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    • 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

      Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.

    • When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

      Modern day UX research methods answer a wide range of questions. To know when to use which method, each of 20 methods is mapped across 3 dimensions and over time within a typical product-development process.

    • Usability 101: Introduction to Usability

      What is usability? How, when, and where to improve it? Why should you care? Overview answers basic questions + how to run fast user tests.

    • Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty

      Flat interfaces often use weak signifiers. In an eyetracking experiment comparing different kinds of clickability clues, UIs with weak signifiers required more user effort than strong ones.

    • F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (original study)

      Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

    • Design Thinking 101

      What is design thinking and why should you care? History and background plus a quick overview and visualization of 6 phases of the design thinking process. Approaching problem solving with a hands-on, user-centric mindset leads to innovation, and innovation can lead to differentiation and a competitive advantage.

    • 10 Best Intranets of 2017

      The winners of our 16th Intranet Design Annual came from diverse industries and relied on a combination of internal resources and external intranet help.

    • The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think

      Across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related abilities, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks.

    • UX Research Cheat Sheet

      User research can be done at any point in the design cycle. This list of methods and activities can help you decide which to use when.

    • When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps

      Journey maps combine two powerful instruments—storytelling and visualization—in order to help teams understand and address customer needs.

    • Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users

      Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

    • Design a Brilliant SharePoint Intranet

      SharePoint requires install plus in-depth UX design and development. Forge strong relationship with SharePoint UX designers and developers for successful intranets. And take advice from winning teams who have made SharePoint an effective enterprise tool.

    • The Most Hated Online Advertising Techniques

      Modal ads, ads that reorganize content, and autoplaying video ads were among the most disliked. Ads that are annoying on desktop become intolerable on mobile.

    • UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet

      Empathy maps, customer journey maps, experience maps, and service blueprints depict different processes and have different goals, yet they all build common ground within an organization.

    • Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations

      Follow these well-established — but frequently ignored — UX design guidelines to ensure users can successfully complete your website forms.

    • Mega Menus Work Well for Site Navigation

      A mega menu (a big, 2-dimensional drop-down panel) groups navigation options to eliminate scrolling and use typography, icons, and tooltips to explain users' choices.

    • How Users Read on the Web

      Users don't read Web pages, they scan. Highlighting and concise writing improved measured usability 47-58%. Marketese imposed a cognitive burden on users and was disliked.

    • Placeholders in Form Fields Are Harmful

      Labels or sample text inside a form field makes it difficult for people to remember what information belongs in that field once they start data entry.

    • Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design

      The ten most egregious offenses against users. Web design disasters and HTML horrors are legion, though many usability atrocities are less common than they used to be.

    • Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics

      Discoverability is cut almost in half by hiding a website’s main navigation. Also, task time is longer and perceived task difficulty increases.

    • 5 Steps for Effective Diary Studies in Customer Journey Research

      Diary studies are a longitudinal research method used to understand user interactions at different touchpoints, which is especially useful for omnichannel user research. Participants record their reactions as experiences unfold throughout the customer journey.

    • Personalization versus Customization

      Users expect that the content they see will be relevant to their individual needs. Personalization and customization are techniques that can help you ensure that users see what matters to them.

    • 10 Things Executives Should Know About Intranets

      A good intranet increases productivity and can be an excellent motivational tool. Intranets are vital to an organization's success and requires executive support. Learn what management can do to support better intranets.

    • Focus on Results, Not on Perfect UX (Don Norman)

      When designing, think about what the person is trying to accomplish. Don't let the design get in the way.

    • Persuasive Techniques for B2B and Intranets

      Tips for simplifying decision-making and engagement on B2B and intranet sites.

    • 4 Key Components of Service Blueprints

      A service blueprint visualizes the relationships between different service components — people, props, and processes. Four key elements comprise a framework for service blueprinting that can be scaled to any scope or timeline.

    • User Testing: Why & How (Jakob Nielsen)

      There is no excuse for not performing usability studies. They’re fast and cheap, and very convincing. Test with representative customers using realistic task, then be amazed by what you observe.

    • Coping with Being the One-Person UX Team

      How to maximize your impact when you are the sole UX specialist on your project or in your organization.

    • Plain Language For Everyone, Even Experts

      In our usability study with domain experts, we discovered that even highly educated readers crave succinct information that is easy to scan, just like everyone else.

    • 3 Rules for Better Comparison Tables

      Successful comparison tables help people make decisions quickly. Simplicity, consistency, and informational are qualities of good comparison tables.

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