For the eight years that I have been studying industrial design, the Double Diamond Model has been the design process that I have followed - a model that I am sure is not unfamiliar to most designers. Although this model is over 20 years old and has been debated and optimized in academic circles, I still believe that following this model to build your own design process is a great place to start for a student.
Errr….everyone knows, right?
Industrial design doesn't always require research; if you just want to explore some interesting materials and techniques, or create some new shapes, you can grab a sudden spark of inspiration and go straight to the development phase. However, if you aim to create a commercially viable product that users truly need and want, you must begin with the discover phase—and that starts with user experience (UX) research. (Sometimes called user study, although some academic studies have slightly different definitions of the two terms, but most of the time the two terms are used interchangeably).
Well, sometimes we do this.
UX research helps designers understand user behavior, needs, thoughts, and even cultural contexts. The goal is to create or refine designs based on real user insights, making products more desirable and improving the overall user experience. In the workplace, industrial design and UX research are usually separate departments, hiring professionals with different educational backgrounds. As an industrial designer, you may rarely conduct UX research from scratch, but participate in the prototype user test more.
However, in academic projects, we are often required to handle every stage of the design process alone. Many industrial design students excel in sketching, modeling, and rendering, but without solid research to back their work, they risk creating designs that look great but don’t stand up to real-world scrutiny.
My professor said, beautiful rendering doesn’t make a bad design good.
As an industrial designer with a strong passion for UX research, I decided to create this column to share UX research experiences and methods from a designer’s perspective. If you recognize the importance of UX research but struggle to find a simple, practical guide, this column is for you!
The first topic in the Survey 101 series tackles a fundamental question: Why questionnaires?
What Questionnaire?
Let’s start with an academic definition: “A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that aim to collect information from a respondent.” Simply put, a questionnaire is a list of questions designed for participants to answer directly. Because of its versatility and efficiency, it is one of the most widely used research methods in UX.
A common point of confusion is the difference between a questionnaire and a survey. While these two terms are often used interchangeably, they don’t actually mean the same thing. A questionnaire refers to the actual question list, while a survey includes the entire research process—designing the questionnaire, distributing it, collecting responses, and analyzing the data. This distinction is why I named this column Survey101, not Questionnaire 101.
So much work to do!
From my experience, many UX research courses focus on teaching students how to create questionnaires, but they often fail to cover the full survey process. Even if you design a perfect questionnaire, it takes experience and skill to ensure it reaches the right target users, collects reliable data, and leads to accurate, valuable insights.
That’s exactly why I created this column. If you want to prepare a great dish, you cannot immediately start cooking—you start by learning how to pick the right ingredients.
Why Questionnaires?
Questionnaires are one of the most fundamental and widely used user experience (UX) research methods. Almost everyone has encountered a questionnaire at some point—whether in a hospital form, on a restroom feedback screen, or even as part of a YouTube ad. And yes, even a test paper is technically a questionnaire! Fortunately, UX researchers don’t grade responses, because every questionnaire is valuable data.
Like many other UX research methods, questionnaires exist to gather information about users. This information can include personal details, preferences, opinions, and experiences. By collecting and analyzing large amounts of information about users, we can gain data and insights that can help us make better decisions!
To illustrate this, imagine an ice cream shop that sends out a questionnaire asking customers which new flavors they’d like to see. One of the flavors is favored by over 60% of respondents, so the shop decides to add it to their menu. Thanks to this research, the new flavor boosts sales by 20%! Now, consider what might have happened if they had randomly picked a flavor without consulting customers—they could have ended up with an unpopular product and lost money instead.
Do research before making decisions could save your money
One of the greatest advantages of using a questionnaire is that everyone is familiar with the format. At its core, a questionnaire is simply a list of questions, and it is not difficult to create a basic questionnaire. Just list out your questions! Meanwhile, participants do not need any training to finish the questionnaires, which makes it very inclusive most of the time.
Another major benefit is that questionnaires are extremely cost-effective in both time and money. With the internet, anyone can create a questionnaire using free online survey tools and distribute the link within minutes. This makes questionnaires an ideal research method for students and professionals working with limited budgets and tight deadlines.
What’s Next?
Congratulations—you’ve just finished the first article in the Survey101 series! Now, you have a solid understanding of what a questionnaire is and why it’s useful for UX research. You’re ready to start creating your own survey to support your design projects.
However, while a questionnaire may seem simple, many people struggle to design one that actually fulfills its purpose: collecting high-quality data and turning it into meaningful insights. In the following posts, I’ll share practical skills and strategies to help you design better research questionnaires.
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