You've got a test in mind; you're ready with your build and have everything set up on the platform, but you're unsure what to ask on the survey.
When considering building a survey, you'll need to make a series of decisions on what to ask. We're here to help you make those decisions by giving you the fundamental questions to ask yourself while reducing the things you must think about overall.
The most important thing to remember when building any survey is that questions must be easy to understand. Don't write a question that is confusing to others. You'll get much better information from having a simple question that a Participant from any walk of life can answer.
Don't overcomplicate it. Questions in the same style, using the same scaling methods across a survey, will make it easy for you to analyze and help participants respond to any open questions with more information, as they would be less fatigued. This approach has helped studios of all sizes, from small indies to massive publishers, get comprehensive feedback every time!
This Article is designed to give you clear examples of great questions to use and to help you learn how to build great surveys with confidence.
Use the Table of Contents to jump to the area you need! If you want to learn the Theory, we have a great Survey 101 Playbook on our website in the resources section!
Table of Contents
Getting Started with Surveys
Three Key Factors must be considered when building a survey;
Define what you want to learn.
What are the goals of your test? Do you want to assess the Enjoyment? Perhaps you want to judge Participant Frustration or Progression over time? Maybe you want to look at the Monetization aspects?
Defining the Goals of your playtest allows you to build a suitable survey to get the answers you need.
Use appropriate question types for that Learning.
What question types work well for the learning you want to achieve? Should you use a scale or open questions?
Think about the responses you will see and how you can use them!
Build a Survey structure that works.
Consider the participant here. How do you get them to think about their experience? How do you make them comfortable with answering questions in depth?
The correct structure or flow will help your participants feel relaxed and open when completing the survey.
Let's get right into it. We'll cover some great questions to ask in multiple different test scenarios. These should cover most of your needs, but you can always change if needed!
Example;
Q: The question to be asked.
Answer - What type of Answer will the participant be asked to provide?
E.g. Testify Preset Scale - Strongly Disagree - Strongly Agree
Follow-ups - If a follow-up question should be asked, and in what context.
I.e. Negative in the context of the question, so If someone agreed to being confused, this would be negative, but if they agreed to having fun, it would be positive.
Usability Test Template
This is a complete survey that can be used in almost any circumstance. You may want to amend some terms in questions (based on your game), and if you wish, you can use this and add some additional questions or replace some from the sections below.
Note: This is taken directly from the Survey Bank in the Survey 101 Playbook, so feel free to review that if you want some more questions to choose from!
Keep the structure in mind when doing so!
Q: Agree/Disagree: When playing today, I had fun
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What prevented you from having fun?
Neutral - Why are you unsure?
Positives - What aspects did you find enjoyable?
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I was confused
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What made you confused?
Neutral - Why are you unsure?
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I was frustrated
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What in particular did you find frustrating?
Neutral - Why are you unsure?
Q: Agree/Disagree: The tutorial prepared me for gameplay
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives/Neutral - What aspect(s) would you like more guidance/information on?
Q: Agree or Disagree: I felt the goal of the game was clear
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
All - In your own words, please describe the goal/objective of the game
Q: Agree or Disagree: I felt the controls were easy to use
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives/Neutral - What aspect(s) did you find challenging & how could it be improved from your perspective?
Q: Agree or Disagree: The interface was intuitive to use (menus, navigation, chat, maps, etc.)
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What in particular did you struggle with?
Neutral - What made you choose this option?
Q: Agree or Disagree: There were symbols/Icons in the game that I did not understand
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives/Neutral - Please describe which symbols you were yet to fully understand
Q: When playing today, I felt the difficulty was...
Answer: Scale;
Too difficult and caused frustration
Too easy and should have been more challenging
Just challenging enough
Follow-ups;
Too Difficult - What in particular did you find challenging?
Too Easy - In your opinion, what would make the game more challenging?
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I found it hard to navigate the environment
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negative/Neutral - Please provide examples of any issues/challenges you were facing whilst navigating the world.
Q: How did you find the overall quality of the Art/Environments/Music/Audio of the game?
Answer: Scale - Not at all satisfied- Extremely satisfied
Follow-ups;
Negative/Neutral - What aspects of the Art/Environments/Music/Audio did not meet your expectations?
