Insight : Streamlining Participant Recruitment in UX Research
Figma, Miro
Insight is a social journal and research platform empowering junior user researchers, students, and market researchers to recruit genuine study participants within budget constraints, with research-boosting and social features.
Motivation
As a junior UX researcher, I constantly struggled to find genuine participants for my studies-especially on a student budget. Every project felt like déjà vu: endless outreach, mismatched responses, and tools scattered across spreadsheets, Google Forms, and WhatsApp. I wasn’t alone. Conversations with peers and mentors revealed the same pain points.
I began by interviewing fellow design students, junior researchers, and freelancers. The stories were strikingly similar:
"I spend more time finding people than actually running my research."
“$45 per participant? That’s my entire project budget!”
“Most platforms are US-centric. I need Indian teachers, not US students.”
I benchmarked platforms like UserInterviews.com and Prolific.
46% of organizations identified participant recruitment as a primary challenge in conducting UX research (Userlytics2025)
$45–$90/session costs on platforms like UserInterviews.com exclude students and small organizations.
They worked well for big brands (Adobe, Amazon, Spotify), but less than 30% of UX researchers used them. Why?
80% of platforms focus on U.S./U.K. audiences, neglecting global diversity.
29% of researchers use dedicated tools; others resort to ad-hoc methods
"How might we make participant recruitment for research more affordable, accessible, and reliable for students, junior researchers, and small organizations?”
To delve deeper, we conducted surveys and interviews with our target audience. Key findings included
Junior UX Researcher& Student:
Needs affordable, reliable, quick access to relevant participants for course projects
Small Org/Freelancer:
Needs cost-effective, scalable recruitment for varied projects
Responder/Participant:
Wants recognition and easy participation
What if recruitment worked more like social media and ad platforms?
Affinity map helped us to create feature list.
I wanted Insight to feel modern, trustworthy, and energetic.
We took references of information architecture and global navigation diagram from Behance, Twitter, Userinterview.com, medium etc. We looked for a a lot of references from the best application available to make this one website.
Our first draft missed the mark on clarity and accessibility. User feedback led us to make it better
I also made fun interactions in landing page to keep it more modern, fun, and give that relaxing and stress free vibe
This project taught me that the best solutions come from listening deeply and iterating quickly. Social features and recognition aren’t just “nice to have”-they’re essential for trust and engagement. By integrating ad-based targeting and community features, we made research accessible to those who need it most.
Designing Insight was a journey from frustration to empowerment-not just for me, but for every student and researcher who’s ever struggled to find the right participants. I’m proud to have created a platform that turns recruitment from a barrier into a bridge for better research.