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Maze Software Review: Features, Details, And Pricing

Creating a solid process for user experience (UX) research is the best way for startups and product development teams to objectively analyze user feedback. There are a handful of great tools that provide outstanding solutions and products for user research. One of the most popular and widely used tools is Maze user research software, a comprehensive platform for collecting, organizing, and analyzing data about user experience (UX).

Maze provides users with several features that make it easy to gather user research efficiently. It has an intuitive interface that allows users to quickly get started. Its software solutions also provide users with an all-in-one platform for quantitative and qualitative research on the web, mobile, and desktop applications.

So, if you're in the market for reliable and feature-rich user research collection software, Maze has plenty to offer. Let's look at the features, details and pricing of the Maze User Research Software. After reading through, you'll better understand whether Maze is the right choice for your user research needs.

What is Maze?

Maze is a user research software that helps teams collect, organize, and analyze user research data. It's an all-in-one platform for conducting quantitative and qualitative research on web, mobile, and desktop applications. 

With Maze, you can quickly create surveys, conduct interviews, test experiments, and measure usability with metrics like NPS ( Net Promoter Score ), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) and CES (Customer Effort Score). The software also allows users to integrate with existing tools such as Figma, InVision, Jira, Slack, and Zapier.

As one of the more highly rated user research tools, Maze enables startups, innovators, and product developers to turn prototypes into actionable measures with the help of accurate world testing. Product prototypes that use Maze to collect user research achieve two primary objectives:

• Maze aids product development teams and starts to gain more accurate data and create a better user experience.
• Maze aids users in developing comprehensive and detailed analytics and reports based on user feedback.

Testers are various real-world users that provide instant feedback on your prototypes. Reports are then generated based on that feedback to gather data. Both steps are essential in getting validation on the design in question. 

Most designers rely on intuition to drive their decisions. Still, with Maze, they can make informed decisions backed by accurate data. Creating these user tests is extremely simple and can be automatically customized for each user's experience.

Maze's solutions and products for user research collection and prototype testing span industries. Product developers can use a suite of options to conduct in-depth user research or customize their own. Some of the most common use cases for Maze are:

• User Journey Mapping
• A/B testing
• Feature and usability testing
• Accessibility testing
• Pre-release product testing
• Usability benchmarking

These use cases let user research teams create and streamline their process and create better products faster. The comprehensive surveys and user feedback also enable teams to gather qualitative data through interviews with real-world users. With that, testing out experiment hypotheses regarding prototypes becomes a breeze. What's more, Maze integrates with other popular product development tools like Figma,

Maze User Research Features

Maze comes packed with a handful of solutions and products directly supporting product development, prototype testing and user research data collection. These features help researchers to test various ideas quickly and easily without worrying about the technicalities involved in each process. 

Maze is a great UX research tool because it is fairly easy to use and set up. Users can use the streamlined set-up process to quickly and easily create surveys, interviews, experiments, and tests. Custom metrics can be used to measure the results of these activities for a more comprehensive view of the data.

The platform also has an intuitive dashboard allowing users to track their research progress in real-time. This gives teams visibility into the user feedback loop from start to finish. Here are the main proponents that user research teams can use during product development:

Wireframe and Usability Testing

Wireframes and usability testing are important parts of the development process. Maze enables teams to quickly test prototypes with real-world users to validate ideas and recognize issues before they become a problem.

With Maze, user research teams back up their design decisions with evidence-based feedback from real-time user interactions with their prototype. The data gathered can then be easily condensed and reviewed for enhanced product development decisions. Maze's solution for wireframe and usability testing also works well with products such as:

• Video recordings
• Participant management
• In-product prompts 

These products enable teams to understand user behavior and preferences. This helps product developers gain insights into how users interact with their prototype product and make improvements quickly.

Maze also offers detailed templates and custom surveys for conducting usability tests. The user research data gathered from these surveys can then be further analyzed to understand what works and what does not in the prototype.

Concept and Idea Validation

Ideas and concepts are the backbones of product development. With Maze, teams can validate their ideas quickly by validating them with actual users. Through surveys, interviews, and user-testing experiments, they can get real-time feedback on how their concept works and where it needs improvement.

In addition to this idea validation process, Maze also provides a detailed set of analytics and metrics to measure the success of their experiments. This data can then be used to make informed decisions about product development and fine-tune prototypes. UX research teams can also use a product such as:

• Tree testing: to identify user flows and optimize navigation
• A/B testing: to compare different versions of a prototype
• Heat mapping: to understand user behavior
• 5-second tests: quickly get feedback on product design and usability

Done right, Maze's solutions for concept and idea validation can help teams create a product that addresses user pain points and ensure a smooth user experience.

Content and Copy Testing

Aside from product prototype testing, Maze also includes solutions and products that target the marketability of a product. Content and copy testing helps teams to ensure that their messaging is clear and effective for users.

Maze's content and copy-testing feature provides qualitative data on how users interact with a product's written materials. This includes evaluating user responses to the content's look, feel, wording, clarity, tone, and value. It aids in mapping user journeys, identifying potential design issues, and finding areas of improvement about the user experience.

Product design teams and startups can use the following products to streamline their content and copy-testing process:

• Card sorting: to optimize the information architecture of a website or product
• Survey Creation: to quickly create surveys to understand user needs
• Text Analysis: to analyze existing content and copy for improvements

Aggregating the data from content and copy testing, user research teams can ensure their product's success by providing users with a streamlined journey in discovering, learning, and using their products.

Maze Pros And Cons

From gathering quantitative data on product performance to providing detailed metrics and reports, Maze gives teams the tools to stay ahead of their competition. However, teams need to be aware of some potential drawbacks to this software.

Aggregating the pros and cons, Maze is a more than comprehensive solution for most user research teams looking to gain deep insight into their user's interactions with a product. However, it's best for teams to thoroughly outline their needs before using solutions like Maze to ensure they are getting the most value out of the product. 

Maze Price Plans 2023

Maze offers 3 pricing tiers, all of which offer annual or monthly subscription options. Ideally, individuals, freelancers, small research teams, and startups can benefit from starting with the free plan. 

Exploring Maze's capabilities and usability in terms of specific user research teams' needs can help them decide if they should upgrade to a tiered plan. Here is a quick breakdown of each plan:

• Free: Ideal for individuals and research teams looking for light research to support product development. 
• Professional ($99 month or $75/month billed annually): Ideal for startup product development teams who want to increase their user research capabilities.
• Organization (Custom pricing): Best for enterprise-level teams who require a large amount of user research data on multiple projects.

Reviews and Recommendations

Breaking down the core solutions and product offerings Maze has, it's easy to see why so many user research teams have praised it. From its intuitive interface and comprehensive analytics suite to its flexible pricing model and detailed reports, Maze is a great option for any team looking to stay ahead of its competition in the ever-evolving digital landscape. 

Overall Rating

As a user testing platform, Maze offers tools that help prototype development teams test and improve their products. It helps prototype development teams test and improve their products by running user tests on prototype versions. The testing can help identify usability issues and make the product easier for real users. Here are a few aggregated rates of Maze across 3 software review sites:

The main proponent that makes Maze such a highly rated UX research tool is its comprehensive analytics suite and flexible pricing model. The ease of use and set-up makes it an ideal choice for smaller research teams and businesses that do not want to invest too much in an external team of user researchers. With its range of features and pricing options, Maze is a great choice for any product design team looking to stay at the forefront of the user experience industry.

Maze Alternatives

Maze is not the only user research software tool on the market. Some popular alternatives include Optimal Workshop and Userlytics. Both of these platforms offer similar features, but differences should be considered before making a decision. 

Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop carries a suite of products and solutions for startups and innovators looking to expand their user research capabilities and bring them into the modern-day market. Optimal Workshop was built with digital product designers and developers in mind, giving them the power to analyze data from user research across multiple stages of development.

