From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/layer-cake-pattern-scanning/ Summary: When headings and subheadings visually stand out on the page and are descriptive, users engage in an efficient scanning pattern that allows them to quickly find the information that they need. People don’t usually read every word on a webpage, in an app, or even in an article or text … Continue reading The Layer-Cake Pattern of Scanning Content on the Web →

From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/cognitive-mind-concept/ Summary: Cognitive maps, concept maps, and mind maps are diagramming techniques that can be utilized throughout the UX process to visualize knowledge and surface relationships among concepts. Cognitive mapping, mind mapping, and concept mapping are three powerful visual-mapping strategies for organizing, communicating, and retaining knowledge. They help us lay out complex … Continue reading Cognitive Maps, Mind Maps, and Concept Maps: Definitions →

From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/screening-questions-select-research-participants/ Summary: To recruit appropriate UX research participants, assess people’s characteristics without giving away the purpose of the study. Finding the right participants for a user-research study can be challenging, even if you have clearly defined your target audience . You can learn something from almost any user, but you’ll get more … Continue reading How to use Screening Questions to Select the Right Participants for User Research →

From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dot-voting/ Summary: By placing colored dots, participants in UX workshops, activities, or collaborative sessions individually vote on the importance of design ideas, features, usability findings, and anything else that requires prioritization. There are few UX-workshop activities that work well in any situation. Dot voting is one of them. Dot voting is a … Continue reading Dot Voting: A Simple Decision-Making and Prioritizing Technique in UX →

From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/popups/ Summary: Whether modal or not, most overlays appear at the wrong time, interrupt users during critical tasks, use poor language, and contribute to user disorientation. From conducting decades of user research, we know that people dislike popups and modals . I was reminded of this fact during a recent usability study. … Continue reading Popups: 10 Problematic Trends and Alternatives →

From Nielson Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-user-interviews-fail/ Summary: User interviews are often used for the wrong purpose, they’re not planned or analyzed properly, and stakeholders don’t see the value in doing them. User interviews are an important generative method for UX. Generative methods (like interviews and focus groups) produce knowledge. In contrast, evaluative methods (like a usability test … Continue reading Why User Interviews Fail →