Q: When playing today, were there times you wanted to stop playing or quit the game?
Answer: Scale - Never - Always
Follow-ups;
Often/Always - What aspect(s) of the game made you consider stopping or quitting so often?
Rarely/Sometimes -What aspect(s) of the game made you consider stopping or quitting?
Q: Agree/Disagree: How interested are you in playing this game again?
Answer: Scale - Not at all interested- Extremely interested
Follow-ups;
Negative - Is that for any particular reason?
Neutral - What aspects are you interested in or not experiencing more of?
Positive -What aspects are you interested in experiencing more of?
Q: How different is the game compared to others?
Answer: Scale - Very Ordinary - Very New and Different
Follow-ups;
Very ordinary / Somewhat ordinary - What made you feel this way?
Undecided - What made you choose this option?
Somewhat new and different / Very new and different - What aspects of the game did you feel were new/different?
Q: Overall, how likely would you be to recommend this to a friend/someone?
Answer: NPS Scale 1 - 10
Questions that help identify Participant Enjoyment
Used For - Getting a pulse on how much Participants enjoyed the game experience.
(NOTE: Click the Arrow below to expand this section)
Q: What makes a puzzle enjoyable for you?
Answer: Open
Q: Agree or Disagree: I enjoyed how challenging the puzzles were
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives/Neutral - What in particular could be improved?
Positives - What in particular did you like?
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I was bored
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What in particular did you find boring?
Neutral - Why are you unsure?
Questions that help identify if Confusion/Frustration exists within the game (Usability)
Used for - Determining if your player is playing as intended and understanding goals or information presented via various means. It also identifies any potential confusion/frustration points.
(NOTE: Click the Arrow below to expand this section)
Q: Agree or Disagree: I reached a point of frustration where I wanted to stop playing
Answer: Scale: Never - Very Frequently
Follow-ups;
For everything but 'Never': What made you want to stop playing?
Q: Agree or Disagree: Did you feel the story was clear? Was anything about this confusing?
Answer: Open
Q: Agree or Disagree: The dialogue/text was easy to read
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives/Neutral - What in particular made it difficult to read?
Questions to Assess Participant Progression and Trends over Time
Used for - Assessing the core gameplay enjoyments and trends over multiple sessions.
(NOTE: Click the Arrow below to expand this section)
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I understood how to and was able to progress
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
All - Please describe how to progress within the game
Q: Agree or Disagree: When playing today, I was motivated to continue
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Follow-ups;
Negatives - Why were you unmotivated?
Neutral - Why are you unsure?
Q: Did you ever feel stuck and unable to progress past a puzzle?
Answer: Open
Q: Agree or Disagree: Overtime the game has remained as enjoyable to play
Answer: Scale: Strongly disagree - Strongly agree
Questions to Assess if Monetization if Effective in your game
Used for - Assessing sentiment towards the monetization in your title
(NOTE: Click the Arrow below to expand this section)
Q: How interested are you in making an in-game purchase in this game?
Answer: Scale - Extremely Interested - Not at all Interested
Follow-ups;
Negatives - Is that for any particular reason(s)?
Neutral - What aspect(s) in particular interests you?
Positives - What aspect(s) in particular interests you?
Q: How would you rate the overall value of in-game purchases in this game?
Answer: Scale;
Extremely Appealing
Very Appealing
Somewhat Appealing
Not very Appealing
Not at all appealing
Follow-ups;
Negatives - What, if anything, could make the in-game purchases more appealing? Please be as specific as possible.
Neutral - What, if anything, could make the in-game purchases more appealing? Please be as specific as possible.
Positives - What in particular did you find appealing? Please be as specific as possible.
Q: How satisfied are you with the variety of in-game purchases available?
Answer: Scale;
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Very Dissatisfied
Follow-ups;
Negatives - Is that for any particular reason(s)?
Neutral - What aspect(s) in particular interests you?
Positives - What aspect(s) in particular interests you?
We hope you've found this helpful and that it answers some burning questions regarding survey creation. If you have any questions or want to chat, please contact us via the chat function at the bottom right of this page or support@gotestify.com.