The hottest User Experience Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

The Role of Personality and Cognitive Ability in the Measurement of Usability

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
🔬 Science Psychology Personality Traits User Experience
  1. The usability of a product varies among individuals based on their knowledge, experience, and attitudes, not just a fixed attribute.
  2. Personality traits like emotional stability, openness to experience, and conscientiousness play a significant role in shaping subjective usability ratings.
  3. Cognitive ability did not have a significant impact on usability ratings, indicating that individual personality traits are stronger predictors.

The end of COVID, the end of Twitter

Logging the World • 318 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Social media Influence User Experience
  1. COVID-19 has not completely disappeared despite initial hopes and expectations. Immunity wanes, new variants emerge, and the impact lingers on.
  2. Twitter's influence may be declining over time due to fewer interesting user interactions and issues with the platform's experience. The network effects that once made it influential are fading.
  3. Legacy brands like Twitter may persist even after a decline, existing in a different form and continuing to have some relevance in the future.

Making Sense of the ChatGPT User Experience

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 25 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI User Experience Research Conversational AI
  1. Conversational AI tools like ChatGPT are transforming human-computer interaction by enabling natural language conversations on various topics.
  2. Studies show that features enhancing productivity and enjoyment, while ensuring accuracy, play a crucial role in shaping user experiences with ChatGPT.
  3. While ChatGPT offers benefits like enhanced productivity and user satisfaction compared to traditional methods, there are also notable risks like misinformation that need to be addressed through thoughtful design and transparency.
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Feeling the Design

UX Psychology • 238 implied HN points • 05 Jun 23
🪑 Design Emotion Attention Product Design User Experience Aesthetics
  1. Emotions significantly impact user attention and decision-making. We can design products that resonate with users by considering their emotional states.
  2. Balancing functionality and aesthetics is crucial in design. Negative emotions may lead users to focus on functionality, while positive emotions may draw them to aesthetics.
  3. Design strategies that consider emotional mapping, create emotional peaks, and provide feedback can enhance user experience and engagement.

UX Roundup: AI-First Design | Dark Design | Non-Deterministic UX | Jakob Live | User Research Job

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 27 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology UX Design Artificial Intelligence User Experience UX Research
  1. AI-first products involve retrofitting AI onto existing software for productivity gains, but true advancements come from rethinking work processes and building new AI-first products.
  2. Avoid dark design patterns in UX to create ethical and user-friendly interfaces.
  3. Designing for non-deterministic UX involves adapting to AI systems that generate outcomes dynamically and focusing on ambiguity and dynamism.

Deepfake Personas in UX

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 06 Jul 23
🕹 Technology UX AI Deepfake Multimedia User Experience
  1. Traditional personas are being enhanced with deepfake technology to create more dynamic representations of end-users.
  2. A study compared deepfake personas with classic and narrative personas in terms of empathy, credibility, and more, showing that deepfakes were perceived less favorably due to the uncanny valley effect.
  3. While deepfake personas are not yet widely accepted in UX, there is a small group of users who see potential value in them, hinting at possible scenarios where they might be beneficial.

AR and the (Possible) Return of Skeuomorphism

Thoughts • 19 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AR UI Design Virtual reality User Experience
  1. Skeuomorphism was a popular UI design concept that mimicked physical objects, making interfaces user-friendly for those new to technology.
  2. Affordances in digital interfaces, as seen in skeuomorphism, help users interact intuitively, like how door handles suggest pushing or rotating.
  3. With AR/XR devices gaining popularity, there's potential for a comeback of skeuomorphism in a more functional form, bridging virtual and physical worlds.

How to optimize your free trial

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 236 implied HN points • 10 May 23
💼 Business Marketing User Experience Product Management Conversion Onboarding
  1. Collaborate with experts to conduct a thorough audit of your product-led growth strategy.
  2. Implement best practices at each stage of the free trial experience such as creating a compelling sign-up page and a goal-oriented onboarding checklist.
  3. Utilize personalized templates, value-add empty states, and contextual guidance to enhance user experience and increase conversion rates.

