The hottest User Experience Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Good Luck/Bad Luck. Good Design/Bad Design

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 28 Apr 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Software can be easy to create but hard to maintain. It's important for engineers to think about how their choices today will affect the future.
  2. Using simple designs and clear roles in a project can help avoid complicated problems later. Teams should focus on making changes quickly and smartly.
  3. Sometimes, the best solution is to remove unnecessary parts instead of adding more. If something isn't needed right now, it's better to not include it.

Is it possible for a human to argue with an AI assistant? 😅

Prawfeed Newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Misalignment between human intent and AI output is common and often invisible.
  2. AI can move fast on partial signals and end up going the wrong way. Fixing it takes pausing, naming the drift, and resetting direction instead of just blaming.
  3. The real advantage is human clarity and cognitive leadership. Thinking clearly, communicating boundaries, and guiding the AI matters more than clever prompts.

The Role of Mood in User Experience Design

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Understanding user mood is crucial in user experience design as it influences interactions over time.
  2. Moods can be monitored, expressed, and regulated in UX design to create more personalized and empathetic experiences.
  3. Implementing mood-focused strategies requires considering ethical challenges, personalization opportunities, and continuous testing.

Goodbye, Menu Interfaces

In My Tribe • 440 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Menu interfaces on websites may soon disappear. Instead of searching through menus, people will just ask AI what they need.
  2. Using AI means users can create their own features and functions. This makes getting information or services much easier and more personal.
  3. Web design jobs could change a lot as sites become less necessary. AI will interact with databases, and users will communicate with AI instead.

When software stops caring

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 21 Apr 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Enterprise software focuses more on the buyer than the user, making user experience less important. It just needs to be usable enough to avoid complaints.
  2. Consumer software prioritizes a great user experience because users can easily switch. This keeps companies on their toes to fix bugs and improve features quickly.
  3. Emerging apps from big tech are stuck in the middle. They need basic functionality but often don’t get the attention they need, leading to worse user experiences over time.
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Using Psychology to Improve User Onboarding

UX Psychology • 377 implied HN points • 14 Jul 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Leverage psychology in user onboarding to create informative, enjoyable, and memorable experiences.
  2. Utilize the Zeigarnik effect by using progress meters, reminders, and allowing partial profile completion to keep users engaged.
  3. Decrease complexity with Hicks' law by reducing choices, highlighting easy options, and using progressive onboarding to improve decision-making and enhance user experience.

Crafting something beautiful ♥️

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 01 Aug 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Improving customer access made it easier for users to start using LaunchFast. Instead of multiple steps, they can now just run one command.
  2. A conversation with Neeraj from BigBinary led to important changes in pricing and marketing strategy for LaunchFast. These adjustments should help clarify its value and appeal more to potential users.
  3. Learning about deploying an NPM package simplified the process of launching LaunchFast. This helped create an efficient script that sets everything up quickly.

Tidy First Example

Software Design: Tidy First? • 463 implied HN points • 30 Jan 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. It's important to make hard changes easier before tackling them. This means breaking down tough tasks into simpler steps.
  2. Many people want to make the easy changes they envision, but they often overlook the complexity involved.
  3. Always pay attention to examples in learning; they can provide valuable insights that you might miss if you skim over them.

Generative UI from Gemini 3 Pro

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 56 implied HN points • 19 Nov 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Google's new Gemini 3 Pro creates user interfaces that are tailored specifically to individuals. This 'Generative UI' means that users can get exactly what they need when they need it.
  2. In user testing, people preferred the AI-generated interfaces over traditional website designs about 90% of the time. This shows how much easier and more effective these personalized interfaces can be compared to regular sites.
  3. Even though human designers still have a slight edge in quality, AI is improving rapidly. It's likely that in just a couple of years, AI will become better than humans at creating effective user interfaces.

Improving the product

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 31 Jul 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Getting user feedback is really important. Talking to customers helps understand their needs, especially beginners in tech.
  2. Watching a seasoned developer use the product can reveal issues and areas for improvement. It's a great way to learn about friction points.
  3. Making things easier for users is key. Simplifying processes and providing good documentation can really help users get started faster and reduce confusion.

TinyStories

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 39 implied HN points • 26 Jun 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Phi-3 is a small language model that uses a special dataset called TinyStories. This dataset was designed to help the model create more varied and engaging stories.
  2. TinyStories uses simple vocabulary suitable for young children, focusing on quality over quantity. The stories generated are meant to be both understandable and entertaining.
  3. Training the Phi-3 model with TinyStories can be done quickly and allows for easier fine-tuning. This helps smaller organizations use advanced language models without needing huge resources.

Further improvements to the landing page

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 30 Jul 24
💼 Business User Experience
  1. Improving the landing page is important based on user feedback. It's a continuous process to get high ratings through various updates.
  2. Using tools like Sentry helps in monitoring performance and collecting user feedback. This makes it easier to identify and fix issues.
  3. Conducting customer interviews is valuable for understanding user needs. The insights gained can guide product development and marketing strategies.

