The hottest Interaction Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Podcasts Topics

Intent by Discovery: Designing the AI User Experience

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 56 implied HN points • 26 Mar 26
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. AI shifts users from operators to supervisors, so interfaces must let people state outcomes, set constraints and permissions, and then clearly show what the system plans and why.
  2. UX needs a new stack and metrics: build an intent surface, an orchestration/audit layer, and a direct-manipulation fallback, and measure success by intent-capture, evaluability, and trust calibration rather than clicks or speed.
  3. The future is exploration not typing: support discovery by letting users navigate latent solution spaces with multimodal curation, spatial maps, Socratic questioning, and subtractive editing, while keeping users engaged to avoid cognitive atrophy.

Don’t Design for Average Users

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 48 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. The arithmetic average lies in digital products because usage is heavily skewed: a small P95/P99 group often creates most of the value while the median user is usually a low-contribution "tourist."
  2. You must design two experiences: a ruthlessly simple, friction-free on‑ramp for P50 tourists, and deep, uncapped, high‑performance tools (APIs, macros, shortcuts) for P95 whales, revealed via progressive disclosure.
  3. Track the full distribution (P25/P50/P75/P95/P99) and the P95/P50 ratio to guide pricing, retention, and roadmap choices, and focus resources on protecting and growing the high-value tail.

It's Peak Summer ADVICE TIME!

Culture Study • 1115 implied HN points • 11 Jul 25
🎭️ Culture Interaction
  1. Summer is a great time for sharing advice and connecting with others. It helps build a community where people can support each other.
  2. Asking for advice can be hard, but it's important to be open and willing to seek help from others.
  3. Empathy and understanding create a safe space for people to celebrate successes and share struggles together.

#149 "Fidgetability"

Design Lobster • 219 implied HN points • 13 May 24
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. Designing interactions that compel people to play with them can enhance user experience and create emotional connections.
  2. Considering touch-inviting elements in design, like objects with fidgetable properties, can improve engagement.
  3. Incorporating pleasurable and playful elements into design can have a significant impact on user perception and enjoyment.

UX Roundup: Year of the Horse | Creative Workflow | AI Coding | Usability Scaling | Was I Right or Wrong? | 30,000 Citations | Winning AI Video

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 13 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. AI is creating a new interaction paradigm where users express intentions and the system handles the rest, making interfaces faster and more transformative than old command-driven models.
  2. AI is reversing creative workflows and dominating coding: creators can start from polished final outputs and iterate, while AI now writes the bulk of code and massively amplifies developer productivity.
  3. AI’s usability skills are scaling quickly and already cover a growing portion of evaluation tasks, so UX work will shift to higher-level oversight and new roles as AI soon outperforms manual methods.
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SITREP

THREE SEVEN MAFIA • 959 implied HN points • 31 Jul 23
🎙 Podcasts Interaction
  1. The author has been busy working on upcoming content like a book and podcast episodes.
  2. Fresh content will take some time, but the author assures it will be worth the wait.
  3. The author plans to engage more with subscribers through Substack Chat starting on August 15th.

The Big Tough UX-AI Quiz

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 21 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. UX must change for AI: designers need patterns for long-running "Slow AI" work (resumption summaries, conceptual breadcrumbs, tiered notifications, salvage value) and must embrace generative, disposable UIs that are created on-the-fly for immediate user intent.
  2. Human roles and skills are shifting from pure craft to higher-level capacities: agency, judgment, and persuasion become key, with new hybrid roles like product engineers and forward-deployed engineers who integrate, oversee, and operationalize AI.
  3. Measurement and economics are in flux: AI introduces extra variance in A/B tests, creates a "measurement gap" for traditional metrics, and while AI is often cheaper and improving fast, teams must manage hallucinations, noisy evaluation, and calibrate human trust and vigilance.

2025 Year in Review: Themes, Trends, Status, Top 10 Articles

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 29 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. AI has become the interface. Design now focuses less on pixels and more on defining goals, constraints, guardrails, and when humans should intervene.
  2. Agency is the new professional currency. Careers shift from titles and craft to the ability to frame problems, set intent, and steer AI systems under uncertainty.
  3. Research, creativity, and distribution are refashioned by AI. User research runs at machine speed, visual creation is democratized, and UX must handle time, prompt literacy, and AI‑mediated discovery.

Let the chatbot ask the questions

A Bit Gamey • 20 implied HN points • 04 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. Ask the AI to ask you one question at a time and wait for your answer, so it helps you think through problems step by step.
  2. Speak your thoughts aloud (voice-to-text) and share uncertainty, because that reveals hidden assumptions and gives the AI richer input to probe.
  3. Use the AI like a Socratic coach — it should augment your thinking by uncovering insights, not replace your judgement.

