you want 

• Spot usability issues and bugs

• Make sure the user experience is stress-free

Make it your own:

• Tweak each question in the template or add your own

• Change the color scheme

• Remove Hotjar branding (with Scale and Business plans)

• Pick between full screen, pop-up or external link Surveys

Deeply understand your users

User testing is a method of testing the functionality of a website, app, or other digital product by observing real users as they attempt to complete tasks on it. 

Usability testing is done by real-life users, who are likely to reveal issues that people familiar with a website can no longer identify—very often, in-depth knowledge can blind designers, marketers, and product owners to a website's usability issues.

Your website or product can benefit from usability testing at any stage of the development process, from prototyping all the way to the finished product. You can also continue to test the user experience as you iterate and improve your product over time.

Employing tests with real users helps you:

1. Validate your prototype. Bring in users early on in the development process, and test their reactions before locking down a final product. 

2. Confirm your product meets expectations. Once your product is completed, test usability again to make sure everything works the way it was intended.

3. Identify issues with complex flows. Make sure the user experience is as straightforward and intuitive as possible.

4. Catch minor errors. A new set of eyes is more likely to pick up on broken links, site errors, and grammatical issues that have been inadvertently glossed over. 

To get started, you can use this user testing survey template. It comes packed with all the questions you need. What’s more, the template is fully customizable, meaning you can change the question order, add your questions, and tweak the design.

3 questions you’ll be able to answer

What’s the user experience like? 

It’s common for people working on a project to lose sight of what the user may experience. After all, you’ve spent so much time building the thing it’s difficult to imagine seeing it for the first time. User testing is a great way to build some empathy for the users and see things from their perspective. 

Can I validate my ideas?

Convincing others to build a certain feature or develop a specific bit of functionality isn’t easy. In the worst-case scenario, it’s one opinion up against another. With user testing, you can circumvent these problems with usability findings. These can be a very persuasive way to lobby for a change. 

Is this new product ready for market? 

For newer products, usability testing is so crucial. It can reveal if the user understands the product and doesn’t get lost, help you spot early bugs, and ensure users can complete the actions they need to. This type of user research is exceptionally important with new products or new design updates: without it, you may be stuck with a UX design process that your team members understand, but your target audience will not.

Set up the user testing survey in seconds

Getting started with the user testing survey is fast and easy. Start by clicking the ‘Get started with this template’ link at the top of the page. 

Once you’ve pressed that you’ll be asked to create an account and verify your email. 

After you’re verified, you’ll be taken straight to the survey template which will be ready for you to send out to customers to start collecting insights. 

However, you’ll also have the option to install the Hotjar tracking code on your site. This tracking code will allow you to host the survey live on your site rather than via an external URL. This might be useful if you want to show the user testing survey to users on a certain page. It’ll also mean you’ll be able to access all four of the Hotjar features.

Don’t worry, installing the tracking code won’t slow your website down. And it doesn’t cost you anything (our free plans are free forever). So, to set up your full Hotjar account and install the tracking code, follow these steps.