user-centered design Articles & Videos

  • Experience Design: Dropping the “User” from “User Experience”

    AI is expanding UX beyond human users to agents acting on their behalf. Experience design names this broader field, which still centers on people’s goals.

  • No New Name Has Replaced “UX”

    A survey of 604 tech and design professionals found that “UX” remains the default name for our field, while alternative names remain fragmented.

  • Don’t Outsource the Learning: Why Human-Led Research Still Matters in the Age of AI

    Even if AI matches researcher-output quality, human-led research will remain essential — the team learning from observing users can't be outsourced.

  • Workshopping UX Research with Stakeholders

    Three types of UX-research workshops help teams understand UX research, build empathy for users, and apply insights to design concepts.

  • Personas Make Users Memorable

    Personas support user-centered design throughout a project’s lifecycle by making user groups feel real and tangible.

  • User-Ecosystem Thinking: An Anthropologic Approach to Design

    The NN/g UX Podcast featured coauthors Mike Youngblood and Ben Chesluk, who are challenging the traditional, outdated model of “users” in UX.

  • “Powered By AI” Is Not a Value Proposition

    Achieving product-market fit and practicing user-centered design become difficult when AI is presented as a product’s main value.

  • The UX Reckoning: Prepare for 2025 and Beyond

    In 2025, reevaluate tactics; use AI to deliver user value; and develop deep UX skills, instead of relying on toolkits.

  • Experience Design: The Next Iteration of UX?

    As an umbrella term for UX/CX work, “experience design” reflects blended roles and core human-centered principles.

  • Alt Text: What to Write

    Images are decorative, functional, or informative. Skip alt text for decorative. Describe the action for functional. Convey the message for informative.

  • Alt Text: Not Always Needed

    Write alt text that communicates an image's purpose without repeating page content. Focus on meaning rather than visual description.

  • What Is User Experience (and What Is It Not)?

    “User experience” describes both users’ relationships with products and a growing professional industry of practitioners aiming to improve those relationships.

  • Psychology for UX: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about principles of human psychology and how they relate to UX design.

  • 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.

  • UX Basics: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn more about the basics of user experience.

  • Three Pillars of User Delight

    Delight can be experienced viscerally, behaviorally, and reflectively. A great design is supported by all three of these pillars and is best evaluated with specific research methods.

  • Antipersonas: What, How, Who, and Why?

    Antipersonas help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.

  • Day-0 Calls: Avoid UX-Workshop Disasters by Aligning on the Basics in Advance

    A lack of agreement on goals and other basics can derail an entire workshop. Hold a call prior to the workshop to establish these basics in advance.

  • Evaluate Interface Learnability with Cognitive Walkthroughs

    Learnability is a crucial component of UX for complex and novel interfaces. Cognitive walkthroughs can identify design problems that derail new users.

  • 5 Facilitation Principles for Both UX Workshops and User Tests

    Both UX workshops and usability tests benefit when facilitators are focused on goals, follow a meeting guide yet are open to improvisation, encourage participants to act, and don’t talk too much.