As a user research collection tool, it stands out as being able to provide users with add-on products to their solutions. Users can easily choose which products to apply to their research without being bogged down by unnecessary features. While the base solution gives users enough tools, the additional products supplement specified research for collecting a certain data set. 

Optimal Workshop Score Card:

Optimal Workshop Pricing Plans:

Optimal Workshop offers up four pricing tiers based on the scale and potential scope of your user research requirements:

• Free: Ideal for individuals and solo entrepreneurs looking to jumpstart their user research process.
• Pro ($249/month): Best for freelance and small development teams looking for a more comprehensive user research tool set.
• Team ($249/month): Ideal for small research teams handling multiple projects simultaneously.
• Enterprise (Custom pricing): Best for scaling teams looking to quickly grow their capabilities in releasing new products. 

Userlytics is a user research platform designed for startups and innovators who must collect qualitative and quantitative data on their products. As one of the most comprehensive solutions available, it provides users with everything they need to understand customer needs and behaviors. 

It's safe to say that Userlytics offers another comprehensive solution for startups and product developers looking to diversify or build their processes in collecting user research. With an all-around tool like Userlytics, developers can focus on applying their research results more quickly rather than spending valuable time on analysis and organization. 

Userlytics Score Card:

Userlytics Price Plans: 

Compared to Maze and Optimal Workshop, Userlyrics does come at a hefty price point; their starting price is $499/month, billed annually for 2 account seats and unlimited participants. Though a high price point, it serves as an all-encompassing user research collection platform that medium to large startups or businesses can use. Here is a quick breakdown of the price options: 

• Premium ($499/month billed annually): Ideal for small research teams with around 5-10 people.
• Advanced ($999/month billed annually): Ideal for research teams of 10-15 people seeking in-depth user research for multiple product development projects.
• Enterprise (starts at $3,450/year): Best for large product development teams who require user research often and consistently.
• Custom: Ideal for user research teams with varying needs.

Maze user research software is a boon for product teams looking to do user research on the go. It's easy to use, doesn't require advanced computer skills, and enables you to conduct user research in minutes. It's also affordable and customizable, allowing you to design your user research process accordingly. 

If you want to know more about the best tools to collect user research, read more on our blog and access our free startup resource list for a full suite of options that can help you make the right decision.

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The Future Of User Research: Expert Insights And Key Trends

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How do product teams conduct user research today? How do they leverage user insights to make confident decisions and drive business growth? And what role does AI play? To learn more about the current state of user research and uncover the trends that will shape the user research landscape in 2024 and beyond , Maze surveyed over 1,200 product professionals between December 2023 and January 2024.

The Future of User Research Report summarized the data into three key trends that provide precious insights into an industry undergoing significant changes . Let’s take a closer look at the main findings from the report.

Trend 1: The Demand For User Research Is Growing

62% of respondents who took the Future of User Research survey said the demand for user research has increased in the past 12 months. Industry trends like continuous product discovery and research democratization could be contributing to this growth, along with recent layoffs and reorganizations in the tech industry.

Emma Craig, Head of UX Research at Miro, sees one reason for this increase in the uncertain times we’re living in. Under pressure to beat the competition, she sensed a “shift towards more risk-averse attitudes, where organizations feel they need to ‘get it right’ the first time.” By conducting user research, organizations can mitigate risk and clarify the strategy of their business or product.

Research Is About Learning

As the Future of User Research report found out, organizations are leveraging research to make decisions across the entire product development lifecycle . The main consumers of research are design (86%) and product (83%) teams, but it’s also marketing, executive teams, engineering, data, customer support, and sales who rely on the results from user research to inform their decision-making.

As Roberta Dombrowski, Research Partner at Maze, points out:

“At its core, research is about learning. We learn to ensure that we’re building products and services that meet the needs of our customers. The more we invest in growing our research practices and team, the higher our likelihood of meeting these needs.”

Benefits And Challenges Of Conducting User Research

As it turns out, the effort of conducting user research on a regular basis pays off. 85% of respondents said that user research improved their product’s usability , 58% saw an increase in customer satisfaction , and 44% in customer engagement .

Connecting research insights to business outcomes remains a key challenge, though. While awareness for measuring research impact is growing (73% of respondents track the impact of their research), 41% reported they find it challenging to translate research insights into measurable business outcomes . Other significant challenges teams face are time and bandwidth constraints (62%) and recruiting the right participants (60%).

Growing A Research Mindset

With the demand for user research growing, product teams need to find ways to expand their research initiatives. 75% of the respondents in the Maze survey are planning to scale research in the next year by increasing the number of research studies, leveraging AI tools, and providing training to promote research democratization.

Janelle Ward, Founder of Janelle Ward Insights, sees great potential in growing research practices, as an organization will grow a research mindset in tandem. She shares:

“Not only will external benefits like competitive advantage come into play, but employees inside the organization will also better understand how and why important business decisions are made, resulting in more transparency from leadership and a happier and more thriving work culture for everyone.”

Trend 2: Research Democratization Empowers Stronger Decision-Making

Research democratization involves empowering different teams to run research and get access to the insights they need to make confident decisions. The Future of User Research Report shows that in addition to researchers, product designers (61%), product managers (38%), and marketers (17%) conduct user research at their companies to inform their decision-making.

Teams with a democratized research culture reported a greater impact on decision-making. They are 2× more likely to report that user research influences strategic decisions , 1.8× more likely to state that it impacts product decisions, and 1.5× more likely to express that it inspires new product opportunities.

The User Researcher’s New Role

Now, if more people are conducting user research in an organization, does this mark the end of the user researcher role? Not at all. Scaling research through democratization doesn’t mean anyone can do any type of research. You’ll need the proper checks and balances to allow everyone to participate in research responsibly and effectively. The role is shifting from a purely technical to an educational role where user researchers become responsible for guiding the organization in its learning and curiosity.

To guarantee data quality and accuracy, user researchers can train partners on research methods and best practices and give them hands-on experience before they start their own research projects. This can involve having them shadow a researcher during a project, holding mock interviews, or leading collaborative analysis workshops.

Democratizing user research also means that UX researchers can open up time to focus on more complex research initiatives . While tactical research, such as usability testing, can be delegated to designers and product managers, UX researchers can conduct foundational studies to inform the product and business strategy.

User Research Tools And Techniques

It’s also interesting to see which tools and techniques product teams use to gather user insights. Maze (46%), Hotjar (26%), and UserTesting (24%) are the most widely used user research tools. When it comes to user research methods, product teams mostly turn to user interviews (89%), usability testing (85%), surveys (82%), and concept testing (56%).

According to Morgan Mullen, Lead UX Researcher at User Interviews, a factor to consider is the type of projects teams conduct. Most teams don’t change their information architecture regularly, which requires tree testing or card sorting. But they’re likely launching new features often, making usability testing a more popular research method.

Trend 3: New Technology Allows Product Teams To Significantly Scale Research

AI is reshaping how we work in countless ways, and user research is no exception. According to the Future of User Research Report, 44% of product teams are already using AI tools to run research and an additional 41% say they would like to adopt AI tools in the future.

ChatGPT is the most widely-used AI tool for conducting research (82%), followed by Miro AI (20%), Notion AI (18%), and Gemini (15%). The most commonly used research tools with AI features are Maze AI (15%), UserTesting AI (9%), and Hotjar AI (5%).

The Strengths Of AI

The tactical aspect of research is where AI truly shines. More than 60% of respondents use AI to analyze user research data , 54% for transcription , 48% for generating research questions, and 45% for synthesis and reporting . By outsourcing these tasks to artificial intelligence, respondents reported that their team efficiency improved (56%) and turnaround time for research projects decreased (50%) — freeing up more time to focus on the human and strategic side of research (35%).

