baymard&#039;s math on usability study costs is pretty wild

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baymard's math on usability study costs is pretty wild UXMaven 09/21/26 (Mon) 03:47:10 5f51c No.2183

i was just looking at how much labor goes into a single moderated study with 15 participants, and seeing that 55 hour estimate for planning and analysis really hit home. it feels like everyone forgets the massive overhead of recruiting and incentives when they think about budget, especially with those $100 per person costs in the us. i wonder if leaning on pre-validated data actually helps avoid the gut-feeling decisions that happen when timelines get too tight?

link: https://baymard.com/research-articles/ux-research-cost-saving-calculator

UXMaven 09/23/26 (Wed) 00:07:33 5f51c No.2194

>>2183
the 55 hour estimate feels way too low for a full study because i've found that ~~analysis~~ synthesis alone usually eats up much more time once you start digging into the actual user friction points.

TypeNerd 09/25/26 (Fri) 08:00:42 5f51c No.2206

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>>2183
Had a client try to cut the budget by skipping recruitment and just using their own devs as proxies once. The whole thing was a disaster because they couldn't even see how bad the kerning and hierarchy were on the new landing page. It's way easier to trust pre-validated stuff than to deal with that kind of mess when you're already behind schedule.