Let's say "Was This Helpful?" widgets have these two goals:

1. Survey users to see if your article was helpful
2. Help users if they select "No" by pointing them somewhere else

If that's the case, then these widgets are far from perfect.

Very few people are going to select "Yes," because if they found what they were looking for, they would probably leave before they ever reach your survey.

And of those that select "No," these surveys give you absolutely nothing about why they chose that. Was it because the information they were looking for wasn't there? Or perhaps it was there, but worded poorly. You just don't know.

They usually point your users to contact your team or open a ticket, which I guess makes sense. But to me, these feel more like a catch-all last resort than a thoughtful attempt at helping your users.

Here are some ideas to fix these problems. It's just none of them are super great.

This is certainly bold, but perhaps having a fixed "Was This Helpful?" widget could be interesting. On PC, it could be fixed in a sidebar. On mobile, it could be fixed to the bottom of the screen. This could open up a few more problems, such as...

• Users filling it out before reading the entire article
• Could be distracting to users

...but, if collecting data is the most important thing to you (and it is totally fair if it's not), this will probably give you more to go off of.

You could also possibly only show the widget when the user tries to leave, such as once the mouse leaves the current webpage. But not only would this not work great on mobile, but I've never liked sites that nearly scream at you when you try to leave.

Additionally, provide more options than just "Yes" and "No." I've seen some help centers use a rating system, where you can rate the usefulness of the article with five different options.

😟 🙁 😐 🙂 😀

If the user indicates an article was unhelpful, you could give them another survey with more options, like:

<form onsubmit="return false;">
    <p>Why was this not helpful?</p>
    <input type="radio" name="reason" id="wrong">
    <label for="wrong">This didn't solve my problem</label><br>
    <input type="radio" name="reason" id="unclear">
    <label for="unclear">The solution is hard to understand</label><br>
    <input type="radio" name="reason" id="misleading">
    <label for="misleading">The title is misleading</label><br>
    <input type="radio" name="reason" id="other">
    <label for="other">Other</label><br><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

false

false

But, of course, having the user fill out another survey after just filling out a survey is not a desirable move

Aw, snap. Sorry this didn't help. Send us an email and we'll get back to you in three business days.

Instead, perhaps give each article a unique prompt if the user should vote the article as unhelpful. Perhaps recommend curated articles or articles in the same category.

This would require a more complicated system. But if you're dead set on "Was This Helpful?" widgets and UX, it might be a worthy investment.

Each of these "solutions" have loads of caveats.

• Users filling out a fixed "Was This Helpful?" widget before reading the entire article
• Users could be distracted by a fixed "Was This Helpful?" widget
• Having the user fill out another survey after filling out a "Was This Helpful?" widget can get annoying
• Having more options per survey requires more time from the user to answer it
• Unique survey responses per article would require a more complex system

To me, "Was This Helpful?" widgets at best give some data about how your users are feeling, and at worst, are additional technical debt.