The Irreplaceable Value Of Research

While AI is great at tackling time-consuming, tactical tasks, it is not a replacement for a skilled researcher. As Kate Pazoles, Head of Flex User Research at Twilio, points out, we can think of AI as an assistant. The value lies in connecting the dots and uncovering insights with a level of nuance that only UX researchers possess.

Jonathan Widawski, co-founder and CEO at Maze, sums up the growing role that AI plays in user research as follows:

“AI will be able to support the entire research process, from data collection to analysis. With automation powering most of the tactical aspects, a company’s ability to build products fast is no longer a differentiating factor. The key now lies in a company’s ability to build the right product — and research is the power behind all of this.”

Looking Ahead

With teams adopting a democratized user research culture and AI tools on the rise, the user researcher’s role is shifting towards that of a strategic partner for the organization .

Instead of gatekeeping their knowledge, user researchers can become facilitators and educate different teams on how to engage with customers and use those insights to make better decisions. By doing so, they help ensure research quality and accuracy conducted by non-researchers, while opening up time to focus on more complex, strategic research . Adopting a research mindset also helps teams value user research more and foster a happier, thriving work culture . A win-win for the organization, its employees, and customers.

If you’d like more data and insights, read the full Future of User Research Report by Maze here .

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The 10 best UX research tools to use in 2023

In this guide, we introduce 9 of the best UX research tools on the market right now. We’ll also share some advice on how to choose the most suitable tools for your work.

Free course: Introduction to UX Design

What is UX? Why has it become so important? Could it be a career for you? Learn the answers, and more, with a free 7-lesson video course.

All good UX begins with user research—and all good user research relies on the right tools. 

But, with so many tools to choose from, where do you even start? 

Look no further. In this guide, we introduce 9 of the best UX research tools on the market right now. We’ll also share some advice on how to choose the most suitable tools for your work.

What is UX research and why does it matter?

• 9 of the best UX research tools available in 2023

How to choose the right tools for your UX research

Ready to become a user research pro? Let’s begin. 

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Before we explore the best tools for the job, let’s recap on what exactly UX research is—and why it’s so important.

UX design is all about solving a real problem for real, human users. UX research helps you to identify the problem you need to solve, and to understand how best to solve it based on what you know about your users. 

Without user research, you’re basing your work on assumptions. This inevitably leads to a mismatch between the user experience and the people you’re designing it for—i.e. bad UX!

That’s why all good designers start their UX process with research. UX research involves:

• Conducting interviews, surveys, card sorting exercises and focus groups (to name a few!) with real or representative users to see what they expect from the user experience and what pain-points they currently encounter
• Analysing the data gathered to uncover key themes and user problems
• Defining the scope of the problems uncovered and determining what to prioritise
• Sharing your findings with key stakeholders
• Continually testing and iterating on your designs to optimise the user experience

You can learn more about what UX research is in this dedicated guide .

What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

As you consider what tools to use for your UX research, it’s important to distinguish between quantitative and qualitative research. 

Quantitative user research gathers objective, measurable data that can be quantified (i.e. counted). Some examples of quantitative data might be the number of clicks it takes a user to complete their desired task on a website, or the percentage of users who bounce in a given time frame.

Qualitative user research isn’t concretely measurable, but it can give you much deeper insights into how your users think, feel and behave. For example, if you conduct interviews to find out how your users feel about a particular product, that’s qualitative research. Likewise, if you observe a user trying to navigate an app and note down that they get really frustrated, that’s qualitative data. 

UX designers tend to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research for a broad and detailed picture of their users. 

What’s the difference between moderated and unmoderated user research?

Another distinction to be aware of is that between moderated and unmoderated research. 

Moderated UX research takes place with the user researcher present. If you’re interviewing a user live via video call, or observing them while they complete a certain task and asking follow-up questions, you’re conducting moderated UX research.

Unmoderated UX research takes place without your supervision. This includes things like surveys which the user answers in their own time, or usability tests where the user might record their screen while they interact with your website.

What are the best UX research tools?

Now we know about the different types of user research you might conduct, let’s explore some of the best UX research tools on the market right now. 

1. Optimal Workshop for card sorting, tree testing and first-click testing

Optimal Workshop isn’t just a user research tool—it’s an entire toolbox. You can use it to conduct both qualitative and quantitative user research, and to recruit participants.

Optimal Workshop allows you to see participant responses as they come in, and to view your data in the form of easy-to-understand visualisations—ideal for sharing your insights with others. 

You can use Optimal Workshop to conduct card sorting exercises, tree testing, first-click testing, and surveys. 

Optimal Workshop comprises 5 tools:

• OptimalSort , a card sorting tool that shows you how your users categorise information. This is useful when mapping out the information architecture of a website or app.
• Treejack , a tree testing tool that shows you how easily people can find information on your website or app—and where they get lost.
• Chalkmark for first-click testing. This enables you to test the usability of an existing design. You can upload screenshots, sketches or wireframes and test to see if users are able to navigate with ease.
• Questions for creating and sending out online surveys. You can attach wireframes or sketches for more specific feedback.
• Reframer for note-taking and documentation. This is useful for organising all your qualitative research insights in one place. Reframer is actually number 8 on our list, so more on that later!

Main features at a glance:

• 1 platform, 5 tools for card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing, surveys, and documenting qualitative research insights
• Participant recruitment service (available in 70+ languages)
• View participant responses as they come in
• Data visualisations accessible via the Optimal Workshop dashboard

How much does it cost?

Optimal Workshop offers a free plan with no requirement to upgrade. If you do want more functionality, paid options include:

• The Starter plan for small-scale research projects at $99/month (approx. €88).
• The Pro plan for unlimited studies at $166/month (approx. €150) for 1 user.
• The Team plan for unlimited studies at $153/month per user (approx. €140) for up to 3 users. 

2. Looppanel for user interviews and usability tests

Looppanel is an AI-powered research analysis & repository product that makes it 5x faster to discover and share user insights.

Looppanel acts like your research assistant: it records, transcribes, creates notes, and organizes your data for easy analysis.

Teams like PandaDoc, Huge Inc., Airtel, and others use Looppanel to streamline research analysis and build their insights repository.

Main Features at a glance

• Automatically generated notes for user interviews
• 90%+ accuracy transcription in 8 languages
• Integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams to auto-record calls
• Time-stamped notes taken live during interviews
• Ability to tag and annotate on transcripts
• 1-click to create shareable video clips
• Analysis workspace to view project data by question or tag
• Search across projects

Looppanel offers a free 15-day trial. After that, you can choose from a range of paid plans:

• Starter (for small teams / solo researchers): An affordable starter plan for $30/month that includes 10 transcription hours / month
• Teams: For teams of 3+ researchers, this plan is priced at $350/month and comes with 30 transcription hours / month
• Business: For organizations with large teams or significant security requirements, the business plan costs $1,000/month for 120 transcription hours / month
• Custom: For enterprise teams of larger sizes

3. Lookback for user interviews 

Lookback is a video research platform for conducting both moderated and unmoderated user interviews and usability tests. 

The collaborative dashboard allows you to sync all your research, tag your teammates, and create highlight reels of all the most useful insights. You can set up virtual observation rooms, record users’ screens as they navigate your app or website, and transcribe your user interviews. 

• Moderated and unmoderated video interviews and user testing sessions
• Timestamped notes captured live during sessions
• Virtual observation rooms: Invite stakeholders to observe user research sessions and chat with each other in a separate virtual room
• Screen capturing: Watch and record participant touches on mobile screens during interactions
• Create highlight videos and compile them into highlight reels
• Collaborative dashboard 

Lookback offers a free 14-day trial. After that, there are a range of paid plans to choose from:

• Freelance: An affordable solo plan for $17/month (approx. €15). Includes 10 sessions/year.
• Team: $99/month (approx. €90) for 100 sessions/year. 
• Insights Hub: $229/month (approx. €205) for 300 sessions/year. 

