21 Best ChatGPT Prompts for User Research: A Guide for UX Designers

If you’ve been testing out ChatGPT for any part of your workflow then you already know, the quality of the results you get depends entirely on your prompts. It feels like a bit of a game to input a prompt, see the result, tweak your prompt a little bit, get a better result and so on. 

I’ll admit it, sometimes I do kind of enjoy the interactive nature of trying to write the perfect GPT prompt 🤓. But often, time is too precious to be spent playing the GPT game, especially on a busy UX team. If that’s where you’re at, you may be interested in skipping straight to the best ChatGPT prompts. Good news! We tested out dozens of prompts to find the 21 best inputs you can use to leverage AI for User Research. 

When used effectively with carefully crafted prompts, ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful for accessing user insights, making your research more efficient and your user-centered processes more effective. In this article, we'll share 21 specific ChatGPT prompts designed to enhance your user research efforts. These prompts have been tested and proven to extract valuable insights, ultimately unlocking your ability to deliver user-focused design solutions. 

How to use ChatGPT as a UX designer

As all UX designers know, creating user-friendly and engaging experiences is both an art and a science. It takes a lot of hard work, talent, and intuition. Now you have an AI-powered sidekick to help! ChatGPT can serve as a valuable asset in your design workflow.

User persona development

First up: creating user personas. These are essentially fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. But coming up with a well-researched persona takes time, doesn't it? With ChatGPT, you can expedite this process. Just feed in some basic demographic data or user behaviors, and the AI can help generate detailed personas for you. This way, you can quickly move from abstract concepts to concrete user profiles.

Usability test script generation

Next on the list: usability tests. These are crucial for understanding how real users interact with your product. But what do you ask during these tests? ChatGPT can assist you in generating insightful and targeted questions or even full-fledged scripts. Just provide context, like the type of product you're testing and the specific elements you're focusing on, and let ChatGPT handle the rest.

Content generation

Your UI text is the voice of your application, and it plays a big role in user experience. Need a snappy button label or a clear error message? ChatGPT can help. With the right prompt, it can generate concise and meaningful text for button labels, error messages, tooltips, and even onboarding instructions. This can save you heaps of time you'd otherwise spend agonizing over the perfect phrasing.

Design ideation and brainstorming

Sometimes, the design process gets stuck. Maybe you're out of fresh ideas or struggling with a design problem that seems insurmountable. Guess what? ChatGPT can help stimulate creative thinking. Pose your design challenges to the AI and it can offer you a range of solutions or even new concepts you haven't thought of. It's like having an extra team member who's always up for a brainstorming session.

Crafting effective prompts for UX research

Before diving into the prompts, let's talk strategy. Crafting the right questions is key to unlocking ChatGPT's potential in UX research. How you frame your prompts can profoundly affect the quality of the insights you gather.

Focus on user goals

When you're drafting ChatGPT prompts for UX research, zeroing in on the user's goals is a game-changer. Your questions should probe into what users are actually trying to achieve with your product. For instance, instead of asking, "How do you find the navigation menu?", a goal-oriented prompt could be, "What were you trying to accomplish when you interacted with the navigation menu?". This pivot towards user objectives can offer you more actionable and relevant insights.

Avoid leading questions

Leading questions can be a hidden minefield in UX research, as they can subtly push respondents toward a particular answer. Steering clear of such questions is essential for unbiased data. For example, avoid prompts like "Don't you find our new interface exciting?" Instead, opt for more neutral ground with questions such as "How would you describe your experience with our new interface?" This way, you get uncolored, genuine feedback that’s actionable. 

Incorporate user personas

Ever find yourself staring at the screen, pondering what questions will unearth the insights you're after? That's where user personas come into play. By grounding your ChatGPT prompts in well-defined personas, you're not just shooting in the dark. You're focusing on the specific needs, pain points, and goals of the users most likely to interact with your product. Questions like, "How would 'Busy Parent Bob' feel navigating our app to find child-friendly content?" can lead to responses that are directly applicable to a key user segment. And guess what? With Spinach.io, you can make this persona-targeted research a seamless part of your agile process.

Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative prompts

One size doesn't fit all, especially when it comes to UX research. A blend of qualitative and quantitative prompts provides you with the full spectrum of user insights. Qualitative prompts like, "What was your thought process while using feature X?" can give you an understanding of user behavior and motivations. On the flip side, quantitative prompts such as, "On a scale of 1-10, how easy was it to complete your task?" provide measurable data that's easy to analyze. Both types of questions bring their own strengths to the table, and when used together, they offer a rounded view of user experience.

Prepare follow-up prompts

You know that feeling when you get a good answer, but you know there's more beneath the surface? Follow-up prompts are your go-to tool to dig deeper. Once a user has provided an initial response, follow-up questions like, "Can you elaborate on that?" or "What made you feel this way?" can unearth additional layers of insight. These follow-up questions ensure you're not just scratching the surface, but getting to the heart of user experiences and opinions. So don't just stop at the first response; keep the conversation going for those rich, nuanced insights that make all the difference.

21 effective ChatGPT prompts for user research

Now that you have a better understanding of how to prompt ChatGPT more effectively, youre ready to start working with your AI-powered UX design assistant! Here are the 21 ChatGPT prompts that have been thoughtfully crafted and dutifully tested to augment your user research efforts. These prompts are purposefully designed to provide valuable and actionable insights for your UX design decisions.

