Bailey MeCey

In conducting user research, it’s important to allow users to express how they feel. However, sometimes even a survey question with different options does not allow the user to fully express their thoughts in the best way. Thankfully, there is a research method that does exactly this.

One method that helps give a broader understanding of user feedback is the sentence completion method. UX Methods: A Quick Guide to User Experience Research Methods, associate professor in interactive design James Pannafino and UX architect Patrick McNeil explain that the sentence completion method is “a series of beginning sentences that are finished by a user based on a particular experience,” (Pannafino & McNeil, 82). Users are given a guiding line for answers to questions but can express how they feel in their own words.

To conduct a sentence completion research method, first, prepare your list of beginning sentences. The sentences can be in line with what the users have learned through the testing. Then, conduct the experience and allow the users to fill in the sentences. Once that is done, review the answers from all participants and repeat if needed for the desired results.

The benefit of the sentence completion method is that users are given the freedom to express themselves. When completing the sentences, they can dictate the direction of the answers. Whereas with a traditional survey, they are locked into a set number of answers that may not fully describe their opinions.

However, that level of data does come with a price. Once the sentence completion research method is complete, you will have a vast range of data from each of the specific answers. The variety of answers does not allow for easy analysis, so it will take more time to go through than a survey.

In the research study Sentence Completion for Understanding Users and Evaluating User Experience, researchers tested different types of projective techniques to see which was best in marketing research. They found that “sentence completion is useful in understanding users’ perceptions and that the technique can be used to complement other methods,” (Kujala et al.). By focusing on the perceptions of the users, it is possible to get a more realistic opinion from the research.

In the research study Exploring Cross-Cultural UX Evaluation with the Remote Online Sentence Completion Method, researchers tested whether sentence completion would be a good method of retrieving data from international audiences and gaining an understanding of product user design. The study found that the sentence completion method was a quick way to attain a large amount of qualitative data of user data while gaining a higher level of user personal feelings (Kujala).

The beginning sentences method does not have a set number of sentences required, so the method can have as many or as few sentences as needed. The lack of restraint in the answers allows for room to explore how the users feel. Another benefit to the sentence completion method is it does not require expensive or intricate tools to conduct, just a form page for user answers and a spreadsheet to analyze the data after the fact. What will be required is time, as you do not want users to rush through the answers, but rather give their true opinions.

For New Beginnings Family Academy, sentence completion would be a useful tool for collecting qualitative data on a wide variety of users. From parents to corporate donors, gaining more data on the opinions of users can help drive what needs to be addressed with the website. From there, the research method can be conducted again with a different group of people until the desired results are achieved.

Examples of beginning sentences include:

The New Beginnings Family Academy website is …
The most difficult aspect of the website is …
I wish the website had …

From these beginning sentences, users have the room to write out their frustrations clearly and concisely. The sentence completion research method allows for a wide variety of possibilities for data, just with the caveat to take time to analyze it.

Sources Cited

Kujala, S. (2014, June 2). Exploring cross-cultural UX evaluation with the remote online sentence completion method. … of the Ninth International Workshop on … Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/954234/Exploring_Cross_Cultural_UX_Evaluation_with_the_Remote_Online_Sentence_Completion_Method 

Kujala, S., Walsh, T., Nurkka, P., & Crisan, M. (2013). Sentence completion for understanding users and evaluating user experience. Interacting with Computers, 26(3), 238–255. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwt036 

Pannafino, J., & McNeil, P. (2017). Ux methods: A quick guide to user experience research methods. CDUXP.