Too few participants per study
Five users is a heuristic, not a guarantee. Sample sizes stay small because moderation doesn't scale, and stakeholders quietly discount findings that don't match their priors.
An AI co-moderator for your hardest bottleneck.
Diaform handles moderation and first-pass synthesis. You run more studies with more participants, and spend your time where you're irreplaceable: framing the question and interpreting the result.
14-day free trial · No demo required
The bottleneck is moderation, not insight
UX researchers don't have a thinking problem, they have a throughput problem. Recruiting eats half the week, sessions eat the other half, and synthesis happens late at night. By the time the deck is ready, the product team has already moved on. The hardest part isn't doing the research; it's getting enough of it to matter.
Diaform is an AI co-moderator. You design the protocol: discussion guide, probes, must-ask follow-ups, areas of interest. The AI runs the conversations in parallel. Voice or text, native language, with adaptive probing that matches how a trained moderator would steer. You move from 8 sessions per study to 80, and the synthesis lands in your inbox already coded.
Where UX research breaks at scale
The same intro, fifty times
You explain the study, walk through consent, set the context, every single session. Hours of skilled time spent on a script that should be automated.
Synthesis is the longest step
Recordings pile up. Coding takes longer than the interviews themselves. The insight is real but the deck arrives two sprints late.
Why UX researchers use Diaform
Adaptive moderation
The AI follows your guide, probes when answers are shallow, drills into JTBD signals, and recovers from off-topic responses. Think of a trained junior moderator who never tires.
Voice or text, participant's choice
Voice answers come back 2-3× longer and richer. Participants can speak naturally; the AI transcribes, summarizes, and tags themes automatically.
First-pass synthesis built in
Every transcript arrives with a summary, sentiment, and theme tags. Cross-study clustering surfaces patterns you'd otherwise spend a week coding.
Per-study knowledge base
Upload your discussion guide, prototype links, and product context. The AI uses it to ask informed follow-ups and stay on protocol.
30+ languages
Run global studies without translators. The AI runs in the participant's native language and summarizes back to English.
ResearchOps friendly
One link per study, branded subdomain, CSV and webhook exports. Drops cleanly into your existing research repository.
Studies UX researchers run on Diaform
Discovery interviews
Open-ended exploration with target users. The AI probes naturally so you get the depth without sitting in 30 sessions.
Jobs-to-be-Done
Run JTBD interviews at scale. The AI follows the timeline and pushes for the trigger, anxiety, and progress story.
Usability friction studies
Pair with a prototype link. Capture think-aloud reactions and frustration moments without a moderator on every call.
Persona refresh
Quarterly studies to validate that your personas still match who's using the product.
Concept testing
Show a concept, ask for unaided reaction, then probe. Run with 100 users in a week instead of 8 over a month.
Diary-style follow-ups
Send the same link weekly to a panel and watch how perceptions evolve over time.
Frequently asked questions
Q
Is this trying to replace UX researchers?
No, it's a co-moderator. The framing, hypothesis, and interpretation stay with you. The AI handles the mechanical parts: explaining consent, asking the script, probing where you'd probe, transcribing, and tagging. The result is you running more studies, not fewer.
Q
How rigorous are the AI probes?
You set the probing strategy in the study guide: areas of interest, must-ask follow-ups, examples of strong versus weak answers. The AI uses that as its frame. For sensitive or highly nuanced studies, you can review and re-prompt before publishing.
Q
What about consent, data handling, and ethics?
Participants see a consent screen before the conversation starts. You control what context the AI has access to. Transcripts are stored in your account and you can export or delete at any time.
Q
Can I export to my research repository?
Yes. CSV export is built in, plus webhooks for tools like Dovetail, Notion, or your internal repo. Each conversation comes with structured fields and a summary you can pipe into existing tagging schemes.
Q
How do you handle vague or off-topic answers?
The AI is trained to probe when an answer is short or generic, asking for a specific example, recent moment, or contrast. If a participant goes off-topic, it acknowledges and steers back to the next area in the guide.
Q
Does it work for moderated usability tests?
Yes. Pair the link with a prototype URL and ask think-aloud questions at each step. You won't get the same fidelity as a live observer, but for unmoderated-style usability with real probing, it's a major upgrade.
Explore more
Dive into the other ways Diaform can power your research.
AI user research platform
The full platform overview. Moderation, probing, synthesis, and reporting in one tool.
Jobs-to-be-Done interviews
Run JTBD studies at scale with an AI interviewer that knows the framework.
Usability testing
Capture think-aloud usability sessions with an AI that probes on friction in the moment.
Ready to upgrade your feedback loop?
Stop guessing why users leave. Start an automated interviewer in seconds and get the deep insights of a Zoom call at the scale of a survey.
14-day free trial · No demo required