AI UX tools are becoming part of normal UX Design work. Many designers now use AI tools to create layouts, wireframes, color palettes, user flows, and UX content. These tools help reduce repeated work. They also help beginners who are still learning design basics. UX Design is not only about making screens look clean. It… Continue reading Top 10 AI UX Tools for Smarter User Experience Design (2026)
Tag: Users
What’s an interactive element?
Two years ago, I wrote an article about the dialog element. I tested where focus goes when you open a modal dialog via the showModal() method. I tried different combinations of elements and attributes to see what happens because back in 2023, the behaviour was very inconsistent. In one of my tests, I put the… Continue reading What’s an interactive element?
10 Guidelines for Designing Your Site’s AI Chatbots
Summary: Helpful site-specific AI chatbots clearly state their capabilities, offer relevant prompt suggestions, and quickly signal they know what users are looking at. AI chatbots are increasingly becoming a standard feature on many websites. As more sites adopt them, the question is not only whether to have one — it’s how to design one so… Continue reading 10 Guidelines for Designing Your Site’s AI Chatbots
Less Chat, More Answer: Site AI Chatbots Need to Get to the Point
Summary: Users turn to site-specific chatbots for quick answers, not a conversation. Design responses that are direct, scannable, and easy to expand when needed. It’s easy to assume that a friendly, conversational AI chatbot might help build customer relationships or make a brand feel more approachable. However, the reality is that users who land on… Continue reading Less Chat, More Answer: Site AI Chatbots Need to Get to the Point
TaxBuddy, Making Taxes Feel Less Taxing
[unable to retrieve full-text content] TaxBuddy — Making Taxes Feel Less Taxing Simplifying financial complexity through intuitive UX and Visual Design. Project Summary When we first began working on TaxBuddy, the goal was simple — to make the process of filing taxes feel less intimidating for everyday users. But soon, we realized the real challenge wasn’t just about simplifying steps, it… Continue reading TaxBuddy, Making Taxes Feel Less Taxing
Explainable AI in Chat Interfaces
Summary: Explanation text in AI chat interfaces is intended to help users understand AI outputs, but current practices fall short of that goal. As AI chat interfaces become more popular, users increasingly rely on AI outputs to make decisions. Without explanations, AI systems are black boxes. Explaining to people how an AI system has reached… Continue reading Explainable AI in Chat Interfaces
Insights Aren’t Outcomes: Research Recommendation Breakage
Summary: Research recommendations often fail to reach users. Without tracking adoption, teams rely on hope instead of evidence to confirm their work creates change. Many research teams do good work. They identify the right problems, recruit the right participants, and run studies that reveal what is really going on. The end product is often packaged… Continue reading Insights Aren’t Outcomes: Research Recommendation Breakage
Intuitive Interfaces: What Actually Makes Them Clear
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Removing roadblocks on the user’s way to understanding your product Partners page for the JoyJam music platform by Outcrowd Expectation: Came, saw, conquered. Reality: Logged in, got confused, left. That’s pretty much what happens when you run into a poorly designed interface. The only “intuition” you feel is the urge to run away.… Continue reading Intuitive Interfaces: What Actually Makes Them Clear
Google AI Mode: Powerful Search, Poor Usability
Summary: Google’s new AI Mode provides a new way to search the web but is hampered by discoverability and navigation issues — especially for AI novices. What Is Google AI Mode? Google AI Mode is a new feature of the search engine that combines the breadth of a web search with the reasoning power of… Continue reading Google AI Mode: Powerful Search, Poor Usability
How to Design a Product w/ Users at the Heart of Product Design
Key takeaways 🔑 Product design is about solving problems. It’s not just about looks, but how a product works, feels, and fits into people’s lives. 👥 User-centered design (UCD) is essential. Designing around real users ensures products meet actual needs, not assumptions. 🏆 User-first products win in the market. Products that feel intuitive and valuable… Continue reading How to Design a Product w/ Users at the Heart of Product Design
The Hamburger-Menu Icon Today: Is it Recognizable?
Summary: Hamburger menus are a more familiar pattern today than 10 years ago, but the same old best practices for hidden navigation still apply. Few icons in digital design have sparked as much debate over the last decade as the hamburger. The hamburger menu — which earned its nickname because of its abstract, stacked, hamburger-like… Continue reading The Hamburger-Menu Icon Today: Is it Recognizable?