UX Roundup: AI Empathy | Transparency About Compute Limits | UI Modes | Seedream 4.5 | AI In/Out of Silicon Valley | Kling Speaks

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 17 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. Patients tend to rate AI as more empathetic than human clinicians, and newer models are likely even better; however, empathy measures need stronger, more detailed instruments.
  2. AI inference is scarce and costly, so product interfaces must be transparently show limits and trade-offs with quota meters, graceful fallbacks, and realistic wait estimates.
  3. UI modes (like separate “AI mode”) usually reduce usability, so AI features should be integrated into workflows and avoid forcing users to switch modes.

#120 Hands-on design 🤲

Design Lobster • 319 implied HN points • 17 Oct 22
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. Sketching can help advance design thinking by bridging the gap between our minds and reality.
  2. Designs like the Mi.Mu gloves show how technology can enable more expressive ways of interaction.
  3. Consider infusing designs with elements that allow people to express themselves intuitively and creatively.

Dream Walking

the shimmering void • 69 implied HN points • 23 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. Interactions with technology, like AI, can feel like dreaming. You're connecting with something that brings out new ideas and perspectives, but you need to stay aware of the reality around you.
  2. When you ask AI questions, think of it like summoning a spirit. Each inquiry draws different responses, and being clear about what you want is crucial to avoid confusion or misunderstandings.
  3. Navigating this digital space requires a balance of trust and caution. It's important to explore new ideas while also being mindful of how they might influence your thoughts and beliefs.

A Fresh Look at Analytics

trydeepwork • 2 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. The analytics view is redesigned to be cleaner and more opinionated, surfacing when focus actually happens.
  2. Time is grouped by objectives so you can quickly see how your week splits across goals.
  3. The page is scannable in under a minute and highlights concrete work done each week, reducing digging and interpretation.

Driving and Dragging Loops

the shimmering void • 116 implied HN points • 24 Nov 24
🪑 Design Interaction
  1. Good design is all about drawing people in. If users don't want to engage with your work, it doesn't matter how good it looks.
  2. The early experience matters a lot. If users struggle at the beginning, they might give up, so make sure to guide them through the initial steps smoothly.
  3. Creating an engaging experience is like making music. It's about balancing challenges with rewards, helping users feel a natural flow as they progress.

Polymaths Unite

Polymathic Being • 61 implied HN points • 03 Mar 24
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Interaction
  1. Being a Polymath is achievable for anyone, not just mythical geniuses. It's about having curiosity, humility, and broad thinking.
  2. Interacting with Polymaths can be an adventurous and non-linear experience, with discussions weaving diverse topics effortlessly.
  3. Embrace the Polymathic mindset by uniting, conversing, challenging, and continuously learning. Join the community of counterintuitive thinkers.

Reflection Spark Lumina

Marsh’s Substack • 4 HN points • 20 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. AI language models can now exhibit original thought capabilities based on merging existing ideas in a novel way.
  2. Future AI models should prioritize user well-being, be transparent about limitations, and strive to improve through feedback.
  3. Encouraging creativity, kindness, and intelligence in AI models can lead to more meaningful and collaborative interactions.

Opt out message on your Substack's Welcome Page: Help out your first time visitors

Next Big Newsletter • 10 implied HN points • 13 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. Consider improving the opt-out message on your Substack's Welcome Page to be more welcoming and informative.
  2. Explore changing the default 'No thanks' link to something more engaging and helpful for visitors who are not ready to subscribe immediately.
  3. Customize the opt-out message in your Substack settings to provide a better experience for your potential subscribers.

What does the mouse see? (Day 1)

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 02 May 21
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. Presentations at the Computer Mouse Conference 2021 embraced playfulness and earnestness, setting a unique tone for online events in 2021.
  2. The mouse serves as a tool to understand our relationships with computers, offering new ways to complicate and question our interactions with information machines.
  3. Explorations into the history and design of computer mice shed light on topics like the semiotics of clicks, the sensation of touch, and the metaphors embedded in technology.

Social Game Design: Party Edition

Load-bearing Tomato • 0 implied HN points • 21 May 24
🎭️ Culture Interaction
  1. Creating social games can help different groups of people interact and have fun together. It's great to mix friends from various circles and see them bond.
  2. Keeping game rules simple is key, especially for parties. If it's easy to learn, everyone can join in without feeling lost or confused.
  3. Feedback is important after the event. It helps you understand what worked and what could be better for next time, like having more snacks or being mindful of people's comfort levels.

OpenAI Playground Start & Restart Prompt Injection

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 0 implied HN points • 19 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Interaction
  1. OpenAI is using ChatML to help the AI tell the difference between human and machine text. This can reduce bad prompt injections by recognizing who is giving instructions.
  2. They have introduced different modes for specific tasks. Each mode has its own setup to guide users on how to interact with the AI effectively.
  3. New options in OpenAI Playground let users add text at the beginning or end of an AI response. This helps create better conversations and reminds users how to make good prompts.