Usability Testing Questions: 57 Proven Examples (And How to Write Your Own)

TL;DR: Effective usability testing requires asking the right mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions across four stages (screening, pre-test, during test, and post-test), while avoiding leading questions and encouraging participants to think aloud. Key best practices include giving all participants identical information, breaking down broad questions into specific ones, and using varied question types to gather both qualitative insights and quantitative data about user behavior and experience.

Usability testing is a crucial step in making sure your app is straightforward, intuitive, and easy to use, but it only works if you ask the right questions.

Effective usability testing questions are what turn a testing session into actionable insights about your product.

At Bubble, we're big fans of usability testing — both as we continue to build our own AI-powered, fully visual app builder, and to help Bubblers test their own apps built on Bubble. Drawing on 7 million apps built by nearly 6 million builders on Bubble's platform and years of research experience from our own UX team, this guide shows you how to create the best usability testing questions for your own product.

In this article, we’ll cover what usability testing questions are, the different types you can use, best practices for writing them, and 57 example questions organized by testing stage.

What are usability testing questions?

Usability testing questions are prompts you use during a testing session to understand how users interact with your product. They help you understand how a real user interacts with your product and uncover usability issues or opportunities for improvement.

Unlike survey questions, usability testing questions are often asked in real time as a participant completes specific tasks, providing direct insight into their thought process. The best usability testing questions reveal what users actually think and do, not what you hope they’ll say.

Types of usability testing questions

Before writing your questions, it helps to understand the two main categories they fall into: open-ended and closed-ended. Using a mix of both is key to a successful test.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions encourage detailed, narrative answers rather than simple “yes” or “no” responses, inviting participants to share their thoughts, feelings, and reasoning.

• Best for: Exploring why a user behaved a certain way or gathering qualitative insights
• Example: “How was your experience with the checkout process?”

Closed-ended questions

Closed-ended questions ask for specific, factual, or limited-choice answers. These include yes/no questions, multiple-choice options, or rating scales (e.g., “On a scale of 1–5...”).

• Best for: Gathering quantitative data or confirming specific details
• Example: “Did you find the ‘add to cart’ button?”

How to write good usability testing questions: 6 best practices

While it helps to get started with sample questions, understanding the best practices for usability testing questions will help you make your usability test more effective.

Ask open-ended questions

Open-ended questions are generally much better to use compared to yes/no questions.

For example, visualize how different questions look in a yes/no format versus an open-ended format:

Ask test participants to think out loud during the test

To get the most value out of your usability test, ask questions that get participants to “think out loud.” This reveals user behavior and provides opportunities for great follow-up questions.

Thinking out loud can look like:

• Explaining what they’re thinking as they move through a task
• Asking questions out loud as they come across anything unclear (you don’t have to answer them!)
• Commenting on each screen or page as they navigate to them

Avoid leading questions

Leading questions subtly push participants to respond in a certain way, biasing test results.

A few examples of leading questions:

• Did you like the first screen better than the second? (Prompts the participant to agree with you.)
• What did you think of the simple, clear welcome screens? (Biases participants that the welcome screens were simple and clear.)
• How much did you enjoy the process of _____? (Assumes that they did, in fact, enjoy the process.)
• How much easier was the second version? (Assumes the second version was easier than the first.)
• Do you understand what the header is saying? (Participants may be embarrassed to say no if they don’t understand.)

Give all participants the same information

Create specific, detailed, and clear instructions for your test that all participants receive so that everyone is set up equally. Then, avoid providing more instructions or information during the test, even if participants ask for it.

For example, if a participant asks a simple question about the test (like “Do I click this next?” or “How do I choose which option I want?”), don’t answer!

One of our user research managers at Bubble, Peter Leykam, was quick to advise against answering questions, even if it feels rude:

“When conducting usability tests, you really want to give people as little context as possible. You shouldn’t explain anything during the test itself, or even answer their questions as they arise. When people ask for an explanation, ask them instead what isn’t clear, or why they feel confused. When they ask clarifying questions, ask them what led them to ask, or what knowing the answer would help them do. At the end of the test you can explain anything you need to, but during the test itself you should tell them as little as possible.”

