Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your feedback! You make some very good points. In the end, the number of testers you need will depend on many factors. As I wrote in the article, sometimes five will be enough, sometimes not. It really depends on your project and other factors I outlined.

My goal with this article was to break the cycle of 'five users are enough' and hopefully make people question this assumption before they test. Again, five users could be enough, but it's really important to take this on a case-by-case basis.

And I agree with your point that testing with your actual users is better--that's what we found as well at Maze. However, when access to your own users isn't possible (perhaps you don't have them yet, or maybe it's a sensitive project), then recruiting users is a second best option.

As a final note, at Maze, we advocate twenty users because we do quantitative usability testing, and twenty users would allow you to get valid results. We outlined why in our short article here.

Generally, as a rule of thumb, I advocate everyone test with as many people as they can (provided they are suitable users). Be that five, or twenty, or one hundred--what's important is to test.

The purpose of this article was to start a conversation around a topic that was taken as a given in the industry, and I hope that goal was achieved. Thanks for your comment!

Hi Cristine!

Same here. And then at some point, I got curious about where the 5 came from and I wanted to look into that a bit more. The result is this article.

Hope you found it useful :)

Hi there Mitch,

That's some very interesting arguments you've been given. Of course, reasons for not conducting user testing are plenty, and most of the times they aren't based on any substantial evidence. I think convincing anyone that user testing is valuable is challenging since people are prone to sticking to their initial opinion. However, I still think it's worth a try and backing up your argument with data and use cases, such as examples of how other designers/companies do it, and potential benefits of user testing for the long run is usually the best bet. Of course, understanding where the other person comes from is also important.

Hi there Andrew,

These are very good points you raise! I agree, this type of testing doesn't cost anything but it really is worth it.