Best Strella Alternatives for UX Research in 2026

AI UX research tools like Strella are changing how teams collect and understand user feedback compared to traditional, manual research workflows. However, teams often start looking for Strella alternatives when they need more control over research quality, broader usability testing capabilities, or workflows that go beyond AI-moderated interviews. This guide explores the best Strella alternatives… Continue reading Best Strella Alternatives for UX Research in 2026

Famous Brands Packaged Like Products: Creative AI Poster Series

What if popular digital brands were sold in stores just like everyday consumer products? That simple idea inspired this creative AI poster series. Instead of viewing brands as websites, apps, or online platforms, these posters imagine them as premium packaged products displayed on supermarket shelves. From social media giants and AI tools to creative platforms… Continue reading Famous Brands Packaged Like Products: Creative AI Poster Series

Humility: An Essential Value

Humility, a designer’s essential value—that has a nice ring to it. What about humility, an office manager’s essential value? Or a dentist’s? Or a librarian’s? They all sound great. When humility is our guiding light, the path is always open for fulfillment, evolution, connection, and engagement. In this chapter, we’re going to talk about why.… Continue reading Humility: An Essential Value

Outset Alternatives to Scale UX Research in 2026

Outset is part of a growing wave of AI-powered UX research tools designed to speed up qualitative research and reduce manual analysis work. While many teams see clear value in AI-assisted synthesis and automation, fully AI-led interviews still raise valid concerns around research quality, contextual understanding, and participant trust. This guide explores the best Outset… Continue reading Outset Alternatives to Scale UX Research in 2026

Preely Alternatives & Competitors for User Testing in 2026 

TABLE OF CONTENTS What is Preely? Preely is a usability testing tool focused on prototype validation, helping teams gather feedback on early designs before development. It’s particularly useful for testing flows and interactions quickly without requiring a live product. However, many teams start looking for alternatives when they need more advanced analytics, broader testing methods,… Continue reading Preely Alternatives & Competitors for User Testing in 2026 

Stop Misrecruits: Add Foils to Your Screener

Summary:  Foils are fake (but plausible) options in screeners that catch inattentive or dishonest participants, protecting data quality and saving time. Even the most carefully designed screener can let the wrong participants slip into their study. You may discover halfway through a usability test that someone clearly doesn’t match your target audience – leaving you… Continue reading Stop Misrecruits: Add Foils to Your Screener

Mahjong Reimagined: Student Design Project Inspired by Taiwan’s Street Signs

Discover a student design mahjong set inspired by Taiwan’s street signs, where tiles tell cultural stories and the game’s global popularity rises. Mahjong is more than a game,  it’s a sound, a rhythm, a cultural glue. The shuffle of tiles, the clack of a winning hand, these are part of everyday life across Asia. But… Continue reading Mahjong Reimagined: Student Design Project Inspired by Taiwan’s Street Signs

12 Best Maze Alternatives & Competitors in 2025

Key Takeaways ⚖️ Maze’s Starter Plan is restrictive, allowing only one study per month, while the Organization Plan starting at $15,000/year feels like a leap. 🛠️ Key features like card sorting, tree testing, and prototype testing are limited to Maze’s higher-tier plans. In contrast, UXtweak and Optimal Workshop include these tools in more affordable options.… Continue reading 12 Best Maze Alternatives & Competitors in 2025

Creating Design Specs for Development

Summary:  Design specifications should provide all the relevant information needed to align the design and development teams. You work tirelessly on a new design project. It’s your masterpiece… until the dev team says it isn’t possible. Most designers have experienced this situation at some point in their careers. As frustrating as it may be, there… Continue reading Creating Design Specs for Development

How AI Models Are Trained

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… Continue reading How AI Models Are Trained

Button States: Communicate Interaction

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… Continue reading Button States: Communicate Interaction

Four AI Superpowers: Where AI Improves Products

Summary:  When using AI consider its four “superpowers”: content creation, summarization, basic data analysis, and perspective taking. At Pendo’s Pendomonium conference recently, I asked my audience who had AI features on their product’s roadmap. Almost every hand in the room went up. But, based on my experience, I’m guessing many of those AI-powered features are… Continue reading Four AI Superpowers: Where AI Improves Products

Product Redesign Proposal: Structure & Tips

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Image by Tamanna Rumee Product redesign is an inevitable thing. No matter how good your original product is, you will likely decide to redesign it at some point in time. Maybe your audience’s preferences shift so you will need to adapt to the new market demand, or maybe you decide to… Continue reading Product Redesign Proposal: Structure & Tips