4. Typeform for surveys

Surveys are a UX research staple, offering a quick, easy and inexpensive way to gather user insights. When sending out surveys for UX research, you’ll usually ask questions about the respondents’ attitudes and preferences in relation to the product or service you’re designing. 

Typeform is one of the most popular survey tools among UX designers. With Typeform, you can design your own surveys from scratch or choose from a range of templates. After you’ve distributed your survey, you can see responses and completion rates and generate shareable reports. 

• Dozens of UX research templates, including a user persona survey template , a product research survey template and a product feedback template
• Conditional logic to ensure that users only see relevant follow-up questions based on their previous answer
• Shareable reports after survey completion
• Integrations for Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable and more

Typeform has a free plan with unlimited forms, 10 questions per form, and 10 responses per month. You can stay on the free plan for as long as you like, or upgrade for additional features:

• Basic: €21/month (1 user, unlimited typeforms, up to 100 responses/month)
• Plus: €46/month (3 users, unlimited typeforms, up to 1,000 responses/month)
• Business: €75/month (5 users, unlimited typeforms, up to 10,000 responses/month)

View all price plans and features on the Typeform website .

5. Maze for user surveys, concept validation, and wireframe & prototype testing

Maze is another UX research all-rounder with a focus on rapid testing. You can use it for card sorting, tree testing, 5-second tests, surveys, and to test wireframes and prototypes on real users. 

Maze integrates with all the industry-standard UX tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD and InVision. It’s even got a built-in panel of user testers, promising user insights in less than 2 hours. 

Maze also handles the analytics, presenting your research insights in the form of a visual report. 

• Prototype testing to validate your designs before developing them
• Tree testing to ensure your information architecture is user-friendly
• 5-second testing to assess user sentiment when first interacting with your product
• Surveys to scale your UX research
• Card sorting to help plan or test your product’s information architecture
• Built-in panel of over 70,000 testers
• Analytics and visual reports

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6. UserZoom for surveys, card sorting, click testing, and usability tests

Similar to Optimal Workshop and Maze, UserZoom is a complete UX research toolbox used for card sorting, usability testing, surveys, click testing, tree testing, and user interviews. The platform also includes a fully-integrated participant recruitment engine with over 120 million users worldwide. 

• Moderated and unmoderated usability testing
• Surveys for quickly gathering user feedback at scale
• Click testing to evaluate early stage concepts
• Open and closed card sorting to inform your information architecture and understand your users’ mental models
• Interviews to gather self-reported insights from your users
• Tree testing to assess your information architecture
• Participant recruitment engine with over 120 million users worldwide
• Integrations with Adobe XD, Miro, Jira, Mural, Typeform and more

UserZoom offers custom price plans depending on your needs. Find out more here .

7. dscout for remote user interviews and diary studies

A versatile suite of research tools, dscout is ideal for conducting remote user studies. 

There are four main pillars of the dscout platform: Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express. 

Diary is a remote diary studies tool which allows you to gather contextual, qualitative insights into user behaviour and experiences. If you’re new to diary studies, dscout has put together a helpful guide on how and why to conduct diary studies here . 

Live is a user interview tool, and Express is a flexible user survey solution. Recruit is the final piece in the puzzle: a panel of over 100 thousand users you can enlist for your UX research.

• Diary for conducting remote diary studies
• Live for user interviews with auto-transcribe, real-time note-taking and screen-sharing capabilities
• Express for user surveys
• Recruit, a built-in panel of 100 thousand user research participants
• Research synthesis and analysis: automatically generate charts and word clouds
• Loads of guides, resources and templates to help you get started

dscout offers customisable subscription plans depending on your needs. You can learn more about the different plans and request a quote here .

8. Hotjar for analytics and heatmaps

Hotjar is a powerful behaviour analytics tool that enables you to really see how your users engage with an existing product. 

You can use Hotjar to send out surveys, capture and watch screen recordings of people interacting with your website, create heatmaps, and gather real-time user feedback. Hotjar is all about stepping into your users’ shoes and improving the user experience accordingly!

• Heatmaps to see where users click and how they navigate your site. This is helpful for identifying any usability issues or UX flaws
• Screen recordings to see first-hand how people interact with your product
• Real-time user feedback via a suggestion box integrated into your website
• Surveys and survey templates 
• Integrations with Slack, Miro, Jira, Asana and more

Hotjar’s basic free plan is pretty extensive, offering up to 35 daily sessions, unlimited heatmaps, and up to 1,050 recordings per month. For more research capability, paid plans include:

• Plus: €31/month —ideal for small teams
• Business: €79/month —for growing companies and websites
• Scale: €311/month —for large companies and websites

See Hotjar’s price overview for more information.

9. Reframer for analysing qualitative research

Reframer is part of the Optimal Workshop suite of UX research tools (number 1 on our list), but we think it’s worth a special mention. As UX designer Carrie Nusbaum notes in her own review of Reframer : “There are many tools that support the act of actual user testing, and many that facilitate design. Relatively few tools, however, specifically support some important steps that take place in between, namely: data organisation, research synthesis, and presentation of findings.”

Reframer seeks to fill this gap. It’s a unique tool dedicated to capturing all your qualitative research notes in one place, helping you to analyse and make sense of them. It’s your “qualitative research sidekick”, bringing some much-needed structure to the often messy task of qualitative research. 

• Directly capture research observations straight into Reframer; no Post-it notes or separate Google Doc needed
• Theme builder: easily construct a coding system with tags and build out themes for your research findings
• Chord and bubble charts to visualise your findings and easily spot patterns and trends
• XLS export: you can export your research as a .xls file, enabling you to transfer it to other tools and platforms if needed

You can use Reframer as part of the Optimal Workshop toolbox. Optimal Workshop offers a free plan which you can use for as long as you like. For increased functionality, the following paid plans are available:

10. Asana for planning and organising your UX research

Asana isn’t a UX research tool per se, but it’s an excellent tool for organising and keeping track of all your research projects. 

With the Timeline feature, you can create project plans to see exactly what’s happening and when, or visualise your workflow with a Kanban-style board . This allows you to drag and drop cards into different columns depending on their status (e.g. in progress, awaiting feedback, done). 

You can add multiple collaborators to different projects, assign various tasks to individual team members, and provide updates via the commenting function. 

Asana essentially has everything you need to manage your research projects collaboratively from start to finish. 

• Shared team calendar for an overview of who’s working on what, and when
• Visual project management in the form of lists or boards, with the ability to break projects down into smaller subtasks and assign them to different stakeholders
• Project briefs and templates to standardise and streamline your workflows
• In-platform communication via task comments or private messaging
• Integrations with Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, email, and more

You can use the free basic version of Asana for as long as you like, with extensive capabilities (ideal for individuals and smaller teams). For more robust project management, Asana offers two paid plans:

• Premium at €10.99/user per month
• Business at €24.99/user per month

You’ll find more information on Asana’s pricing overview page .

Ultimately, the tools you choose to work with will depend on the UX research methodologies you want to use, and on the scale of your research. 

If you’re conducting small-scale research with just a few participants, you may not need an entire suite of tools with recruiting and analytics built in—a good survey tool and reliable video conferencing software should suffice. 

But, if you’re conducting large-scale research with dozens or even hundreds of participants, and working as part of a team, you’ll want a set of UX research tools that are collaborative and versatile, covering everything from recruiting to synthesis and analysis. 

You can mix and match your research tools, too: you might use Typeform for surveys, Lookback for user interviews, and Asana to collate all your findings. Before you settle on a specific tool, try it out with a free trial, read up on what other designers have said about their experience with the platform, and compare it to a few alternatives on the market. 

