Summary: Serial task switching, or rapidly shifting attention between tasks, is a natural user behavior that lowers productivity and increases stress and the chance of errors. Be honest. How many tabs do you have open right now? If you’re like me, it’s probably more than you’d like to admit. Serial task switching is a natural behavior […]
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Summary: 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. I don’t need to tell you that generative AI can be useful for ideation, writing, or communication — you probably already know and believe that. In speaking with hundreds […]
Summary: Better target user needs by understanding the three sizes of copy: long-form, short-form, and microcopy. Content terms like long-form, short-form, and microcopy are often used interchangeably, but are ill-defined and don’t mean the same thing. Knowing the differences between these types of copy and when and how to design them effectively will create written information […]
Summary: AI hallucinations threaten the usefulness of LLM-generated text in professional environments, but today’s LLMs encourage users to take outputs at face value. Large language models (LLMs) are being widely introduced into professional workflows through both new standalone software and integrations with existing tools. One of the most important ways that these tools increase users’ productivity […]
Summary: AI is a new tool, not a replacement for UX professionals. At Dovetail’s Insight Out conference, one of the speakers, Jess Holbrook, said something that struck a chord. (I am quoting from memory, so apologies if it’s not quite right.) He said, “My goal is to build better products, and that’s why I do UX […]
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Summary: Despite improvements in narrow-scope AI design tools, most design-specific AI cannot replicate human designers’ output quality. This is a follow-up to the 2024 article AI UX-Design Tools Are Not Ready for Primetime: Status Update . In April 2024, AI-powered design tools were not useful to designers. As of May 2025, their usefulness has improved, but […]
Summary: Training modern LLMs is a costly process that shapes the model’s outputs and involves unsupervised, supervised, and reinforcement learning. By this point, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the large language model (LLM) behind your favorite AI tool has been “trained on the whole internet.” To some extent, that’s true, but after training hundreds of UX professionals […]
Summary: Analyze with confidence by collecting relevant data, critically assessing it, and forming testable explanations. Why Analyzing Qualitative User Tests Is Complicated Analyzing data from qualitative usability tests is often presented in textbooks as a straightforward process of cataloging usability issues, summarizing task performance, tallying errors, and summarizing time on task. However, it’s not always so […]
Summary: Minor visual changes help users distinguish between 5 different button states: enabled, disabled, hovered, focused, pressed. Buttons are core user-interface elements that, when clicked or tapped, execute an action. When designed correctly, buttons set accurate user expectations and help them understand how to interact with the interface. In addition to clear button labels, effective signaling […]
Summary: System-generated suggestions for AI prompts must be contextually relevant, personalized, and specific to the task and the user’s level of experience. Prompt suggestions are a common design element in AI-chat features, but users often ignore them, especially when they’re not in the right place or don’t feel useful. Done well, though, prompt suggestions can guide, […]
Job Title Senior Front End Developer Application Deadline May 2, 2025 Location United States About NN/g Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) is a UX insights organization trusted by leading organizations world-wide to provide reliable guidance on user experience. We provide evidence-based UX articles, in-depth training, research reports, and consulting. We’re a small, fully remote company […]
Job Title Senior Front End Developer Application Deadline May 2, 2025 Location Europe About NN/g Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) is a UX insights organization trusted by leading organizations world-wide to provide reliable guidance on user experience. We provide evidence-based UX articles, in-depth training, research reports, and consulting. We’re a small, fully remote company (fewer […]
Summary: Design teams rely on a combination of principles, patterns, heuristics, and charters to create consistent and usable experiences in a collaborative way. Design teams rely on various forms of guidance to maintain consistency, advocate for usability, and find efficiency in their work. There are several types of design guidance, and understanding differences among them helps […]
Summary: Convenience sampling is quick and cost-effective for UX research, but probability sampling is better when you need representative and generalizable data. When conducting UX research, choosing the right sampling method can ensure that your findings are both useful and reliable. Most UX practitioners use a sampling method called convenience sampling: recruiting participants based on ease […]
Take up to 5 in-depth training courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Courses focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. July 21 – July 25, 2025. See Full Schedule and Pricing Source link
Take up to 5 in-depth training courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Courses focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. August 18 – August 22, 2025. See Full Schedule and Pricing Source link
Summary: As a UI design style, neobrutalism focuses on raw, unrefined elements like bold colors, simple shapes, and intentionally "unfinished" aesthetics. Emerging as a reaction against sleek, minimalistic designs, neobrutalism creates a striking (almost rebellious) visual style. But while neobrutalism draws attention, designers must carefully balance its distinctive look with usability to avoid ending up with […]
Summary: Analyze usability findings for authenticity, consistency, repetition, spontaneity, appropriateness, and confounding factors to separate surface impressions from real insights. Qualitative usability tests yield two types of data: behavioral data (or performance data) and attitudinal data (or subjective data). During analysis, we must consolidate both types of data while considering additional factors, such as information about […]
Take up to 3 in-depth training courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Live online training focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. July 9-16 (Asia/AU) / July 8-15, 2025 (Americas). See Full Schedule and Pricing Source link
Summary: By adopting the mindset of a product leader, UXers can build support and buy-in within their company. Things are rapidly changing in the UX field, and it can feel overwhelming. From AI hype to layoffs to changing roles, it is hard to know how to improve your skillset. We believe that UX professionals should focus […]
Summary: Generative-AI outputs need to be concise, scannable, follow the inverted pyramid, and use plain language. Users don’t read — they scan . To accommodate this behavior, content writers use techniques like chunking , bullet points , and strategic formatting to improve scannability. Unfortunately, many product teams have forgotten these principles in their rush to include […]