#9 - Creating an intuitive in-game menu

A Good Interface • 59 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🕹 Technology UI Design User Experience Game Development Gaming
  1. Understanding player expectations is crucial for designing intuitive in-game menus. Players have certain expectations for content and structure, deviating from which can lead to frustration.
  2. Menu navigation and flow are essential in creating a user-friendly experience. Design clear paths, group similar items, and prioritize important actions for quick and easy navigation.
  3. Consistency in iconography, terminology, and design elements, as well as testing with real players, feedback, and iteration, are key to crafting a well-crafted in-game menu that enhances the player experience.

Do People Prefer Curved Lines?

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
🔬 Science Psychology Design Perception Cognition User Experience
  1. Research indicates that people generally prefer curved lines over straight or angular ones due to associations with grace and gentleness.
  2. Preference for curves is not just psychological, but has roots in our perception of safety and nurture, related to our evolutionary past.
  3. In design, understanding people's preference for curved lines can help create more visually appealing and effective products, but individual factors like personality and culture also play a role.

Striking the Right Balance: Anthropomorphism in AI Assistants

UX Psychology • 119 implied HN points • 04 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI User Experience Design Research
  1. Incorporating anthropomorphic design elements can improve user experience and satisfaction with AI systems. Humanlike voices and natural conversational abilities in chatbots lead to more positive user perceptions and emotional connections.
  2. Not all humanlike cues in AI elicit positive reactions - some may cause unease or revulsion. Factors like the uncanny valley effect and privacy risks need to be considered when designing anthropomorphic AI.
  3. Emotional and auditory anthropomorphic cues like humor and natural-sounding voices can increase user satisfaction and strengthen connections. These cues are more impactful for entertainment purposes than utilitarian tasks with AI assistants.

About Data User Experience

timo's substack • 78 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
🕹 Technology User Experience Data Analytics
  1. Agile approach works for quick insights but can fail for user experience
  2. Data user experience includes utility, usability, findability, credibility, desirability, and accessibility
  3. Improving data user experience involves naming conventions, SQL style guides, ownership clarity, metadata, architecture, data consistency, and regular user feedback

Dark Patterns: using human psychology to manipulate users

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 02 Feb 23
🕹 Technology UX Design User Experience Manipulation Psychology
  1. Dark patterns in UX are manipulative design tactics used to influence user behavior for the benefit of the company, often at the expense of the user's experience and trust.
  2. Dark patterns have different categories like asymmetrical, covert, restrictive, and deceptive, which aim to coerce and deceive users into unintended decisions.
  3. To combat dark patterns, designers should prioritize user transparency, education, testing with real users, and compliance with ethical design guidelines and regulations.

Optimising costs to enhancing UX - it is all engineering

system bashing • 117 implied HN points • 18 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Cost Optimization User Experience Cloud Services Engineering System Design
  1. In a tech company, engineering involves balancing cloud costs and user interface to optimize costs and enhance user experience.
  2. Reducing costs significantly is crucial for a company's profitability regardless of other measures like discounts or marketing strategies.
  3. Engineering decisions impact user experience constraints and cloud costs, requiring a balance between the two for system efficiency.

The unhindered growth of bad mobile app product management

system bashing • 137 implied HN points • 05 Jun 23
🕹 Technology User Experience Quality Assurance
  1. There is a rise in poorly made mobile apps due to the growth of bad mobile app product management.
  2. Many mobile apps have similar features and design flaws, showcasing repetitive mistakes by product managers.
  3. Consistency in user experience, from technical aspects like rotation to design elements like button styles, is lacking in many apps, pointing to a need for improvement.

#1 - How to make our game colors accessible to everyone

A Good Interface • 99 implied HN points • 27 Jul 23
🎨 Art & Illustration User Experience
  1. Consider color blindness when designing games - 8% of boys and 1% of girls are affected by some form of color vision disorder.
  2. Check the contrast between text and background colors to ensure readability and understandability of game content.
  3. Accessibility in game design goes beyond color - include other visual elements and gather user feedback to enhance user experience.

