usability research Articles & Videos

  • The Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design on Desktop

    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.

  • Accordion Editing and Apple Picking: Early Generative-AI User Behaviors

    Two new user behaviors are prevalent in interactions with text-based AI chatbots. User research shows the iterative and often complex ways users engage with AI tools for productivity.

  • Confounding Variables in Quantitative Studies

    Confounding variables interfere with quantitative studies, leading to inaccurate results. Avoid introducing such variables by randomizing your study’s conditions and keeping your research questions focused.

  • Cognitive Walkthroughs Help Assess Interface Learnability

    A cognitive walkthrough is a task-based usability-inspection technique used to evaluate the learnability of a system from the perspective of a new user.

  • Usability Testing With Older Adults

    When conducting usability testing with older adults, understand your participants’ needs and accommodate them accordingly.

  • Pilot Testing in UX Research

    Pilot testing involves conducting one or two test sessions to evaluate the design of a usability study. It checks for any issues before the actual testing phase, leading to more reliable results.

  • Usability Test Facilitation: 6 Mistakes to Avoid

    Become a better usability testing facilitator by avoiding common missteps, like asking leading questions or reacting to user behavior.

  • Informed Consent for UX Research

    Ethically sound UX research requires informed consent from a research participant. Informed consent means the participant fully understands what the study entails and the potential consequences of participating.

  • Help Users Think Aloud

    Help users think aloud by explaining what it is and why it's useful, reinforcing the behavior, and prompting along the way.

  • Problem Space and Solution Space Research

    Both problem-space and solution-space research are needed to design products that are useful and usable.

  • The Hawthorne Effect or Observer Bias in User Research

    Individuals often modify their behavior if they know they are being observed. That phenomenon became known as the Hawthorne effect or the observer bias. We can mitigate this effect by building rapport, designing natural tasks, and spending more time with study participants.

  • Conducting Mobile Accessibility Research with Screen-Reader Users

    Use word of mouth to recruit research participants who rely on screen readers. Conduct the study in person to help participants feel comfortable, and plan to record the screen-reader output.

  • 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.

  • UX Research Roadmaps

    A UX research roadmap is a living artifact that prioritizes and communicates a team’s future research efforts, from early discovery-based initiatives to later-stage usability testing.

  • The System Usability Scale (SUS)

    The SUS is a well-established 10-question survey administered at the end of a user test; it gives you a measure of the perceived usability of your product and enables you to compare it with others.

  • Usability 101

    Usability assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. Usability is defined by 5 quality components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction.

  • How Much UX Do You Need?

    Spend more on UX design projects that have a higher risk of failure from bad design or a higher payoff from great design.

  • Introducing a Participant to a Usability Test: A Demonstration

    Facilitation experts demonstrate how to prepare a participant for the test session. Use a facilitator’s script to help remember the important information that participants need to know.

  • You Have the Users You Have

    The only realistic design strategy is to cater to the actual people who use your product, instead of designing for an idealized super-user who knows more and is more motivated than the real audience.

  • Using the Funnel Technique in Usability Testing

    Even when you want to test a specific feature, start with broader tasks to capture natural user behavior and observe what participants would do on their own. If they fail, follow up with directed tasks.