Hopefully this guide has given you a good starting point from which to build out your UX research toolkit. If you’d like to learn more about UX tools, check out this complete guide to the best tools for every stage of the UX design process .

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Maze vs UserTesting: Which one should you choose?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This article will help you to compare these UX research platforms and make choosing the one that fits your needs better in 2024. We will also introduce an alternative platform – UXtweak, which might be a better choice for your research projects.

You’ll find a structured comparison, including the pros and cons, features, pricing, and plans of both Maze and UserTesting. We will also give you insights into how customers are satisfied with their services.

Maze vs UserTesting – Key insights

👉 Maze offers more features at a lower price compared to UserTesting. However, access to these features varies by plan .

👉 UserTesting supports Mobile app usability testing under specific conditions and on advanced plans only. Maze doesn’t offer mobile app testing .

👉 Both Maze and UserTesting have an overall score of customer satisfaction of 4.5/5 . Here UXtweak – an alternative user research platform takes the leads with a rating of 4.8/5.

👉 Maze users mention frustration over limited functionality and basic profiling options , feeling the platform doesn’t quite meet all the needs of extensive UX research.

👉 On the flip side, UserTesting’s clients often cite the service’s cost as a significant barrier , alongside limited participants outside the U.S .

👉 For a diverse and global user panel , UXtweak is unrivaled , offering access to millions of real users across more than 130 countries.

👉 UXtweak is the only platform offering advanced profiling criteria , Card Sorting, Mobile App Testing , and Session Recoding across all plans.

🐝  Register for a free account now  and see for yourself!

Maze’s and UserTesting’s alternative – UXtweak

UXtweak stands as a possible alternative for Maze and UserTesting. It is a UX research platform supporting organizations of any size in improving the usability of their digital products, from prototypes to production.

UXtweak merges a wide range of UX research tools , recruiting options , and a global panel of research participants, complemented with a participant management solution . Notably, the platform offers flexible and cost-effective pricing options.

Maze vs UserTesting: Features comparison

In this part, we will compare the core features of each platform.

*UXtweak offers built in features to recruit, schedule, conduct, and analyze user interviews or any other moderated studies.

The table above shows that both Maze and UserTesting lack many features compared to UXtweak. Additionally, some of the toolkits are only available in the advanced plans of Maze and UserTesting, while UXtweak includes most of them in all its paid plans without any specific conditions.

Need to conduct moderated research?

With UXtweak you can recruit, schedule, conduct, and analyze user interviews or any other moderated studies directly in one platform.

Try our Freefrom Interview tool for user interviews or use Study Interviews to run any UXtweak studies moderated (eg. moderated card sorting, moderated website testing…).

Moderated testing supports multiple recruitment methods:

• Bring your own participants
• Access prequalified participants from a global User Panel in 130+ countries
• Turn site visitors into participants with Onsite Recruiting
• Use your custom panel with Own Database

⬇️ See demos of UXtweak tools, and try out how the respondents would see your studies and the analytics capabilities of UXtweak:

Try Tree Testing✅

Try Website Usability Testing🔥

Maze vs UserTesting: Participant Recruitment and Management capabilities

The table below shows the structured comparison of participant recruitment and management capabilities of Maze, UserTesting, and UXtweak.

As it is evident from the table UXtweak stands out by providing the most affordable price per user and offers the most extensive panel of actual users from over 130 countries.

Additionally, UXtweak boasts advanced targeting criteria, that allow customers to find testers tailored specifically to their target audience and get valuable insights. Also, UXtweak is the only platform that provides standout features – expert audits for each order from the user panel, and the one that delivers participant management solutions under all plan options.

Try UXtweak for free!

Test your assumptions quickly, access qualified audiences worldwide, and receive clear reports - all with competitive pricing.

Maze vs UserTesting: Pricing Plans and Scenarios

Maze pricing plans.

Maze offers 4 plans for its customers.

• The free plan is designed for individuals seeking basic features to get familiar with UX research, and it comes at no cost.
• The Starter plan is made for small teams that want to get started with product research. That option also includes more features and in the case of annual billing price starts at $1,188 per year ($99 per month).
• The Team plan is intended to assist teams in building a user-centric product and includes a set of advanced features in the package. The cost for an annual subscription is $15,000, while monthly price is $1,250.
• T he Organization plan is custom and crafted upon request. Typically is suitable for big teams, and offers the widest array of features and capabilities.

UserTesting’s pricing plans

UserTesting provides three pricing options:

• Essentials is a basic plan designed for simple user feedback gathering.
• Advanced is intended for comprehensive testing and research, offering all core functionalities.
• Ultimate is a custom enterprise plan featuring advanced toolkits. The exact cost depends on your specific requirements and will be determined following a consultation with the Sales Representative. Typically, annual plans start at $50,000 .

Solo researchers may choose Essentials or Advanced, while research teams might find the Ultimate plan with additional features to be a better fit. The final price depends on participant recruitment credits and international team support.

UXtweak pricing plans

At UXtweak, we prioritize flexibility and provide monthly subscription plans that can be easily canceled at your convenience. UXtweak delivers 4 different plans:

Starter plan

UXtweak as well as Maze offers a completely free plan. This plan is ideal for small projects and serves as an excellent opportunity to explore and test all of our available tools.

Tailored for solo researchers , priced at just $59/month. It distinguishes itself from the “Starter” plan with extended data retention, an increased number of concurrent active studies, and a higher capacity for responses.

Business plan

Excellent choice for most small and mid-sized organizations . It allows an unlimited number of studies and tasks with up to 1,000 responses each month. It supports up to 9 users, with pricing starting from $151 per month.

Enterprise plan

Offering customizability and premium features like top-priority customer support, assistance from our UX research professionals, discounted User Panel orders, Single Sign-On (SSO), training, and custom limits tailored to suit any organization’s requirements.

Enterprise plans are available upon request and the price starts at $5000 per year. To explore further details, reach out to us , and one of our Product experts will get in touch with you.

All of our plans provide access to all research tools. You can find more detailed information on our pricing page .

UserTesting vs Maze: Customer Reviews

The ratings are from the renowned software review site – Capterra. The table shows each platform earned loyalty by providing a high-level customer experience, although the leading score belongs to UXtweak.

Pros and Cons of Maze and UserTesting

In the table below are short briefs of the main pros and cons of each platform people talk about.

Maze and UserTesting are popular UX platforms renowned for their dedication to enhancing user experiences and gathering insights into user behavior. They provide a variety of features and capabilities that affect every phase of product development, from prototypes to products.

Considering the number of delivered features and the price, both Maze and UserTesting are good options for customers with needs for specific features of platforms. However, if you’re looking for alternative options and want to find a more comprehensive user research tool, it’s worth exploring UXtweak!

Switch to UXtweak today!

People also ask

Register for a free account at UXtweak , choose a plan that works for you, subscribe, and start your UX research or get in touch with our product experts to discuss your needs.

If you’re currently subscribed to any other platform, but want to explore what UXtweak has to offer, we have a special deal for you. We understand that contractual commitments can be a barrier to switching, which is why we’re providing free access to UXtweak for the remaining duration of your existing subscription.

There is no need to worry about extra costs or initiating a new procurement process. Simply reach out to us at [email protected], and we’ll set you up so you can start enjoying UXtweak right away!

Maze is a remote user testing and usability testing platform. It allows UX researchers to create and run usability tests on their prototypes and websites to gather feedback and insights from real users. People love Maze for such features as: prototype testing, website testing, card sorting, tree testing, and a survey tool .

UserTesting is a platform for obtaining real-time feedback from target audiences. It’s a popular tool used by UX researchers, to better understand user experiences and improve products or services accordingly. Businesses can create custom tests for their websites, apps, or other digital products, and then have real individuals interact with them while providing verbal and written feedback.