Turning NPS into action: how to make the most out of a... dubious metric*

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 14 Dec 22
💼 Business Metrics User Experience Research Analysis Strategy
  1. NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures customer loyalty based on likelihood of recommendation. Responses are categorized into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
  2. To make the most of NPS, ensure it is measured properly by defining target audience, using standardized surveys, analyzing data regularly, and avoiding biases.
  3. Despite NPS limitations, leverage its open-ended question for uncovering user pain points, recruiting research participants, involving all team members, complementing with other metrics, and using it strategically.

Don't build your application on a single LLM call

Generating Conversation • 5 HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering User Experience
  1. Avoid building your application solely on a single Large Language Model (LLM) call. Break down your problem into multiple steps for better results and efficiency.
  2. Long, detailed prompts can confuse even advanced LLMs like GPT-4, leading to issues in instruction following, debugging, and user experience.
  3. Different tasks may require different models, so breaking your application into multiple steps allows you to choose the best tool for each task, improving application quality and reducing latency and cost.

I don’t know anyone using InVision Studio, and that’s too bad

Better After a Nap • 19 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Product Design User Experience Software Tools Product Strategy Competition
  1. An MVP needs to offer a key differentiator or a promise of one soon to make an impact in a competitive market.
  2. Meet the specific needs of your core user base swiftly and effectively to stay ahead of the competition.
  3. Maintain a laser focus on your core business, listen to user feedback, and avoid overhyping your product to build trust and loyalty.

Understanding the Hawthorne Effect in UX Research

UX Psychology • 138 implied HN points • 06 Feb 23
🕹 Technology UX Research Human behavior User Experience Research Methods
  1. The Hawthorne Effect is when individuals change their behavior because they know they are being observed, impacting various behaviors from dietary habits to research study results.
  2. Possible explanations for the Hawthorne Effect include people conforming to expectations when observed and feeling pressured to perform better.
  3. To mitigate the Hawthorne Effect in UX research, steps like using control groups, minimizing feedback during studies, focusing on cause-and-effect relationships, and creating judgment-free environments can help obtain more accurate data.

چرا بسیاری از کسب و کارهای کوچک در کانادا، وب سایت‌های بی‌مصرف و تاریخ گذشته دارند

DiGiTalk Newsletter • 117 implied HN points • 13 May 23
💼 Business Website Design Email Marketing User Experience
  1. Publishing superficial content on a website can hinder its mission, copy-pasting content can be detrimental to credibility and online presence.
  2. Ensuring a website is mobile-friendly is crucial since a significant portion of visitors use mobile devices.
  3. Having an effective email newsletter and not focusing excessively on website appearance can make a significant impact on reaching and engaging with potential customers.

Avoid "Basket Case" Data Products Through Iteration

The Data Score • 39 implied HN points • 11 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Data products User Experience
  1. In both music and data product development, iterate continuously to refine and improve the final outcome
  2. Feedback is crucial in the iterative process - share, adapt, and repeat until achieving product/market fit
  3. The final product should not be the minimum viable product; be willing to discard prototypes and embrace scalability for long-term success

Week 74 - E2- Basics of Large Language Models for Product Managers 🤖

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 13 implied HN points • 14 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Product Management Natural Language Processing Innovation User Experience
  1. Large language models (LLMs) are transforming industries with diverse applications like automated article generation, conversational product recommendations, intelligent chatbots, and code generation.
  2. LLMs play a crucial role in product innovation by assisting in rapid ideation, prototyping, concept validation, and continuous enhancement of offerings.
  3. Understanding the costs and data requirements to develop LLMs is essential, as it involves significant investment in computational resources, data training, and cloud infrastructure.

#6 - What's the right size?

A Good Interface • 39 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
🕹 Technology UI Design Video Games User Experience
  1. Size your buttons correctly: Follow guidelines like 10mm x 10mm for mobile games and 44px / 48px for non-touch screens for optimal user interaction.
  2. Text matters too: Ensure text size is at least 16px for readability and paragraphs have 50-75 characters per line. Line spacing should be at least 1.5 times the font size.
  3. Provide user options: Let players customize their experience, like font size, to cater to diverse preferences and enhance accessibility.