It also helps to remind test participants that you’re testing the design, not them. Remembering this encourages them to try different solutions, make mistakes, and give honest feedback.

Ask different types of questions

By asking different types of usability questions, you can dig deeper into your participants’ answers, get more valuable data, and find the most important common threads and results.

For example, you can structure questions in all kinds of ways:

• Multiple-choice questions: Participants choose from a list of options
• Sliding scale: Participants choose their answer on a scale of 1–5 or 1–10
• Ranking questions: Participants rank options from best to worst, easiest to hardest, etc.
• Yes/no questions: Participants answer with a simple yes or no (best for clarification)
• Open-ended questions: Questions that don’t have a specific answer, and invite participants to share thoughts and feedback
• Follow-up questions: Questions that help the participant expand on a previous answer or task
• Probing questions: Questions that help you gain more information on why a participant responded or completed a task in a certain way
• This or that questions: Participants choose from one of two options (i.e., “this” or “that”)

Break down your questions to make them easier to answer

Broad questions don’t always yield the best results.

Instead, break them down into smaller, more specific questions to make it easier to get detailed answers from participants.

For example: “Why do you shop online?” is a really broad question that might leave participants unsure how to answer.

This might result in questions like:

• When do you choose to shop online vs. in-person?
• What types of products do you buy online?
• What do you like most about shopping online?
• Which online retailers do you shop with the most? Why?

57 sample usability testing questions to try

These sample questions are organized by the four stages of usability testing:

• Screening (finding participants)
• Pre-test
• During the test
• Post-test

Screening questions

You want participants that fall within your target audience but have a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge about your product. This is true whether you're focusing on specific demographics or seeking a wide range.

Screening questions allow you to create the testing pool that’ll give you the right data. When screening, you might want to start with demographic questions, such as:

• What age group are you in?
• What’s your relationship status?
• What’s your household income?
• How would you describe your ethnicity?
• How would you describe your gender?
• What is the highest level of education you’ve completed?
• What’s your occupation?

Providing ranges or multiple choices for these questions can make them a bit less personal and help participants feel comfortable.

You may also want to ask some questions about participants’ background knowledge with your industry or product type. If you’re testing a prototype or early product, some good background screening questions are:

• When was the last time you did [target action]?
• What device do you use to do [target action]?
• How often do you typically do [target action]?
• What types of products do you use to do [target action]?
• How comfortable are you using an app to do [target action]?
• What experience do you have using [your type of product]?

If your product already exists and you’re doing a usability testing session with current users, you might ask questions like:

• Have you ever used our product?
  • If yes, how often do you use our product?
  • If not, are there any products you use similar to ours?
• What other products similar to ours do you use? (A list of multiple choices can be helpful here)
• What features do you use most in our product?
• What’s the main task you do with our product?
• How often do you typically use our product?

Pre-test questions

A few pre-test questions can help you gauge the participants’ familiarity with your type of product and with the test they’re going to do. This can help you accurately chart the usability of your product for different types of users (i.e., “power users” vs. beginners).

• How often do you use [your type of product] to do [target action]?
• The last time you did [target action], how did you complete it? This can give you clearer insight into how users typically solve this problem, and what other solutions you’re competing with.
• Have you ever used this [app or website] before?
• Which parts of the website do you use most often?
• What would make you decide to use [your type of product]?
• Can you describe your experience with [your tool / this type of tool] in the past? This can help you understand the background and experiences (positive and negative) of the participants.

Testing questions

During testing, balance is key. Too many questions overwhelm participants, while too few limit insights.

One helpful theme is to ask participants about their opinions or feelings related to the design or layout of your product.

Although users might complete tasks successfully, asking about their opinions or expectations can reveal more helpful ways to present information or design the product. For example:

• What did you think of the explanations on that page?
• How do you feel about the information you received throughout that task?
• What’s your opinion on the way those features are laid out?
• What do you think about that pricing chart?
• Can you tell me what you think of _____ [any aspect you’re testing]?