If you are looking for a wider toolkit and more affordable plans read about the best UserTesting alternatives .

UXtweak is an all-in-one user research and usability testing platform similar to Userlytics and UserTesting. It offers robust usability testing tools, tools for user behavior analytics, and information architecture research for websites and web apps, prototype and mobile applications.

Jana Filusova, our Marketing Executive at UXtweak, brings a scientific approach, analytical skills, and a business background to her role. She is responsible for producing our UX research podcast called "UX Researcher Geeks" and content creation. Jana's academic background is in Molecular Biology and Genetics, and she spent three years as a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences. After completing her Master's studies, she shifted from the world of science to the field of Business Management and began working for UXtweak.

UXtweak is buzzing with expert UX research, making thousands of products more user friendly every day

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• Card Sorting
• Tree Testing
• Preference Test
• Five Second Test
• Session Recording
• Freeform Interviews
• Study Interviews
• Mobile Testing
• First Click Test
• Prototype Testing
• Website Testing
• Onsite Recruiting
• Own Database
• Documentation
• Product features
• Comparisons

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

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About half of TikTok users under 30 say they use it to keep up with politics, news

The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Learn more >

TikTok has been so popular among young Americans that presidential campaigns are using it for voter outreach. And some young adults are using TikTok to keep up with politics or get news, a March Pew Research Center survey shows.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand age differences in TikTok users’ views and experiences on the platform. The questions are drawn from a broader survey exploring the views and experiences of TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram users. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,287 adult internet users in the United States from March 18 to 24, 2024.

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey was weighted by combining the sample of internet users with data from ATP members who do not use the internet and weighting the combined dataset to be representative of all U.S. adults by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. This analysis is based on those who use TikTok. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

This is a Pew Research Center analysis from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight/ .

Our survey explored various reasons people might use TikTok and other social media platforms. Young TikTok users stand out from their older peers on several of these reasons, including:

Keeping up with politics or political issues. For 48% of TikTok users ages 18 to 29, this is a major or minor reason why they’re on the platform.

By comparison, 36% of those ages 30 to 49 and even smaller shares of older users say the same:

• 22% of those 50 to 64
• 24% of those 65 and older

Getting news. We also asked TikTok users if getting news in general is a reason they use the platform – regardless of whether that’s political news or another topic entirely. About half of those under 30 say getting news is a major or minor reason they use TikTok.

That compares with 41% of TikTok users ages 30 to 49 who say getting news is a reason they’re on it. The shares of older users saying so are even smaller:

• 29% of those 50 to 64
• 23% of those 65 and older

TikTok has increasingly become a destination for news, bucking trends on other social media sites. A 2023 Center study showed more Americans – and especially young Americans – regularly get news on the platform compared with a few years ago. 

For more on what motivates TikTok use – like entertainment, which is a major draw for most TikTok users – read our deep dive into why and how people use the platform .

What people see and share on TikTok

Seeing political content

Nearly half of all TikTok users (45%) say they see at least some content about politics or political issues on the platform. That includes 6% of users who say political content is all or most of what they see.

Half of users under 30 say they see at least some political content on TikTok. That’s higher than the 39% of those 50 and older who say the same. However, the shares of 18- to 29-year-old users and 30- to 49-year-old users who say this are statistically similar.

Sharing political content

As on other platforms we’ve studied , far smaller shares post about politics than see political content on TikTok. About one-in-ten users ages 18 to 29 (7%), 30 to 49 (8%) and 50 to 64 (8%) post at least some political content there. That compares with just 2% of TikTok users 65 and older.

But many users – 63% – post nothing at all.

Only 36% of TikTok users say they ever post or share on the platform. Users ages 30 to 49 are most likely to say this, at 44%. That compares with 37% of those 18 to 29, 26% of those 50 to 64 and 15% of those 65 and older.

Seeing news-related content

Regardless of whether TikTok users say getting news is a reason they’re there, most see humor and opinions about news on the platform:

• 84% say they ever see funny posts that reference current events on TikTok
• 80% ever see people expressing opinions about current events
• 57% ever see news articles posted, reposted, linked or screenshotted
• 55% ever see information about a breaking news event as it’s happening

Users under 50 are more likely than older users to say they ever see each of these.

And TikTok users under 30 stand out further in seeing opinions about current events and information about breaking news. They are more likely than any other age group to ever see these two kinds of content.

TikTok and democracy

Debates around TikTok’s impact on the political environment in the United States – including for young voters specifically – are squarely in the national spotlight. We wanted to understand: Do TikTok users think the platform impacts democracy, and how?

Overall, TikTok users are roughly twice as likely to think it’s mostly good for American democracy as they are to think it’s mostly bad (33% vs. 17%). But the largest share of users (49%) think it has no impact on democracy.

TikTok users under 30 are more positive, however – 45% of this group say it’s mostly good for democracy. That compares with:

• 30% of users ages 30 to 49
• 23% of users 50 to 64
• 15% of users 65 and older

Even among users under 30, 39% say the platform has no impact on democracy. That share increases to 66% among users 65 and older.

The March survey found only minor differences by political party among TikTok users in views of its impact on democracy. Still, as lawmakers attempt to ban TikTok over national security concerns , other Center research has found that views of banning the platform have been sharply divided by political party among the general public.

To learn more about how Americans view and experience TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram, read these companion reports:

How Americans Navigate Politics on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram

How americans get news on tiktok, x, facebook and instagram.

These Pew Research Center reports and this analysis are from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

• News Media Trends
• Politics Online
• Social Media & the News

Colleen McClain is a senior researcher focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center .

How U.S. Adults Use TikTok

6 facts about americans and tiktok, whatsapp and facebook dominate the social media landscape in middle-income nations, most popular.

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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

At michigan state university, user community focuses on the future of the field and fostering a diverse and equitable workforce.

The 2024 Low Energy Community Meeting (LECM) took place 7-9 August on the campus of the University of Tennessee Knoxville. LECM brings together members of the worldwide low-energy nuclear physics community to interact and discuss future plans, initiatives, and instruments. Over the course of the three days, 250 participants attended the meeting from 65 institutions and eight countries.

The LECM organizing committee includes representatives from FRIB, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the Association for Research at University Nuclear Accelerators (ARUNA), the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), the Center for Nuclear Astrophysics across Messengers (CeNAM), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the FRIB Theory Alliance (FRIB-TA), and the FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee. FRIB hosted the meeting last year, and ORNL hosted this year. Texas A&M University will host next year.

LECM included plenary sessions, four working group sessions, and four workshops: Modular Neutron Array (MoNA) collaboration, Fission studies with rare isotope beams, early careers, and public engagement. 

The LECM plenary sessions featured presentations from the FRIB Achievement Awards for Early Career Researchers; a presentation on diversity and inclusion; Kairos Power’s Hermes demonstration reactor; and comments from representatives from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. The meeting highlighted the status at major user facilities—FRIB, ATLAS, and ARUNA.

The 2024 LECM affirmation and resolutions stated:

Affirmation: Our community affirms in the strongest possible terms its commitment to foster a diverse and equitable workforce and to support and respect diversity in all its forms. Individually and collectively we commit to ensuring an inclusive and accessible environment for all and taking action if these values are not being upheld.

Resolution 1: The highest priority for low-energy nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics research is to maintain U.S. world leadership in nuclear science by capitalizing on recent investments. To this end, we strongly support: 

• Robust theoretical and experimental research programs and the development and retention of a diverse and equitable workforce; 
• The optimal operation of the FRIB and ATLAS national user facilities;
• Investments in the ARUNA facilities, and key national laboratory facilities; 
• The FRIB Theory Alliance and all its initiatives.

All are critical to fully realize the scientific potential of the field and foster future breakthroughs.

