Explore 15 user research methods beyond usability testing. We describe 5 scenarios where these methods offer a broad spectrum of insights for a better understanding of users.
Error messages can be a crucial point in the user experience. To be effective, they must be clearly visible, which can be accomplished by displaying them close to the error's source, using noticeable, redundant, and accessible indicators, designing them based on their impact, and avoiding displaying them prematurely.
Searching for a UX job and want an edge on your competition? Stop endlessly iterating over your portfolio and start practicing storytelling to ace your UX job interviews.
Manage your AI anxiety with two quick tips: small experiments and a news diet. Experiment with day-to-day communication and drafting with AI, as integrating AI into your research process. To avoid news overwhelm, subscribe to three weekly sources of information: a newsletter, an optimistic writing source, and a skeptical writing source.
Make user research and recruiting more efficient by keeping your own database of research participants. What’s important when choosing tools? What data should you store, and how should you govern the use of the database?
Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb for UX and not specific usability guidelines.
Empathy maps help UX teams visualize user attitudes and behaviors, building a shared understanding of end users while highlighting gaps in existing user data.
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.
User interviews have become a popular technique for getting user feedback, mainly because they are fast and easy. Use them to learn about users’ perceptions of your design, not about its usability.
User journeys and user flows both describe processes users go through in order to accomplish their goals, but they differ in scope, purpose, and format.
iOS 26’s visual language obscures content instead of letting it take the spotlight. New (but not always better) design patterns replace established conventions.
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.
In a card-sorting study, users organize topics into groups. Use this research method to create an information architecture that suits your users' expectations.
