Name : Yuni Wijayanti
NIM : 202120042
Class : PBI-VB
Open Ended and Close Ended Questioner
Definition
Open-ended questions are questions that allow someone to give a free-form answer.
Closed-ended questions can be answered with “Yes” or “No,” or they have a limited set
of possible answers (such as: A, B, C, or All of the above).
Closed-ended questions are often good for surveys, because you get higher response rates
when users don’t have to type so much. Also, answers to closed-ended questions can easily be
analyzed statistically, which is what you usually want to do with survey data.
However, in one-on-one usability testing, you want to get richer data than what’s
provided from simple yes/no answers. If you test with 5 users, it’s not interesting to report that,
say, 60% of users answered “yes” to a certain question. No statistical significance, whatsoever. If
you can get users to talk in depth about a question, however, you can absolutely derive valid
information from 5 users. Not statistical insights, but qualitative insights.
Why Asking Open-Ended Questions Is Important
The most important benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to find more
than you anticipate: people may share motivations that you didn’t expect and mention behaviors
and concerns that you knew nothing about. When you ask people to explain things to you, they
often reveal surprising mental models, problem-solving strategies, hopes, fears, and much more.
Closed-ended questions stop the conversation and eliminate surprises: What you expect is
what you get. (Choose your favorite ice cream: vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate.) When you ask
closed-ended questions, you may accidentally limit someone’s answers to only the things you
believe to be true. Worse, closed-ended questions can bias people into giving a certain response.
Answers that you suggest can reveal what you are looking for, so people may be directly or
indirectly influenced by the questions. Don’t ask, “Does this make sense?” Ask, “How does this
work?” and listen closely to discover how well the design communicates its function. Note users’
word choices, because it might help to use their terms in the interface.
When to Ask Open-Ended Questions
In a screening questionnaire, when recruiting participants for a usability study (for
example, “How often do you shop online?”)
While conducting design research, such as on
Which problems to solve
What kind of solution to provide
Who to design for
For exploratory studies, such as
Qualitative usability testing
RITE (paper prototype) design research
Interviews and other field studies
Diary studies
Persona research
Use-case research
Task analysis
During the initial development of a closed-ended survey instrument: To derive the list of
response categories for a closed-ended question, you can start by asking a corresponding open-
ended question of a smaller number of people.
When to Ask Closed-Ended Questions
In quantitative usability studies, where you are measuring time on task and error rates,
and you need to compare results among users. In surveys where you expect many (1000+)
respondents
When collecting data that must be measured carefully over time, for example with
repeated (identical) research efforts. When the set of possible answers is strictly limited for some
reason
After you have done enough qualitative research that you have excellent multiple-choice
questions that cover most of the cases.