Resolution 2: The science case for an energy upgrade of FRIB to 400 MeV/u is compelling. FRIB400 greatly expands the opportunities in the field. We strongly endorse starting the upgrade during the upcoming Long Range Plan period to harness its significant discovery potential. We support instrument developments, including the FDS and ISLA, now that GRETA and HRS are underway. These community devices are important to realize the full scope of scientific opportunities

Resolution 3: Computing is essential to advance all fields of nuclear science. We strongly support enhancing opportunities in computational nuclear science to accelerate discoveries and maintain U.S. leadership by: 

• Strengthening programs and partnerships to ensure the efficient utilization of new high-performance computing (HPC) hardware and new capabilities and approaches offered by artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and quantum computing (QC); 
• Establishing programs that support the education, training of, and professional pathways for a diverse and multidisciplinary workforce with cross-disciplinary collaborations in HPC, AI/ML, and QC; 
• Expanding access to dedicated hardware and resources for HPC and new emerging computational technologies, as well as capacity computing essential for many research efforts.

Resolution 4: Research centers are important for low-energy nuclear science. They facilitate strong national and international communications and collaborations across disciplines and across theory and experiment. Interdisciplinary centers are particularly essential for nuclear astrophysics to seize new scientific opportunities in this area. We strongly endorse a nuclear astrophysics center that builds on the success of JINA, fulfills this vital role, and propels innovation in the multi-messenger era.

Resolution 5: Nuclear data play an essential role in all facets of nuclear science. Access to reliable, complete and up-to-date nuclear structure and reaction data is crucial for the fundamental nuclear physics research enterprise, as well as for the successes of applied missions in the areas of defense and security, nuclear energy, space exploration, isotope production, and medical applications. It is thus imperative to maintain an effective US role in the stewardship of nuclear data. 

• We endorse support for the compilation, evaluation, dissemination and preservation of nuclear data and efforts to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce that maintains reliable and up-to-date nuclear databases through national and international partnerships. 
• We recommend prioritizing opportunities that enhance the prompt availability and quality of nuclear data and its utility for propelling scientific progress in nuclear structure, reactions and astrophysics and other fundamental physics research programs.
• We endorse identifying interagency-supported crosscutting opportunities for nuclear data with other programs, that enrich the utility of nuclear data in both science and society.

The community also presented a statement on isotopes and applications:

Applied Nuclear Science offers many tangible benefits to the United States and to the world. The Low Energy Nuclear Physics Community recognizes the societal importance of applied research, and strongly encourages support for this exciting and growing field with funding and beam time allocations that enable critical discovery science that will improve our lives and make us all safer.

Rare isotopes are necessary for research and innovation and must be available.  

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Generative AI in education: user research and technical report

Reports on the insights from teachers, leaders and pupils on the potential uses of generative artificial intelligence in education.

Applies to England

Use cases for generative ai in education: user research report.

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83870-564-0, RR1423

PDF , 1.66 MB , 121 pages

Use cases for generative AI in education: technical report

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The reporting from this project contains 2 documents: 

• a narrative report on the process, user research, and findings of the generative AI hackathons project
• a detailed technical report describing the process of optimising a generative AI ‘proof of concept’ tool based on the findings of the hackathon

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With sustainable cement, startup aims to eliminate gigatons of CO₂

Sublime systems, founded by professor yet-ming chiang and former postdoc leah ellis, has developed a sustainable way to make one of the world’s most common materials..

Zach Winn | MIT News

“Cement enabled civilization as we know it today, but now it needs to be reinvented,” says Sublime Systems co-founder Yet-Ming Chiang.

Image: Courtesy of Sublime Systems

In May, Sublime reached a major milestone when 3 tons of its cement was poured in Boston’s largest net-zero commercial building in the Seaport district. Now the company is building a commercial-scale manufacturing plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that will be able to produce 30,000 tons of cement per year. The new plant is slated to come online as early as 2026.

“The Holyoke plant is designed to be a module that we can repeat to get to a million-ton-per-year plant,” Ellis says. “That will allow us to eliminate scale up risk so we can deploy simultaneously all over the world.”

From batteries to cement

Ellis came to MIT in 2018 as a postdoc after receiving a fellowship from the Canadian government to study anywhere she wanted.

“I chose to work with Yet-Ming Chiang in part because he has a great track record of being really creative and useful with the work he does in science,” Ellis says. “That’s the type of work I wanted: to discover things and push limits and solve problems.”

Although they were both experts in batteries, Ellis embraced Chiang’s suggestion of working on something different, and Chiang suggested exploring ways of using electrochemistry to make cement production more sustainable.

“Cement is the largest CO₂ emitter in the industrial materials world, and concrete is the world’s most abundant material by volume, next to water, but it hadn’t gotten a lot of attention on how its production could be electrified,” Chiang says.

Ellis and a graduate student, Andres Baldes, began reviewing the literature on cement chemistry and production, looking for a more sustainable manufacturing process that might benefit from the rise of cheap, renewable electricity. Her research moved from exploring fundamental chemistry and technological approaches to economic and industry analyses.

“My motto is just to try as hard as I can for as long as they’ll let me,” Ellis says. “I strove to make myself indispensable. We started talking to customers and really understanding the industry and what they needed to see from low-carbon cement, what their concerns were, what the regulatory landscape was like, and it just has evolved from there. I really haven’t stopped since.”

Once the founders decided their approach had potential, they  published the research  in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  and launched their company in March of 2020. Working through Covid-19 disruptions, the team licensed their patent filings from MIT’s Technology Licensing Office and participated in the MIT i-Corps program, which helps scientific founders talk to potential customers.

“MIT has so many resources,” Ellis says. “It's a real intellectual playground, and that makes it easy to start something up. There’s no textbook way to start up a company; it’s a game of constant exploration, and there's so much available to explore at MIT.”

At the core of portland cement’s huge carbon footprint is the use of limestone, which is nearly 50 percent CO₂ by weight. Nearly all that CO₂ is released when limestone is heated to high temperatures to create lime. The heating process also creates enormous amounts of CO₂ on its own, as it requires temperatures of 1,450 C, a temperature that is difficult to electrify efficiently.

At MIT, Sublime’s team created an electrochemical process in which it breaks down calcium silicate rocks   at ambient temperature using electrochemistry. The reaction works with abundant raw materials and creates reactive calcium and silicates that are dried and blended into Sublime’s cement.

The mixture has the same final strength and hardened phases as portland cement and meets a standard performance specification in the industry that allows it to be used in building construction.

“To our knowledge, we are the only true-zero solution for manufacturing a drop-in replacement for portland cement, because we don’t use fossil fuels and we don’t use limestone, so we can avoid all of the emissions from making portland cement,” Ellis says.

Changing the way we build

At an event hosted by  MIT Technology Review  a few years ago, WS Development senior vice president Yanni Tsipis ’01 SM ’02 heard about Sublime’s process and reached out to learn more. The conversation led to Sublime’s first commercial pour earlier this year in the biggest net-zero office building in Boston.

“We hope our partnership with Sublime illustrates the power of the possible when new technology flows from incubator to industry,” Tsipis says. “The location in the building’s primary public space will be experienced by thousands of people every day and is an ideal way to share our aspiration and Sublime’s extraordinary technology with the entire innovation ecosystem in Boston’s Seaport and beyond.”

Sublime is one of several companies Chiang has founded since he joined MIT as a professor nearly 40 years ago. Chiang, who also  serves  on the climate search advisory committee as part of MIT President Sally Kornbluth’s  Climate Project at MIT , believes Sublime’s journey exemplifies the power of MIT’s community to advance impactful new technologies.

“Sublime came from recognizing a problem where there’s clearly an unmet need, and getting on it early when others hadn’t yet recognized its importance, then moving quickly to a solution that you can scale with speed to mitigate climate change,” Chiang says. “This is all just very MIT to me. We really want to focus on doing things that matter — not just to other academics, but to society and to the world.”

