How to choose a user research platform for your team

A user research platform provides you with a suite of tools to conduct, manage, and analyze research. It expedites projects, streamlines your workflow, and provides actionable user insights to inform product decisions.

But with so many UX research tools on the market, how can you select the right one for your team?

Finding the right research platform for your team is a balance of efficiency, ease of use, and functionality.

Above all, you shouldn’t have to choose between quality and speed. When you find it, the right platform should make collecting, analyzing, and reporting on user research easy and effective.

To help make your selection, here’s seven factors to consider when evaluating UX research tools.

Different research platforms offer different solutions to help you conduct and analyze UX research projects. Known as tool suites, these are the core of a user research platform—they dictate what user testing methods you have at your disposal.

Consider what UX research methods you need to conduct and what tools you need to do it. Ideally, you should be looking for a comprehensive tool suite with a range of qualitative and quantitative user research methods, such as:

The right research platform won’t just help you gain user insights, it also makes the UX research process effortless. When selecting and testing tools, pay special attention to the tool’s UX and UI design to assess how quickly and easily you’ll be able to conduct and analyze research.

Your perfect platform will speed things up, not slow them down—consider whether it’s easy to navigate from one feature to another, whether the user interface is user-friendly, or if the learning curve is accessible.

Your team will be using this tool to understand users and create user-centered designs, so the tool itself should be user-centered and intuitive, too!

Intuitive platforms make it easy for your team to ramp up research practices, analyze user research, and deploy design updates.

This will be easiest to assess during the platform trialing stage of your evaluation—when you undergo free trials of your shortlisted platforms (more on that later). It’s also worth checking what other users think of the interface and ease of use (particularly during onboarding and adoption), so check reviews for the software that specifically mention this aspect.

User research analysis is what turns raw data from user responses into actionable insights. The most valuable tools for your team will include an automated analysis feature, so you can quickly identify trends and patterns without sifting through large amounts of user data.

Ideally, the platform should offer analysis capabilities for each of its research methods—if a UX research platform lets you conduct user interviews, it should also help you identify overarching themes or sentiments in the interview transcript and session recording.

Solid UX reporting capabilities are also vital to speed up decision-making and sharing of insights with stakeholders.

For example, Maze offers data visualization and automated reporting so you can easily share customizable, AI-powered summaries with stakeholders. Plus, with heatmaps and user path analysis, you can visualize user behavior, making data-backed decision-making easier than ever.

Many user research platforms have AI features to help automate repetitive tasks in your workflow and reduce time to insights. While AI features for research and design aren't necessarily a must for all product teams, they can certainly help free up resources while increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

Some AI research tools that can be especially helpful include:

As with other factors, the AI features you should focus on depend on your team’s needs and preferences. For example, if you regularly run meetings to evaluate results and gain stakeholder buy-in, automated reporting capabilities should take top priority.

Your user research platform won’t be the only tool in your tech stack. Consider which tools you need during user research, and evaluate whether the platform integrates with them.

When assessing a research platform’s integrations, don’t just look for tools you already have in your tech stack. Be sure to consider software options you might integrate in the future. This ensures your platform will seamlessly scale with your team and research strategy.

Your ideal tool also needs to be budget-friendly—and this looks different to every organization. Price isn’t the only consideration when evaluating user research platforms, but it’s an undeniably important one.

Not only do you need to consider your budget when it comes to pricing, but you also need to think about the payment structure. Some tools offer a subscription that gives access to the entire platform, while others might charge on a per-feature or even per-project basis.

Depending on your needs and expected usage, different structures will work better than others. If you’re only planning to run a usability test here and there, usage-based pricing could be best as you’re not paying for features you never use. However, if you run numerous research projects, usage-based pricing will quickly add up—and subscription or tiered pricing could be better.

Finally, you need to consider support availability and how satisfied existing customers are with the prospective platform. Ideally, you’ll never need to contact support…realistically, you likely will.

What options does each tool offer when it comes to support? Do they have self-serve resources to help you solve issues fast? Are the Support team available via call or chat? What do others say about their experience getting support?

Again, online reviews are helpful here. Look at what others are saying about the support on offer and any experiences they’ve had when it comes to finding solutions to their issues.

Now you know what to look out for, here’s how you can start applying these considerations to your research needs.

There are plenty of user research platforms on the market, each one with a unique set of features, functions, and fallbacks. And with so much on offer, it can be hard to choose the right one for your team.

Here are five steps to help you cut through the noise and find a platform that meets your needs.

Start by getting together with stakeholders and team members involved in research to discuss your exact needs. If you've already planned the beginning stages of a research project, review your UX research objectives.

Are you trying to develop a better understanding of who your users are by building user personas? Or maybe you’re aiming to evaluate a new feature’s usability and make changes based on user insights. Getting clear on your exact research goals and plan will help you identify the must-have features and functions of your platform.

Let’s say you’re building an app that helps users find and purchase discounted local event tickets.

After brainstorming with stakeholders, you write down a definitive list of needs:

Once you’ve listed your needs, it’s time to connect them to core research platform features.

Next, make a list of the core features a platform must have to fulfill your needs.

In most cases, these functionalities will be UX research methods like usability testing, card sorting, focus groups, and UX surveys. Identifying core features helps filter your platform options, making it easier to narrow down top choices.

Let’s revisit our example from the previous section and see how the needs we’ve listed translate into core features:

Besides core features, you can also list nice-to-haves. These might be preferences on tool integrations, or options to help recruit the right research participants.

With your needs and core features front of mind, you’re ready to turn to the market and look for potential platform options. Start by checking out our list of leading UX research tools, then look to websites like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra to compare your top platforms and customer reviews.

You can use our pre-made UX research platform comparison template to record core features, from research methods, recruitment and analytic capabilities, to security and support information. Once you’ve filled in the chart with your top options, it’s simple to compare the tools side-by-side and select the best research platform for your team.

User reviews, tool comparison articles, and ratings can all help you get a clear picture of how well a tool performs—along with any issues other users have encountered.

A few negative reviews don’t necessarily imply a bad tool, but if the same issue arises time and time again, you’ll likely run into it, too. When considering reviews, pay special attention to those that mention your specific needs and desired core features, as well as those from others in your job role.

For example, one Maze reviewer, a Product Design Lead writes:

“The best Maze feature is the prototype testing. It is so easy to implement just by following the steps and uploading a prototype link from Figma. Also, the recommendations given and the templates provided help you create full tests in minutes.”

Once you’ve selected the best platform from your options, take advantage of its freemium plan or free trial—if it has one (this might be another factor in your rankings).

Begin to identify ways to adopt the platform in your current UX workflow and hold a meeting with team members to show them how to use specific features for their research process.

At the end of the trial, make sure to ask your team questions about their overall experience—along with any roadblocks they may have encountered. Use their feedback, along with your knowledge and experience, to decide whether it’s the right tool for your needs long-term.

If it is, great! Sign up for a plan or get in touch with their Sales team. If it’s not, try your second choice to see if that better suits your needs.

Choosing the right research platform involves a lot of consideration—but it’s well worth the effort for the benefits you’ll gain. With the right suite of tools, you can streamline your path to actionable insights, understand user behavior, and make data-backed decisions.

Choose a platform that does it all, and try Maze.

Maze is a leading research platform that empowers businesses of all sizes to uncover game-changing user insights at the speed of product development. With Maze, you have access to a comprehensive suite of moderated and unmoderated user research methods.

You can quickly interpret data with analysis and even report to stakeholders with Automated Reports. From designing studies to sharing insights to your team, Maze makes every step of user research easy and accessible.