The game of semantic promises (Or, why you are not using Siri)

Salami dev blog • 1 HN point • 09 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Natural Language Processing AI User Experience Automation
  1. Implicit promises in language communication can lead to awkward or failed interactions.
  2. Natural Language Interfaces like Siri may not truly understand the complexities of language, leading to communication challenges.
  3. The sub-languages created by technology interfaces can be confusing and ever-changing, making users hesitant to rely on them for important tasks.

Choosing the right UX metrics - Part 2

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 03 Oct 22
🕹 Technology UX Design Metrics Product Management User Experience Data Analysis
  1. Identifying clear goals is crucial in choosing the right UX metrics, involving team and stakeholders can help define meaningful and actionable metrics.
  2. Mapping goals to signals helps track progress towards goals; gathering user feedback and reviews can be essential signals to measure UX success.
  3. Refining signals into specific metrics is the final step, where data scientists can assist in ensuring metrics are measured accurately; focus on key metrics and avoid adding unnecessary data.

Choosing the right UX metrics - Part 1

UX Psychology • 119 implied HN points • 20 Sep 22
🕹 Technology UX Design Metrics User Experience Product Analytics
  1. UX metrics are vital for making evidence-based UX decisions instead of relying on opinions and beliefs.
  2. Using a combination of attitudinal and behavioral metrics can provide a comprehensive understanding of user experience.
  3. The HEART framework - Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success - offers a structured way to select and track UX metrics for data-driven decision-making.

Shreyas Doshi on Product Thinking

Practical Product Discovery • 58 implied HN points • 23 Mar 23
💼 Business Product Management Product Development User Experience Innovation
  1. Product thinking involves understanding motivations and conceiving solutions based on effects you want to create.
  2. Avoid relying solely on project thinking, which focuses on plans and resources rather than user needs and creativity.
  3. To learn product thinking, prioritize real goals over deliverables, understand user needs, generate options, simulate outcomes, and study examples in the wild.

I want Apple's Vision Pro

SatPost by Trung Phan • 47 implied HN points • 16 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Hardware Software User Experience Virtual reality Productivity
  1. Apple's Vision Pro headset is priced at $3,500 and focuses on creating the ideal workspace experience.
  2. Vision Pro offers a unique spatial computing experience, differentiating it from VR and AR technologies.
  3. The headset's potential lies in transforming work productivity, offering advanced hardware, and enhancing creativity through virtual spaces.

A UXer's guide to neurodiversity

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 13 May 22
🕹 Technology Design Neurodiversity Inclusion Accessibility User Experience
  1. Neurodiversity encompasses a wide range of neurological variations in the human population, emphasizing the positive aspects and uniqueness of different thinking styles and cognitive functions.
  2. When designing for neurodiversity, consider factors like font choice, error prevention, clear copywriting, sensory issues, and consistency in design to create inclusive user experiences.
  3. In the workplace, it's important to foster understanding and flexibility to support neurodiverse individuals, from adjusting hiring practices to creating accommodating work environments and providing education and resources.

How to (consistently) get 4.8* App Ratings [Storytime Saturdays]

Technology Made Simple • 1 HN point • 30 Mar 24
🕹 Technology App Development User Experience iOS Startup Growth
  1. Consistently achieve high app ratings like 4.8". It's not easy, but it's simple. Understand two key concepts: asking for reviews and identifying 'wow' moments.
  2. Requesting app reviews is crucial. Users rarely leave reviews on their own, so ask for feedback using StoreKit APIs in iOS and strategically place these requests at key points in your app's critical path.
  3. Focus on delivering 'wow' moments in your app, ask for reviews at that peak point. Balancing user satisfaction with review requests on the critical path is essential for maintaining a high app rating.

Microsoft Sentinel Content Hub Changes

Rod’s Blog • 39 implied HN points • 15 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Software Updates User Experience
  1. The default view in the Microsoft Sentinel Content Hub has changed to List Mode, which allows users to select multiple solutions for installation at once.
  2. The step-through wizard for installing solutions in the Content Hub has been replaced with simple options: Install and View Results.
  3. Investing in Microsoft Sentinel means having the most current version of the product available without downtime, showing continuous improvement in the platform.