Social Security promised a retirement free from poverty. Some boomers say it isn't working anymore.

• Business Insider spoke to over 40 baby boomers in recent months, many of whom are struggling to retire.
• They're disappointed that Social Security isn't helping them stay out of poverty in their post-work years.
• Many say they couldn't save much for retirement due to medical bills, low-paid careers, or student loan debt.

Emma Echols has worked since she was 12 as a babysitter, chef, and convenience store manager.

The 68-year-old should be preparing for retirement, but she believes she'll have to work for the rest of her life .

Echols lives in Alabama. She said she never made much money and has always lived frugally, but her rent and transportation alone cost her $1,000 monthly. She started taking Social Security early and receives $1,056 monthly — 25% less than she would have gotten had she waited until the federal retirement age of 67.

But she's still working part-time as a bus driver making $26 per hour to pay the rest of her bills.

"I don't see myself being able to retire, but I'm grateful and healthy," she said.

She's not alone: According to a NerdWallet study published last week of 2,100 adults, just 30% of respondents said they believe Social Security alone will allow them to live comfortably in retirement.

Over the past few months, Business Insider has spoken with over 40 baby boomers and some Gen Xers, all of whom are struggling in retirement or  fear they can't retire  because debt, low-paying jobs, and unexpected life circumstances have kept them from saving enough over the years. Though many say they are thankful to have Social Security payments at all, they aren't enough to fill the gap.

Social Security is supposed to be American retirees' safety net, but as it continually  lands in political crosshairs,  it might seem like a less safe bet than ever before. Full benefits are set to run out in 11 years unless Congress steps in with an infusion of funding.

"There's just a lot of people who expect Social Security to be a really important piece to their post-work life," Tracey Gronniger, managing director of economic security for the advocacy organization Justice in Aging, said.

Even with the current full benefits, some baby boomers are forced to continue working into their 70s and 80s, while retirees worry they may have to return to a part-time gig. Others said they're considering moving out of the country for a lower cost of living or moving in with their children.

"At this point in my life, my expectations are very low," said Cheryl Simmons , 62, who lives in her car in San Diego and makes $42,000 a year as a parking lot attendant — slightly too much to qualify for affordable housing. "I'll have to work until I drop."

Related stories

Social Security varies by age and income, but the average monthly check is $1,907

Social Security, created in 1935, was implemented during the Great Depression to assist the more than half of Americans in poverty, including older workers looking to retire.

"There is no tragedy in growing old, but there is tragedy in growing old without means of support," President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in a 1934 address .

Social Security benefits are based on a worker's average monthly income during their 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for inflation.

For example, an American earning an average income of about $66,000 who retires at 65 will have 39% of that annual income replaced by Social Security, according to SSA estimates . This compares to an average income replacement rate of slightly over 50% in OECD countries — and nearly 80% in Spain and Greece.

Americans can begin claiming Social Security at age 62 — but their monthly amount is often higher if they wait longer to collect benefits. In 2024, the maximum monthly benefit is $3,822 for those claiming the benefit before turning 70; for those claiming the benefit at age 70, the maximum benefit is $4,873. However, the average monthly check is much lower: $1,907.

An annual income of just under $23,000 doesn't go far in the US today. While Social Security was never meant to promise a life of luxury — and is ideally combined with savings and other investments — the baby boomers BI spoke to have struggled to save much at all because life events and low wages got in the way.

Some are part of the one in five older Americans who have no retirement savings at all. Experts say you can partially blame the US' switch to 401(k) accounts from pensions in the 1980s, which largely replaced guaranteed retirement payouts funded by employers with investment plans that require employees to opt in and provide the bulk of their savings.

While many employers do offer 401(k) matches to their employees, the amount can vary greatly between companies. And, because participation and employer matches are voluntary — and income-based — this opt-in system can cut down on employees' retirement savings and lead to even greater income inequality .

To help pay the bills, nearly 80% of retirees receive some Social Security income, per BI's calculations, and the Social Security Administration estimates that 97% of older adults will ultimately receive benefits.

Social Security indeed helps older Americans escape the technical definition of poverty . However, the official poverty line is based on a formula from the 1960s, a measurement that  experts previously told BI  is outdated and leaves many to fall through the cracks between needing help and making too much to qualify for assistance.

The baby boomers BI spoke with are not part of the group who have myriad investments, high-paying careers, or strong 401(k) employer matches. They are retired teachers, rideshare drivers, food service and retail workers; some live in a car or can't afford groceries — and they certainly feel like they are living in poverty.

Others, however, have minimal expenses and live in low-cost-of-living areas , allowing them to live comfortably on Social Security alone.

Those who are already living check to check said they've been forced to drain savings accounts because their income isn't enough to cover medical bills and unexpected expenses. And, with limited Social Security money, some boomers are forced to enroll in other government assistance programs like SNAP to put food on the table or return to work after retirement.

Mary Dacus , 62, and her husband Stephen, 67, live in Robinson, Illinois, on their combined $2,140 monthly Social Security income and $23 a month in SNAP. They've racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt to pay for groceries, utilities, and healthcare. They feel like it's their only way to survive.

"A lot of people think that, with Social Security, you get this big check, and you can move to Florida, and you could buy a boat and go fishing," she said. "That's not what it is."

Becky Davenport , 61, works at a nonprofit outside Anchorage, a high-cost-of-living area. She told BI that her expected $2,000 monthly Social Security payments may not be enough. The single mom fears she may need to move in with her sons or find a roommate. Medical costs, housing expenses, and transportation have all chipped away at her savings.

"I usually had more money going out than coming in," Davenport said. "I was kind of a master at juggling bills. I had some credit cards that I used for emergencies and ended up defaulting on all of those. I just managed to scratch out a living and keep a roof over my kids' heads."

Social Security solutions could include raising earnings caps and improving funding

With a presidential election coming up, Social Security is likely to be in the hot seat once again.

While Social Security is costly — it amounted to 21% of the federal budget in 2023 — it's widely popular. Polling has consistently shown bipartisan support for the program; a Pew Research Center poll of 8,709 adults in April 2024 found that almost every group thinks Social Security benefits should not be reduced. That includes 77% of Republicans and 83% of Democrats.

Already, former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump has proposed cutting taxes on benefits — a measure that an economist said could actually drain the program's coffers faster .

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with fellow Democrats, have proposed raising the earnings cap for Social Security taxes to offset hiking benefits by $2,400 a year. Currently, only income up to $168,600 is subject to Social Security tax, with income beyond that untaxed. On the other hand, some House Republicans have proposed hiking the eligibility age for the program.

Those proposals come against the backdrop of already-dwindling funding.

"We really want to see a more robust Social Security system," Gronniger said. Already, she said, the program is lifting millions of adults out of poverty — but, with a very low poverty line in the US, that's "not saying a ton."

"We could do a lot more because I think what we want is for people to actually have real economic security and so feel as though they can afford the things not only that they need, but that people should have," Gronniger said. "You shouldn't be worrying about whether or not you can pay for all of your food and all of your medicine and all of your housing."

But the dire straits older Americans have found themselves in, even with Social Security, point at a larger issue that might only get exacerbated: Retirement is becoming a luxury. As pensions dissipate and only higher-earning retirees have savings, Social Security might only become more pivotal for retirees. And that's already not working so well.

"I don't want to be rich, I just need to be comfortable," 62-year-old Angela Babin — who lives on her $1,100 monthly Social Security check — told BI. "I just want to know that I can have food when I need it and a nice roof over my head."

Are you living check to check on Social Security? Have you experienced loneliness because of your finances? If so, reach out to these reporters at [email protected] , [email protected] , and [email protected] .

Watch: Millions of homes could flood the US housing market thanks to boomers

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