How to write better prompts for AI design & code generators
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Because AI design and code generators quickly take an active part in the design process, it’s essential to understand how to make the most of these tools. If you’ve played with Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, or v0, you know the output is only as good as the input. Here’s a structured prompt… Continue reading How to write better prompts for AI design & code generators
Are You Ready to Become a UX leader?
Discover your true role as a UX leader—regardless of your job title or organization. Understanding Where You Fit If you’re reading this, chances are you’re passionate about user experience. But maybe UX isn’t actually in your job title. Perhaps you’re a marketer, project manager, developer, copywriter, or business analyst who deeply cares about making your… Continue reading Are You Ready to Become a UX leader?
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
User-Interface Elements: Glossary
Summary: Use this glossary to quickly clarify definitions for key graphical user-interface elements and controls. UX research and design require knowledge and understanding of many jargon terms denoting various UI components and controls. Jump to a definition in the table or review the complete glossary. 2D-Matrix Input Control A specialized input control used primarily in… Continue reading User-Interface Elements: Glossary
Maze Pricing in 2025: The Best User Testing Tool for Its Price?
Key Takeaways 💰 Maze pricing ranges from a free plan to custom pricing, with the Starter plan at $99/month. 🚧 Maze testing capabilities are limited in lower-tier plans, especially for advanced features like interview studies and mobile testing. 🚨 Users have reported bugs, mobile testing issues, and unreliable heatmaps affecting research quality. 🚩Maze competitors like UXtweak… Continue reading Maze Pricing in 2025: The Best User Testing Tool for Its Price?
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
Duolingo: analyzing all engagement and retention techniques
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Over 500 million people around the world use Duolingo to learn languages. In this article, we will dive into Duolingo’s engagement strategies and how this company keeps users motivated and coming back to the app again and again. Collage created by author Duolingo uses the Self-Determination Theory in the product. This concept… Continue reading Duolingo: analyzing all engagement and retention techniques
Sneaking: The Deceptive UX Pattern You Never Saw Coming
Summary: Sneaking is a deceptive practice that includes three main patterns: forced continuity, hidden costs, and sneak into basket. Deceptive patterns are often employed to boost business growth, but they come at the expense of transparency and customer trust. This article discusses three types of deceptive patterns that all fall under the umbrella of sneaking.… Continue reading Sneaking: The Deceptive UX Pattern You Never Saw Coming
The 4 Stages of AI Image Generation: An Experience Map
Summary: AI image generation users often follow a similar creative process: ideate, generate, refine, and export. Understanding how expert users use AI tools in the process of image generation can help designers and other beginner users get better at using these tools for their projects; it can also inform the future design of such tools.… Continue reading The 4 Stages of AI Image Generation: An Experience Map
How do I propose to improve the usability of Gymnasium.com
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash I pretty much discovered UX Design through their UX fundamentals course while working as a Test Automation Engineer. Although the course material was excellent, covering the fundamentals of UX beautifully, the platform itself had some clear usability issues. Gymnasium features a clean and simple design… Continue reading How do I propose to improve the usability of Gymnasium.com
The Power of Checkout Campaign Management
[unable to retrieve full-text content] When it comes to checkout pages, the most frequently cited word is conversion. After all, the main criteria for a successful checkout is its efficiency in terms of successful payments. Conversion can be viewed from many angles, including technical performance and client experience. Still, there are other less obvious components… Continue reading The Power of Checkout Campaign Management
What is User-Centered Design (UCD)? w/Process
With users becoming more and more educated, user-centered design is the secret sauce to the success of your digital product or service. If you are looking to learn how to unlock your product’s potential by adopting a user-centered design approach look no further. In this article, we have collated everything you need to… Continue reading What is User-Centered Design (UCD)? w/Process
The rise of Generative AI-driven design patterns
[unable to retrieve full-text content] How Generative AI advances are helping shape the future of feature design, from enhancing content interaction to more informed decision-making Order among chaos (Credit: Dall-E) The ChatGPT revolution has been unfolding for over a year now. While the specific chatbot may not represent a seismic technical shift, the profound change in… Continue reading The rise of Generative AI-driven design patterns