Articles & Videos

  • Why UX?

    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

    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.

  • AR-Onboarding Walkthroughs in Mobile Apps

    Mobile apps using augmented reality benefit from interactive walkthroughs that guide users through a simple AR experience. These walkthroughs should include information about what to expect, how to handle the device, and how to prepare the environment.

  • Who Does DesignOps? Common DesignOps Roles and Partnerships

    Many roles can contribute to DesignOps at an organization. Organization- and design-team structures play a large role in determining who should take on DesignOps responsibilities.

  • Types of User Pain Points

    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.

  • Audience-Based Website Navigation

    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.

  • Accidental Dismissal of Overlays: A Common Mobile Usability Problem

    Overlays often need to be dismissed in a manner that goes against users’ expectations.

  • Dot Coding: An Activity to Elicit Perspectives in UX Workshops

    By placing colored dots on items, participants in UX workshops or group sessions can manage the collaborative discussion of research findings, design ideas, goals, or anything else.

  • "Why" Beats "What" in UX (UX Slogan #6)

    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 Number One Reason for Not Doing UX Research

    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.

  • 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.