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.
Content inventories and audits shift a team's mindset from content quantity to content quality. They reveal relationships between content to resolve problems and support new content creation.
Hybrid workshops are the ultimate test of facilitation skills: you must bridge the gap between in-person and remote participants, not widen the divide. There are three types of hybrid workshops and each presents its own set of logistical nightmares.
Confounding variables can affect the validity of data collected during research studies. It's important for researchers to know what they are and how to identify them.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be gamed, and its definition loses information and precision by treating fairly dissimilar responses in the same way. It should be used together with other UX metrics rather than in isolation.
Democratization of UX work, or making it acceptable and accessible for everyone, must be accompanied by due diligence: setting guidelines, educating others, and demystifying the process.
Product instrumentation tells us when and how much people use different aspects of our product. This insight can inform feature prioritization, validate our assumptions, and identify potential user problems.
Empathy maps can be used to plan for future research studies, capture insights during current user research, and communicate research insights from research that has already been conducted.
