Developer Documentation Experience Assessment
Measures documentation usability, findability, content clarity, and code accuracy based on a developer's recent session. Designed for DX and documentation teams seeking actionable feedback to prioritize improvements.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
Which product, API, or tool were you reading about?
How did you navigate to the relevant documentation? Select all that apply.
- Site search on the docs
- External search engine (e.g., Google)
- Sidebar or table of contents
- On-page find (Ctrl/Cmd+F)
- Direct link or bookmark
- Link from another docs page
- Tutorial or example page
- Other (please specify)
Which best describes the code examples on the page(s) you visited?
- Runnable examples embedded in the page
- Copy-paste examples only
- No examples on the page(s)
- Not sure / don't recall
Did you run any sample code or follow step-by-step instructions during this session?
- Yes, I ran sample code
- Yes, I followed step-by-step instructions (no code)
- No, I only read the documentation
Rank the following aspects of your session from most frustrating (top) to least frustrating (bottom).
- Finding the right page or topic
- Dense or unclear writing
- Insufficient or missing examples
- Inaccurate or outdated code
- Missing troubleshooting guidance
Which best describes your current role?
- Software engineer
- Data scientist / ML engineer
- Student
- Product manager
- Technical writer
- Researcher
- Other
Thank you for completing this survey! Your feedback will directly inform improvements to our documentation. Your responses are confidential and will be reported only in aggregate.
What was your main goal during that session?
- Set up or install
- Understand a concept
- Reference API syntax or parameters
- Troubleshoot an error
- Evaluate options or compare approaches
- Check constraints, limits, or pricing
- Other
Approximately how long did it take to find the right page or topic?
- I went directly to it (0 minutes)
- Less than 2 minutes
- 2–5 minutes
- 6–10 minutes
- 11–20 minutes
- More than 20 minutes
The examples were relevant to my use case.
Of the sample code you ran, approximately what proportion worked without modification?
- All of it worked as-is
- Most of it (roughly 75%+)
- About half
- Less than half
- None of it worked as-is
How likely are you to recommend this documentation to a colleague?
How many years of professional development experience do you have?
- 0–1 years
- 2–4 years
- 5–9 years
- 10+ years
Before this session, how familiar were you with this product or tool?
How easy or difficult was it to find the information you needed?
The examples were complete enough to follow without external resources.
Which issues, if any, did you encounter when trying code or following steps? Select all that apply.
- Version mismatch with my environment
- Missing imports or dependencies
- Deprecated API or outdated instructions
- Wrong language variant shown
- Environment or setup steps missing
- Typos or syntax errors
- Permissions or quotas blocked progress
- Unclear or hidden prerequisites
- No issues encountered
If you'd like, please share a link to or name of a specific documentation page relevant to your feedback.
Which programming language(s) did you primarily use in that session? Select up to two.
- Python
- JavaScript / TypeScript
- Java
- C# / .NET
- Go
- Ruby
- C / C++
- Other
The site navigation and structure clearly reflected my task or goal.
Overall, how clear was the writing on the page(s) you used?
Thinking about your overall experience in that session, what is the single most important change that would improve this documentation? Please share any additional thoughts or context.
Where are you primarily located?
- North America
- Latin America
- Europe
- Middle East
- Africa
- East Asia
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Oceania
- Prefer not to say
Search results (if used) were relevant and helpful.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Includes an AI follow-up interview question that adaptively probes the single most impactful issue from the developer's actual session, not just a static rating
- Captures granular code-quality signals (relevance, completeness, proportion of samples that ran without modification, specific issue types encountered) rather than a single satisfaction score
- Combines behavioral context (navigation path, time-to-find, goal, role, experience level, language) with experience ratings so DX teams can segment findings by developer profile
- Ends with a ranking question forcing respondents to prioritize which aspect of the experience was most frustrating, giving documentation teams a clear action order
Jotform
Documentation Audit Form TemplateA static, fielding-ready form template aimed at auditing documentation quality, which overlaps meaningfully with this use case. It relies on fixed questions with no adaptive follow-up, so all nuance has to be anticipated in advance by the form author. Jotform's strength is fast setup and broad customization of form fields and design.
What it does well
- Quick to deploy with Jotform's drag-and-drop form builder
- Likely supports conditional logic and integrations typical of Jotform's platform
- Familiar, easy-to-share form format for stakeholders
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI interviewing to probe deeper into a specific frustration a respondent mentions
- No automated per-response quality scoring of open-ended feedback
- No published methodology on how questions were derived or scored
QuestionPro
Technical Documentation Survey TemplateA directly comparable survey template for evaluating technical documentation, built on QuestionPro's established survey platform. It appears to be a standard fixed-question instrument focused on structured ratings rather than open dynamic follow-up. QuestionPro brings solid reporting and distribution tooling common to enterprise survey suites.
What it does well
- Backed by QuestionPro's mature survey distribution and analytics tooling
- Likely offers customizable question types and branching logic
- Established templates library suggests reasonable content coverage of documentation topics
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI or voice-based follow-up interviews to explore an individual respondent's specific pain point
- No guided screen-share task capability to observe real navigation behavior
- No transparent, published prompt methodology behind the questions
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.
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