30 Best Startup WordPress Themes 2025

Startup WordPress themes are pre-designed templates tailored to meet the needs of new businesses. These themes are built with startups in mind, offering features like responsive design, easy customization, and integration with essential tools like email marketing services, analytics, and e-commerce platforms. Whether you’re launching a tech company, a creative agency, or an online store,… Continue reading 30 Best Startup WordPress Themes 2025

AI Hallucinations: What Designers Need to Know

Summary:  Plausible but incorrect AI responses create design challenges and user distrust. Discover evidence-based UI patterns to help users identify fabrications. What Are AI Hallucinations? Generative AIs are well-known for their tendency to produce hallucinations — untruthful answers (or nonsense images). A hallucination occurs when a generative AI system generates output data that seems plausible… Continue reading AI Hallucinations: What Designers Need to Know

Designing Car-Free Urban Spaces in Los Angeles Communities

Los Angeles is often called a car-centric city due to its heavy reliance on vehicles. As traffic congestion grows, conversations about urban design are changing. The city’s layout and infrastructure affect commutes, the environment, and public health. With challenges like air pollution and poor land use, rethinking urban planning creates new possibilities. Car-free spaces can… Continue reading Designing Car-Free Urban Spaces in Los Angeles Communities

The Biggest Challenges Practitioners Encounter Working in UX

Summary:  We surveyed 126 practitioners, uncovering the biggest challenges in the UX field. Almost all responses originated from the same core problem: perception of UX. The Best — and Worst — Things About UX Earlier this year, we surveyed UX practitioners through our newsletter and LinkedIn channel. We asked respondents to reflect on their careers and answer… Continue reading The Biggest Challenges Practitioners Encounter Working in UX

5 Hobbies for Busy Entrepreneurs Who Need to Unwind

Do you know the number one cause of stress in the United States? The answer, which may or may not surprise you, is the workplace. In fact, The American Institute of Stress reports that 120,000 people die annually due to work-related stress.  Whether you’re a busy entrepreneur running a company on a shoestring budget or… Continue reading 5 Hobbies for Busy Entrepreneurs Who Need to Unwind

Breathtaking Digital Portrait Illustrations from Top Artists and Designers

Digital portrait illustrations have become a significant art form in today’s creative world. Artists worldwide are pushing the boundaries of digital tools to create stunning, lifelike images that leave a lasting impression. From their unique styles to their intricate details, these artists are redefining what portrait illustrations can achieve. Here are six top artists whose… Continue reading Breathtaking Digital Portrait Illustrations from Top Artists and Designers

Participatory Design: The Complete Guide

In this article, we have collated everything you need to know about participatory design as part of the development process including a solid definition, its major benefits, hands-on approaches to it as well as real-life examples to help you digest the concept and use it to develop innovative and user-friendly products. Participatory design… Continue reading Participatory Design: The Complete Guide

Prompt Controls in GenAI Chatbots: 4 Main Uses and Best Practices

Summary:  When following good practices, prompt controls can increase the discoverability of genAI chatbots’ features, offer inspiration, and minimize manual user input. Adding UI Controls to Prompting Generative AI (genAI) chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, rely heavily on text prompts from their users. As these interfaces continue to evolve, AI chatbot designers have started… Continue reading Prompt Controls in GenAI Chatbots: 4 Main Uses and Best Practices

Key Metrics for Designers to Track in the Checkout

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Measuring checkout efficiency is crucial for every eCommerce website, as it directly impacts business success. In this article, I will share key metrics that help understand checkout performance and provide actionable insights, enabling designers to enhance the checkout process and optimize the user experience. Overall Checkout Completion Rate The overall… Continue reading Key Metrics for Designers to Track in the Checkout

Top 10 UX Design Agencies to Work With – July 2024

While in-house UX consultants, UI/UX designers, and user researchers continue to gain popularity, some businesses continue to opt for the expertise of specialized UX design firms. Here, we listed user experience consultancies and full-service UI UX design agencies from the US to Europe, with a brief description of each to help you decide. If you… Continue reading Top 10 UX Design Agencies to Work With – July 2024

The Best Things About Working in UX

Summary:  We surveyed 126 practitioners, uncovering 8 things practitioners love about working in UX, from problem-solving to accessible design. About the Survey With the current state of the economy, the advent of AI, and recent layoffs, many UX professionals are feeling anxious. I can understand this sentiment as we’re going through a period of uncertainty.… Continue reading The Best Things About Working in UX