User research is an essential part of UX design. Unless we understand who we are designing for and why, how can we even know what to create or where to begin?

User research is the methodic study of target users—including their needs and pain points—so designers have the sharpest possible insights to work with to make the best designs. User researchers use various methods to expose problems and design opportunities, and find crucial information to use in their design process.

If you want to work in UI (or work with a UI designer), you need to speak the language. In our UI glossary, we’ve compiled (and explained) 100 terms, phrases and resources all designers should know.

...the role of “Social Media Manager” was too ambitious in its scope. To run good social media is a multimedia, multimodal, multiskilled operation [...] The idea that this could all fall to one person to pull off seemed a bit crazy...

Being aware of our cognitive biases helps to recognize their power in shaping our thoughts, opinions, attitudes and the decisions we make. Let’s check out these effects by analyzing ten cognitive biases that shape our world today.

Table design should support four common user tasks: find records that fit specific criteria, compare data, view/edit/add a single row’s data, and take actions on records.

To strengthen people’s memory skills, we should design interfaces that help users practice recall.

Addressing these 3 fundamental psychological needs in our products increases user motivation and well-being and keeps them engaged and likely to use our designs.

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.

The big takeaway from 2021: consumers are now in charge of your brand. They want more personalized content, faster service, and better experiences. And they want it all now. The pandemic has accelerated The Age of the Consumer, and for your brand to survive, you need to listen and respond to consumer demands.

“We found, surprisingly, that no single feature of a headline’s writing style makes much of a difference in forecasting success.”

Research spanning 20 years proves PDFs are problematic for online reading. Yet they’re still prevalent and users continue to get lost in them. They’re unpleasant to read and navigate and remain unfit for digital-content display.

Tell readers what you’re going to tell ’em

When it comes to data visualization, are you playing world domination? There are too many data visualizations that use maps, losing our audience in irrelevant, distracting information. Most of the map visualizations I see could be better shown in alternative, simpler, more informative layouts like tables or graphs. Let’s take a look.

The reasons behind management gobbledygook

“If you are not calling out sections of your web pages or prose on those pages with subheads, you are making a big mistake!” write Pernice et al. “If you take nothing else [away], please take this: Use subheads and subsubheads.”

principles of design every graphic designer should be familiar with:HierarchyBalanceAlignmentEmphasisProportionMovementNegative SpaceContrastRepetitionVarietyUnity

Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about design thinking.

Fitts's Law describes how long time it takes to click a target, based on the distance to the target and its size. Use this information to make buttons and links faster to click.

".. for those of us who want to maintain a reasonable balance between our life and our work..."

40 participants is an appropriate number for most quantitative studies, but there are cases where you can recruit fewer users.

usability testing is not your only option. If I am honest, I am doing less and less usability testing, but instead focusing more on lightweight testing that can be done often and brings more value in getting projects out of the door.

Wherever you work, we all have stakeholders that we need to win over, and the language we use to communicate with them will have a significant impact on whether we succeed or not.

The homepage remains the “front door” for the many users who still begin their browsing experience here. Avoiding the 8 common UX issues discussed in this article is the first step toward improving users’ Homepage experience

User journeys should be managed like products — by people and teams with specialized, journey-dedicated roles who continually research, measure, optimize, and orchestrate the experience.

Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics can improve the user experience of VR applications.

Qualitative usability testing aims to identify issues in an interface, while quantitative usability testing is meant to provide metrics that capture the behavior of your whole user population.

We’re not as rational as we think. The human brain is designed to make quick and effective decisions rather than stick to facts at all times. Instead of acting rationally, we prefer to act fast. This may lead to better outcomes indeed, but it might also lead you astray. Cognitive biases can be both a blessing and a curse.

We can’t “fix” our minds and stop making errors in judgment, but we can become more aware of biases that influence our decision making.

Below is a list of cognitive biases and design principles (with examples and tips) for each category. Let’s dive right in.