One of the ways to get your maze tested is by hiring participants from the Maze panel.
Maze uses third-party providers for its panel features. We partner with Prolific and Cint for unmoderated panel testing, and Respondent for moderated panel testing (currently in beta testing).
This article covers sourcing panel participants for unmoderated testing.
Learn other ways to share your maze
Learn how to source your own participants in our ultimate recruiting guide
In this article:
- Who can use this feature?
- Before you start
- Pricing
- How many testers do I need?
- Criteria
- Placing an order
- Order summary
- When to expect results
- Results dashboard
- How to stop a hired test order
- Reporting a hired tester
Who can use this feature?
The Maze panel is available on all plans.
All team members can place hired tester orders.
Before you start
- There’s no hard limit to the number of blocks a maze can have. However, it’s only possible to hire panel testers for mazes with a maximum estimated length of 30 minutes. This limitation is in place to guarantee that testers are compensated fairly for their time. Learn more about length limits for panel orders
- Double-check that your questions and tasks are clear, and use context screens whenever needed. Learn best practices for introducing your maze to testers
- Always preview and test your maze thoroughly before placing an order. It's important to verify your test can be completed fully before placing an order. For example, if testers get stuck on a prototype test, or if there's a problem with your conditional logic, you may find that your results aren't as usable as they could've been.
- If comparing prototypes on two separate mazes, please be aware that we don't currently have a way to prevent testers from taking both tests.
- End-of-test redirects aren't supported for Maze panel orders. Hired testers won't see the CTA at the end of the test.
- It's not possible to have hired testers use the PWA to complete a maze.
- The only way you should screen testers is by using the Screener block (currently in closed beta testing) or the targeting filters available when placing the order. If you exclude hired testers from completing your test using your own custom knock-out/screening questions or conditional logic, you'll pay for each tester session. Testers from our panel are entitled to compensation for participating and mustn't be screened out in this way, and shouldn't be reported.
- Consent is acquired from panel participants through their acceptance of terms of service from the panel provider in use (Prolific and Cint).
Pricing
You can order between 1 and 250 testers for individual mazes.
It’s also possible to purchase credit bundles at app.maze.co/credits:
- 50 credits: USD$250
- 100 credits: USD$500
- 500 credits: USD$2500
Unmoderated mazes
For unmoderated mazes without custom screening, 1 credit equals 1 study response from a participant. If the maze includes a Screener block, 3 credits equals 1 response from a participant.
Credits aren’t dependent on the number of blocks in the maze—i.e. the cost is the same if your maze has 5 or 10 blocks.
However, to guarantee that testers are compensated fairly for their time, it’s only possible to hire panel testers for mazes with a maximum estimated length of 30 minutes. Learn more about the maze length limits for panel orders
Moderated interview studies
For interview studies, credits aren’t dependent on interview duration. Instead, they’re priced based on the type of participant.
The price (which is still in beta) is all-inclusive of screener questions and incentives:
- 25 credits for B2C (General population)
- 45 credits for B2B (Industry experts)
How many testers do I need?
The number of testers you need depends on the type of research you're running. We recommend testing with at least 20 testers for unmoderated studies and 5–10 for moderated studies.
Learn more about the ideal number of testers
Criteria
The Maze panel is powered by Prolific and Cint. To learn more about the participants, please see Prolific's and Cint's documentation.
You can select the following screening criteria:
- Basic: Country, Age, Sex
- Advanced: Demographics & Geography, Work & Education, Health & Well-being, Family & Relationships, Beliefs, Interests & Lifestyle, Technology & IT, Shopping & Consumer Habits, Finance & Banking, Research, Other. Advanced filters are available for Organization plan users.
Learn more about the panel filters
Placing an order
Before placing an order for hired testers, you need to create a maze and send it live. If you need help creating a maze, read our guide to get started.
On the Share page of your live maze, click Hire from our Panel.
Step 1: Criteria
- Select a Country to source your testers from.
- Optionally, you can also refine their Age and Gender.
- If you’re on the Organization plan, you can also select advanced filters for your testers.
Step 2: Settings
- Select the number of participants (between 1 and 250) you want to include in the order. How many testers do I need?
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If needed, select the type of device you want participants to take the test on: Desktop, Mobile, Tablet.
If your maze includes a prototype or website test, the supported devices are automatically pre-selected based on the dimensions of your screen. It’s not possible to order tests for devices that wouldn’t support the size of the screens used in the maze. This means that, when testing a desktop prototype or website, you can only hire testers on desktop devices. If testing mobile screens, you can hire testers on any type of device.
Step 3: Check-out
- Double-check your order details. Please note that you won’t be able to edit the filters after placing the order. If you want to stop an order before its completion, please follow the steps in this section.
- Select your payment method. If you've purchased a credit bundle, you can use your available credits. Otherwise, you can pay for this individual order with your credit card. We accept major debit/credit cards.
- Before proceeding, you must agree to the Panel Terms and Conditions.
Order summary
After placing a panel order, you can see a summary of the order on the Share page. To do so:
- Open the Share page for your maze with a panel order. Tester orders will appear on that page.
- Click the panel order row to view the order summary.
- The summary includes all order details, such as the number of testers and the applied filters.
When to expect results
Results start coming in as soon as you place the order. Orders are often fulfilled quickly, but Maze doesn't guarantee a particular turnaround time. Every panel order stays active until completed.
A few factors can extend the turnaround time for tester orders:
- Targeting filters may constrain the pool of available testers and extend the turnaround time.
- The length of the test can also play a role. If the test is longer than average, you’ll see a higher rate of testers abandoning it or not picking it up at all, which also slows down turnaround time.
Results dashboard
All hired testers who completed the maze will appear in your Results dashboard with a "Panel session" label beneath their tester ID in the list of testers. This is true even if you made multiple orders (e.g. using different targeting criteria.)
Any hired testers who started the maze but haven't completed it will appear with an "Anonymous session" label instead. Learn more
How to stop a hired test order
Panel orders don’t stop automatically. They stay active until the number of participants you’ve selected has completed your maze.
In some cases, you might want to stop a panel order before it runs its course. For example, if you need to change the targeting filters (since you can’t edit them on active orders).
What happens when an order is stopped?
After stopping the test, any unused credits will be available in your credit balance.
Stop an order
To stop a panel order, simply stop your maze from collecting new results. You can do this in the maze settings.
Archiving the project or deleting the maze will also stop any active orders and refund you any unused credits.
Reporting a hired tester
When recruiting testers from Maze, the quality of the test results you receive is our biggest concern.
Our goal is for you to get results quickly, and that you can trust the results to make informed decisions confidently, based on the data you've collected.
If a hired tester hasn't met your standards, you can report them from within your project's test results.
Learn more about reporting a hired tester
Still need help?
If you have any questions or concerns, please let our Support team know — we'll be happy to help!