1. Generate a set of interview questions to understand users' first impressions of our website.

First impressions matter, especially when it comes to user experience. This prompt can help you pinpoint what users notice (or don't notice) the moment they land on your website.

2. Provide questions for a user survey to gather feedback on our mobile app's user interface.

A well-crafted survey can be a goldmine of information. This prompt aims to uncover user sentiments about your mobile app's UI, which can inform future design changes.

3. Create prompts for a card-sorting exercise to assess the information architecture of our knowledge base.

Information architecture is the backbone of any good knowledge base. This prompt can generate questions that help you understand how users categorize and search for information.

4. Generate questions to uncover pain points during the checkout process of our e-commerce site.

The checkout process is where the rubber meets the road in e-commerce. Use this prompt to identify areas where users might be getting frustrated or dropping off.

5. Ask for insights into user preferences regarding color schemes for our upcoming website redesign.

Color influences perception and behavior. This prompt aims to gather user opinions on color schemes, allowing you to design a website that's both functional and visually appealing.

6. Craft a script for a usability test session to evaluate our software's onboarding process.

Onboarding sets the tone for the entire user experience. This script can guide a usability test aimed at identifying roadblocks or confusion during the initial stages of using your software.

7. Generate prompts to elicit feedback on the accessibility of our web application for visually impaired users.

Accessibility isn't optional; it's a necessity. This prompt helps you find out how accessible your web application is for visually impaired users, which can inform updates to meet accessibility standards.

8. Create a user interview script to explore how users organize their tasks using our project management tool.

Understanding user workflows is key for improving your project management tool. This prompt will generate questions that dig into how users categorize, prioritize, and execute tasks, offering insights into potential features or improvements.

9. Ask questions for a survey focused on user satisfaction with our customer support chatbot.

Chatbots are becoming increasingly central in customer service. This prompt can generate a survey aimed at evaluating the chatbot's effectiveness and identifying areas where it may fall short of user expectations.

10. Generate prompts for a competitive analysis survey to understand user preferences among similar products.

Knowing where you stand in the market is invaluable. This prompt will provide questions that help you gauge user sentiment for your product compared to competitors, informing your future product development.

11. Create questions for a card-sorting exercise to assess the effectiveness of our product categories.

An intuitive categorization scheme can make or break a user's experience. This prompt will help you understand how users think about your product range, allowing you to optimize your categories accordingly.

12. Ask for feedback on the clarity of error messages in our mobile app.

Unclear error messages can leave users frustrated and unsure of what to do next. This prompt aims to collect feedback that can help you craft more user-friendly and informative error messages.

13. Craft a script for a user testing session to evaluate the navigation menu of our website.

A good navigation menu guides users effortlessly. Use this prompt to create a testing script that identifies whether users can easily find what they're looking for, and if not, what barriers they encounter.

14. Generate questions to explore users' experiences with our mobile app's search functionality.

Search is often the quickest path to what a user needs. This prompt aims to understand if your mobile app's search functionality meets user expectations or requires adjustments for improved usability.

15. Create prompts for a survey aimed at identifying the most common user goals on our platform.

Understanding the primary goals of users on your platform can inform design decisions and feature development. This prompt will help you tailor survey questions to explore what users want to achieve, providing valuable data to enhance the user experience.

16. Ask for insights into users' expectations regarding response times for our live chat support.

Quick and effective support is crucial in maintaining user satisfaction. This prompt helps you gauge what users consider an acceptable response time, letting you adjust staffing or automation levels accordingly.

17. Generate questions to understand how users prioritize features in our software.

Not all features are created equal in the eyes of your users. This prompt will help you craft questions that shed light on which features users value most, guiding your development priorities.

18. Craft a script for a remote usability test to evaluate the mobile responsiveness of our website.

With the rise of mobile browsing, your website's mobile responsiveness can't be an afterthought. This prompt helps you create a script for a usability test that specifically focuses on evaluating the mobile experience.

19. Create prompts for a survey about users' preferences for receiving product updates and newsletters.

Communication preferences can vary widely. This prompt will give you questions that aim to understand how users prefer to receive updates, whether it's through email, in-app notifications, or other methods.

20. Ask for feedback on the user-friendliness of our mobile app's onboarding tutorial.

First impressions matter, and onboarding is often a user's first interaction with an app. This prompt will generate questions to assess how intuitive and informative your onboarding process is.

21. Craft a script for a task-based usability test to assess the ease of completing common actions in our app.

Usability tests that replicate common user tasks provide concrete data on your app's functionality. This prompt helps you develop a test script focused on the ease with which users can complete typical tasks in your app.

Simplify your UX operations using Spinach

You've got the prompts and the insights, but how about streamlining the rest of your UX operations? That's where Spinach comes in. As your AI Scrum Master, Spinach is designed to accelerate your agile team by providing instant meeting summaries, documenting action items, and even suggesting ticket updates based on your discussions. Stop wasting time or losing focus while you’re taking notes in meetings, just add Spinach to the conversation and get a curated summary of all the key takeaways. Basically, Spinach lets you focus on what you do best—creating amazing user experiences—while taking care of the nitty-gritty details that keep your projects on track. 

Ready to supercharge your UX research and agile processes? Head over to Spinach’s setup page to get started. Let's make your user research smarter, not harder 🚀

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