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.
You cannot do everything, and in fact the product would be worse if it included everything. Thus, UX relies heavily on prioritization to determine what features add the most value relative to the resources needed to deliver them.
Websites with many categories can benefit from showing navigation menu options in a vertical list: vertical menus allow for easy expansion, are easy to scan, plus users are familiar with this design pattern.
Key arguments why companies should have systematic user-experience processes. Plus a discussion of the main arguments against UX. (Jakob Nielsen's UX Conference keynote.)
Visual hierarchy can help users decide where to look in a user interface: what's most important can be shown by color and size, and what things belong together can be shown by proximity and common regions.
Problems with a customer's experience can be big or small and fall into 3 categories: interaction level, journey level, and relationship level. UX resources should be prioritized to find and fix the most painful issues.
Segmenting a website's navigation by audience categories will often degrade usability, either because users belong in multiple categories, or because they feel the need to look at content targeted at several segments.
Barriers from all angles can make doing user research seem impossible. But recognizing the challenges and knowing you are not alone in having them, makes them easier to overcome so that you can get user data after all.
Data about what users do is valuable, but not nearly as valuable as information about why people did something. Such "why" insight should drive UX design decisions.
The question of "how many users" has 3 answers when doing contextual inquiry: users per visit, visits per day, and the total number of visits in a study (which again varies depending on the type of design project).
