Ideation Articles & Videos

  • Using AI for UX Work: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about the best ways to use artificial intelligence for UX work.

  • AI as a Creative Teammate

    AI acts as a creative teammate in group settings as it does for solo work. Thoughtful facilitation ensures teams leverage AI effectively in workshops and critiques.

  • 3 Design Processes for High Usability: Iterative Design, Parallel Design, and Competitive Testing

    3 methods for increasing UX quality by exploring and testing diverse design ideas work even better when you use them together.

  • NN/g’s Free UX Templates and Guides

    Use this curated set of free NN/g templates and guides for inspiration and to accelerate your product development activities and UX career.

  • The Diverge-and-Converge Technique for UX Workshops

    By first working independently on a problem and then converging to share insights, teams can leverage the benefits of both work styles, leading to rapid data analysis, diverse ideas, and high-quality designs.

  • 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.

  • AI as a UX Assistant

    Generative-AI bots support UX professionals by acting as content editors, research assistants, ideation partners, and design assistants.

  • CSD Matrix: Framework and Template for Shared Understanding

    A CSD matrix outlines and simplifies project context and understanding by categorizing information into three distinct types: certainties, suppositions, and doubts.

  • Mood Boards in UX: How and Why to Use Them

    Create mood boards to collect visual inspiration, communicate brand identity, and decide on the product's visual direction.

  • Groupthink in UX Work

    Groupthink is the human tendency to follow the opinion of the majority. This instinct can save time but can also lead us on the wrong path.

  • 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.

  • How to Build a Participant List for UX Workshops

    A successful UX workshop includes a relatively small number of diverse participants and prioritizes users’ needs.

  • How to Draw a Wireframe (Even if You Can’t Draw)

    Even people with limited drawing abilities can learn to sketch a wireframe if they learn a few common conventions used to represent various design elements.

  • Scenario Mapping: Design Ideation Using Personas

    Persona-based scenarios can be leveraged to influence design through guided brainstorming workshops called scenario-mapping workshops.

  • 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.

  • Remote UX Work: Guidelines and Resources

    Even though in-person UX sessions are typically ideal, sometimes budget or travel restrictions necessitate remote UX work. This article presents guidelines for remote user research, UX workshops or presentations, and collaboration.

  • How to Get Stakeholders to Sketch: A Magic Formula

    Collaborative sketching is a powerful tool for building buy-in for design decisions; however, it can be difficult to get stakeholders comfortable with the idea of drawing in a group setting. These variables help make group sketching more productive and effective with stakeholders.

  • Remote Ideation: Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

    Asynchronous remote ideation allows people to contribute ideas whenever it’s convenient to do so, but synchronous sessions lead to faster results and more team building.

  • Remote UX Work: The NN/g Case Study

    Remote UX work is challenging, but using digital collaboration and communication tools can mitigate some of its difficulties. Our recommendations are based on NN/g’s experience as a remote company.

  • Collaborative Agile Activities Reduce Silos and Align Perspectives

    All members of an Agile team, regardless of design skills, can contribute to the design of a product or feature during the development process.