Web Usability Articles & Videos

  • Scrolling and Attention

    People scroll vertically more than they used to, but new eyetracking data shows that they will still look more above the page fold than below it.

  • User-Experience Quiz: 2017 UX Year in Review

    Test your UX knowledge by taking our quiz. All questions and answers are based on articles that we published last year.

  • Zigzag Image–Text Layouts Make Scanning Less Efficient

    In two-column layouts, vertically aligned images support efficient scanning better than images that alternate placement with text.

  • Horizontal Attention Leans Left

    Users spend 80% of the viewing time on the left half of the page vs. 20% on the right half. Standard designs will maximize user efficiency and company profits.

  • Back-to-Top Button Design Guidelines

    9 UX guidelines for Back to Top links which help users navigate to the top of long pages. Depending on users’ needs, other techniques may be more appropriate on some sites.

  • "Get Started" Stops Users

    A generic Get Started call-to-action attracts clicks, but also misleads users and acts as a roadblock for those looking to get information about the company.

  • Homepage Links Remain a Necessity

    A site logo linking to the homepage is not enough. Logo design and placement, as well as the presence of a text link to the homepage affect success of navigation to homepage.

  • Instilling Confidence in Online Shoppers: I Bought a Sofa Online and Good UX Sealed the Deal

    A stellar user experience focused on users’ question and needs can persuade shoppers to make big-ticket purchases online.

  • Anchors OK? Re-Assessing In-Page Links

    While jump links have caused problems in the past, they can successfully be used to move users down long pages and directly to content, on any screen size.

  • Flat-Design Best Practices

    Avoid the negative side effects of flat design by clearly differentiating between clickable and unclickable elements.

  • User-Experience Quiz: 2016 UX Year in Review

    Test your UX knowledge by taking our quiz. All questions and answers are based on articles that we published last year.

  • Give Thanks for Good UX

    User experiences that bring joy through ease or delight deserve our appreciation. We extend our gratitude for some of this year’s design improvements.

  • Are Chinese Websites Too Complex?

    Testing finds that Chinese and Western users experience the same difficulties with complex sites, but Chinese tend to complain less about complexity and prefer fairly high information density.

  • Top 10 Enduring Web-Design Mistakes

    A large-scale usability study revealed the most common and damaging web-design mistakes of today. They aren't surprising or new - they're enduring issues that continue to hurt website usability.

  • Minimize the Need for Customer Service to Improve the Omnichannel UX

    Contacting customer service often reflects on UX. To reduce such failures, understand the customer journey and support it through UI design.

  • WeChat: China’s Integrated Internet User Experience

    User research finds that tightly integrated services with simple and unified design make people use WeChat; mainly through traditional GUI interactions, not a “conversational UI.”

  • Mobile First Is NOT Mobile Only

    Mobile-navigation patterns make navigation unusable on the desktop and decrease its use. Porting an unchanged UI to a different platform hurts UX.

  • Centered Logos Hurt Website Navigation

    Getting back to the homepage is about 6 times harder when the logo is placed in the center of a page compared to when it’s in the top left corner.

  • Needy Design Patterns: Please-Don’t-Go Popups & Get-Back-to-Me Tabs

    These two overly demanding website design patterns aimed at driving engagement are in conflict with how people utilize browser tabs.

  • Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations

    Follow these well-established — but frequently ignored — UX design guidelines to ensure users can successfully complete your website forms.