The way we ask questions can make a big impact on the types of answers you get and how much you can discover. By asking open-ended questions rather than closed questions—which typically result in a yes or no answer—you'll open yourself up to learning important and unexpected things. ## Example closed vs. open questions **~~Are you satisfied?~~** - How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with this process? **~~Did it act as you expected?~~** - What would (did) you expect to happen when you ... ? ~~**Did you find it?**~~ - Before a task: - Please tell me when you’ve found the item. - Explain how you would find that. - After a task: - Where did you find the answer? - Where was the item? - What did you find? **~~Do you think you would use this?~~** - How would this fit into your work? - How might this change the way you do that today? **~~Does that work for you?~~** - What do you think about that? **~~Have you done this before?~~** - What kinds of questions or difficulties have you had when doing this in the past? - What happened when you did this before? - Please describe your level of experience with … **~~Is this easy to use?~~** - What’s most confusing or annoying about … ? - What worked well for you? **~~Did you know … ?~~** - How do you know ... ? **~~Do you normally … ?~~** - How do you normally ... ? **~~Did you see that?~~** - What just happened? - What was that? **~~Do you like this?~~** - What would you most want to change about … ? - Which things did you like the best about … ? **~~Did you expect this kind of information to be in there?~~** - Before a task: - What do you expect to see when you … ? - After a task: - Which (other) kinds of information would likely be in there? - What were you expecting? ## Reference [Open-Ended vs. Closed-Ended Questions in User Research](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/open-ended-questions/)