A software evaluation form can help you gain a better understanding of how satisfied users are with your software’s different functions. Depending on the type of software you are developing, there are several aspects you can evaluate and improve accordingly. Don’t presume your app meets all your users’ needs – ask them directly.
What to Measure With a Software Evaluation Form?
A well-designed form should give you valuable feedback regarding user experience, security, ease of use, as well as other crucial components. Knowing exactly where your software falls short will help you direct your efforts and take further development in the right direction.
Apart from evaluating the software itself, you can also gain feedback on customer support and overall satisfaction with your brand. Your users can be amazing sources of information and ideas. However, you need to encourage them to share their opinion with you through an interactive evaluation form.
Get More Responses With an Engaging Software Evaluation Form
Any form or survey is only as good as the quality and quantity of the responses it gathers. It’s no different when it comes to evaluating software. Take the time to design a form that will encourage high response rates and serve as a way to communicate with your users. Below are a couple of things to keep in mind.
Questions to Include
The type of questions you want to ask will vary depending on the specifics of your software. However, there are several general guidelines you’ll want to stick to when designing your software evaluation form.
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Likert Scale Question – Ask your respondents to rate how likely they are to recommend your software to a person they know on a scale from 0 to 10. This will give you a general idea of their satisfaction and allow you to calculate your Net Promoter Score. Learn more about the Likert scale and NPS and how you can make the most of them.
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Closed-ended Questions – Single-choice questions are great for measuring user satisfaction in terms of different software functionalities and aspects. They are easy to complete and provide you with comparable data that you can act on in your efforts to meet user expectations and needs.
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Open-ended Questions – The drawback of closed-ended questions is that they can’t provide you with any details or new ideas beyond the pre-defined answers. This is why it’s always a good idea to include at least one text box in your form. Use it to ask your respondents something along the lines of “What changes would you like to see?” This can give you some unique ideas, as well as show your users that you care about their input.
Keep the Number of Questions Reasonable
Your software evaluation form shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete. The longer it takes, the more likely your respondents are to just bounce back, leaving you with no feedback at all. That’s why you should ask only what is essential and make sure the form includes a good balance of open and closed-ended questions.