What are some advantages and disadvantages of using survey documents for evaluating user interfaces?

People are used to taking surveys, so they are generally widely accepted. They are easy for managers and designers to understand, an inexpensive way to gather feedback, and can result in a large base of statistical data. Of course, if the survey isn’t well-crafted and properly targeted from the beginning, the resulting data won’t be worth much.

Surveys can reveal much more about a user’s real feelings than simple analytics or quantitative measurements. However, some responses can be biased. But overall, I think surveys are very effective as long as clear goals are established before designing the survey, and the questions are well thought out and clear. I also think it’s a good idea to test a survey on a small group before deploying it to thousands of users.

Personally, I generally don’t mind taking surveys. But I must say I always bail out of a website survey if I was told it would be “brief,” and then I’m ten minutes into it with no end in sight. For those types of random, pop-up type surveys, I think it’s important to let the user know exactly what to expect.