Articles & Videos

  • UX & Marketing: Balancing Business Goals and Supporting Users

    There are inevitable tensions that form between UX and marketing teams because of their differing approaches to users and differing priorities. Regardless, both teams can still work together to find effective solutions that address those tensions.

  • Democratization of UX

    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: 3 Benefits

    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.

  • 5 Common Ethical Dilemmas in User Research

    In this article we discuss best practices when researching with vulnerable participants, tackling sensitive topics, using deception, and lack of confidentiality in user research studies.

  • Data vs. Findings vs. Insights: The Differences Explained

    Data refers to unanalyzed user observations, findings capture patterns among data points, and insights are the actionable opportunities based on research and business goals.

  • Building Rapport with UX Research Participants

    Researchers should build rapport and embrace real human interactions to put participants at ease during a study.

  • When to Empathy Map

    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.

  • 3 Common IA Mistakes (that Are All Due to Low Information Scent)

    Vague call-to-action verbs, unnecessary parallel language, and conversational tone of voice used in links and navigation labels are confusing. Use labels with strong information scent instead.

  • User Journeys vs. User Flows

    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.

  • Prototype Specifications: 3 Types

    Element, functionality, and content are three types of prototype specifications that help us document design details that are otherwise easily overlooked.

  • 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 for UX and not specific usability guidelines.

  • Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking

    Empathy maps help UX teams visualize user attitudes and behaviors, building a shared understanding of end users while highlighting gaps in existing user data.

  • Journey Mapping 101

    A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.

  • How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation

    Step-by-step instructions to review your product to find potential usability and experience problems. Download a free heuristic evaluation template.

  • 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.

  • Service Blueprints: Definition

    Service blueprints visualize organizational processes in order to optimize how a business delivers a user experience.

  • Design Thinking 101

    Design thinking is a user-centered process that helps teams understand needs, generate ideas, test solutions, and drive innovation.

  • Usability (User) Testing 101

    UX researchers use this popular observational methodology to uncover problems and opportunities in designs.

  • User Interviews: How, When, and Why to Conduct Them

    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.

  • Usability 101: Introduction to Usability

    Usability makes designs easy, efficient, and satisfying to use. Improve it through early, repeated user testing with real users

  • User Journeys vs. User Flows

    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.

  • Affinity Diagramming for Collaboratively Sorting UX Findings and Design Ideas

    Use affinity diagramming to cluster and organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops.

  • 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.

  • Using “How Might We” Questions to Ideate on the Right Problems

    Constructing how-might-we questions generates creative solutions while keeping teams focused on the right problems to solve.

  • Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

    iOS 26’s visual language obscures content instead of letting it take the spotlight. New (but not always better) design patterns replace established conventions.

  • User-Interface Elements: Glossary

    Use this glossary to quickly clarify definitions for key graphical user-interface elements and controls.

  • 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.

  • Card Sorting: Uncover Users' Mental Models for Better Information Architecture

    In a card-sorting study, users organize topics into groups. Use this research method to create an information architecture that suits your users' expectations.

  • Open-Ended vs. Closed Questions in User Research

    Open-ended questions result in deeper insights. Closed questions provide clarification and detail, but no unexpected insights.

  • The Definition of User Experience (UX)

    "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.