You can also ask questions about specific tasks or the way users interact with your app.

• I see that you did _____. Can you say more about why you did it that way?
• Did you notice any alternative ways to do _____?
  • If yes, why did you choose the option you did?
  • If not, would there be another way to complete that would have been better for you?
• You seemed to hesitate on the final step of that process. What were you considering or thinking about then?
• How did you decide where to get started with this task? This can give you helpful insights into user expectations and thought processes to make your app more intuitive.
• How was your experience using this product to complete this task?
• Are there any steps you expected this process to have that weren’t included? This can help you spot-check for any oversights or steps that’d make the process smoother.

You can also use multiple-choice, sliding scale, or ranking questions to get more quantitative data during this phase. For example:

• On a scale of 1–10, how was your experience with _____ [any aspect of the task]?
• How was the process of [completing the task]? (Very confusing, somewhat confusing, somewhat clear, very clear)
• Can you rank the four screens that you saw in order from “most clear” to “most confusing?”
• Which of the following descriptors would you use to describe [the app/the task]? Give a large list of various adjectives to choose from. This can help create quantitative data from more open-ended responses.
• Which of these methods of completing this task do you prefer? Why? Mixing multiple-choice with open-ended questions can combine the best of both worlds!

Multiple-choice, sliding scale, and ranked choice testing questions are often easier to respond to in this case.

However, you can use open-ended testing questions during unmoderated testing. Keep them broad (“What did you think about...?” or “How was your experience with...?”) and limit the number to avoid overwhelming participants.

Post-test questions

Once the user testing is complete, end by asking a few questions about the overall experience to gather broader, high-level feedback.

You can ask specifically about any overall usability feedback they might have. For example:

• What do you think of the [app/website/product] overall?
• What did you like most or least about this product? Why?
• What’s one thing you’d change about the process of [completing the task they just did]? This invites constructive feedback, even if the participant has been positive about the process so far.
• What questions came to mind as you were completing the task? This helps you see where your workflow is confusing, unclear, or too complicated.
• How would you compare [this product] to [a competitor’s product they’ve used]? This helps you see how your product compares to other solutions your audience is using.
• Is there any other feedback or suggestions you’d like to share before we finish today? An open-ended question like this to finish gives participants a chance to share further feedback that you may not have thought to ask about.

You can also ask them to reflect on how they might or might not use this product in real life:

• How would you describe your experience with this product to a friend? This can sometimes help participants reflect on their experience more honestly, and give you better feedback on what they’re looking for.
• If this was a real app on your phone, how likely would you be to recommend it to a friend? Why or why not? A sliding scale can make this question easier to quantify.
• What do you think you’d use this product to do in real life? This can give you new feature ideas, as well as help gauge customer expectations for your product.
• Are there any features that’d make you more or less likely to use this product?

If they’re already users of your product, you can ask them how the feature or process they tested might change their usage of the product:

• If this feature were available in your app, do you think you’d use the app more, less, or the same as you do now?
• Is there anything you wish our app could do that it doesn’t currently?
• How was your experience of completing this task today compared to other tasks you use the app for? This can help you gauge whether the new task or feature is about the same, easier, or more difficult than other tasks users complete with your app.

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Frequently asked questions about usability testing questions

What are the four types of usability test questions?

The four main types are categorized by when you ask them during the testing process: screening questions to find the right participants, pre-test questions to understand their background, in-test questions to gather feedback during tasks, and post-test questions to get overall impressions.

What is the SUS 10 item questionnaire?

The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a standardized 10-item questionnaire that uses a 5-point agreement scale (ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). It’s a quick and widely used method for measuring the perceived usability of a product after a test session.

What is the 5 user rule of usability testing?

The “5 user rule” is a principle from usability expert Jakob Nielsen. It suggests that testing with just five users is typically enough to uncover about 85% of the usability problems in a product. The idea is that after five users, you begin to see the same issues repeatedly, yielding diminishing returns on your testing effort.