Mobile-first web designs cause significant usability issues when viewed on desktop. Content becomes overly dispersed across long scrolling pages with expansive white space and enlarged images and fonts, making it difficult for users to consume and understand the information.
Tables of contents provide a page overview and direct access to specific sections. When designing a table of contents, carefully compare different placement and styling options to maximize usability.
In-page links, often embedded in the table of contents, help users navigate to specific content sections on the same page. While research showed increased user familiarity with the design pattern, carefully consider content structures before implementation.
Accordions provide an overview of the whole page and mitigate the problem of long mobile pages, allowing users to directly access the content of interest.
Altering the normal pace or direction of scrolling can contradict user expectations, control, and freedom. If businesses adopt the pattern, they can minimize usability risks by weighing it against functional value, cognitive load, and user efficiency.
Accordions simplify long pages, but reduce visibility and increase interaction cost. Use them on content-heavy pages where users don't need to combine information across sections.
Be skeptical of the marketing claims being made by AI tools designed for UX researchers. Many of these systems are not able to do everything they claim.
A skeleton screen is used as a placeholder for a loading page. This progress indicator is used for full-page loads and reduces the perceived loading time.
International purchasers are more comfortable shopping in their own language. Follow these tips to make the language switcher on your site more discoverable and usable.
Surveys asking users to give feedback during or after an interaction should not interrupt the users' task and should be sent to the appropriate channel. They need to be short, easy to complete, and give the user the opportunity to provide details about their experience.
Infinite scrolling can create great user experiences, but it also has weaknesses. Consider 3 alternative design patterns that may work better for your product: A load-more button, integrated pagination within a long scroll, and traditional pages.
Our Beijing-based user research team conducted a field study in automated restaurants that serve diners with no staff. Current designs have some advantages, but the UI is too complicated for customized ordering.
Infinite scrolling through long lists of homogeneous items can lower interaction costs, but is less suited to support specific tasks such as finding a particular item.
It can be tempting to follow the next big UX trend. Before adopting a UX trend, we must evaluate how the trend will support users and impact our workflows.
Metaverse projects must follow the standard user-centered design process, including prototyping and usability testing, to result in useful designs that people will want to use.