Landing page improvements

André Casal's Substack • 19 implied HN points • 29 Jul 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Improving color contrast on a landing page helps make it more accessible for users. Clearer visuals can attract more visitors and keep them engaged.
  2. Adding logos and use-case sections to a landing page can help communicate what the product is about. It makes it easier for potential customers to understand if the product fits their needs.
  3. Getting feedback on a landing page and iterating on it is essential for creating a successful product. Regular updates based on user input help build trust and improve overall user experience.

Build What You Depend On

Kathy PM • 13 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Use your own product for real, high-stakes work — not demos — so every moment of friction becomes obvious and compels fixes.
  2. Dogfood the way customers actually do, including the API and cross-team workflows, and do it continuously so slow, repetitive annoyances surface.
  3. Make sure the people who feel the pain can act on it; dogfooding only improves the product when teams have the agency to fix issues and earn real trust.

Beyond Five Seconds: Rethinking First Impressions in UX

UX Psychology • 238 implied HN points • 08 Dec 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. First impressions are crucial in UX and can influence user engagement throughout their interaction with an interface.
  2. Traditional 'five-second tests' in UX may not account for variations in users' cognitive abilities and the complexity of visual designs.
  3. To enhance UX design, consider customizing testing based on cognitive abilities, evaluating visual complexity, and rethinking the standard 'five-second rule.'

The end of COVID, the end of Twitter

Logging the World • 318 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
🕹 Technology 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.

Correct vs Good

General Robots • 383 implied HN points • 11 Feb 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Being correct means having a product that works as intended—it's stable, bug-free, and meets specifications. However, it can be very costly to reach near-perfect correctness.
  2. Being good is about providing value and meeting customer needs. There's no limit to how good a product can become, and making something better is always beneficial.
  3. To improve a product, it's essential to iterate quickly based on real customer feedback. This helps in learning what features work best and keeps development moving efficiently.

Adobe Firefly Is Out! Create Amazing Images in Seconds (With Free Prompt Guide)

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 299 implied HN points • 20 Oct 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Adobe Firefly is a powerful image generator that makes it easy to bring your creative ideas to life. Whether you want to create fantasy scenes or unique characters, it helps you visualize them quickly.
  2. Using Adobe Firefly is user-friendly and fun, allowing anyone to create stunning images with just a few clicks. You can start for free and explore its features without any cost.
  3. The tutorial offers 26 prompt ideas to help you get the most out of Adobe Firefly. It includes a guide on how to effectively use prompts to create what you imagine.

Please let your readers read?

Disaffected Newsletter • 779 implied HN points • 13 Jan 23
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. Use high-contrast colors for your text and background to make reading easier. Low contrast can make it hard to read and push people away from your content.
  2. Many readers won't tell you your text is hard to read, and they might leave without saying anything. It's better to get feedback than to lose potential readers.
  3. Remember that your main goal is to share words that people want to read. Avoid trendy designs that harm readability, as they can hurt your audience and support.

How writers and creators are using the Substack app to publish from anywhere

Substack • 605 implied HN points • 20 Sep 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. The Substack mobile editor is now available for Android, allowing writers to publish posts from anywhere. This lets users share their ideas whenever inspiration strikes, whether they're on the move or relaxing at home.
  2. Since launching the mobile editor, many creators are posting from unexpected places, which adds a fun and personal touch to their writing. They have shared personal stories and insights while being in unique locations.
  3. The app aims to keep improving its features and matching the web editor's capabilities. This means users can look forward to more tools and options to enhance their writing experience on mobile.

What is a good designer?

Elizabeth Laraki • 219 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. A good designer focuses on understanding the product's goals, audience, and use cases. They clarify what the product should achieve and for whom it’s meant.
  2. User experience is key for a designer, ensuring the product is easy and natural to use. They organize content and tasks logically, making navigation simple for everyone.
  3. Visual design is about making the product look polished and high quality. Good designers pay attention to details like colors, fonts, and alignment to connect with users effectively.

My Toddler Loves Planes, So I Built Her A Radar

Jacob’s Tech Tavern • 1304 HN points • 27 Nov 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. The idea for the app came from the author's toddler's fascination with planes, leading to the creation of a radar app.
  2. The app was built to be engaging and fun for kids, with features like showing nearby flights and being oriented correctly.
  3. The author went through user testing with their toddler to ensure the app was enjoyable and successful before launching it on the App Store.

New discovery features, chat paywall settings, and recent Substack meetups

Substack • 497 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Substack has introduced a feature that allows free subscribers to see some chat replies, but only paid subscribers can read full threads. This is a way to encourage upgrades.
  2. There's a new invite button for chats, letting subscribers invite friends to join the conversation, which helps grow the community.
  3. The search feature is now better on mobile, and readers can find related notes easily, making it simpler to discover new content.

Well, TikTok's Gone

Default Wisdom • 366 implied HN points • 19 Jan 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Many people feel a deep emotional loss now that TikTok is gone. It wasn’t just a time-waster; it was a community where they connected with friends.
  2. TikTok's ability to make ideas stick in people's minds is powerful, which is why some lawmakers were concerned about its influence. They worried it could be used for spreading certain messages too easily.
  3. Some folks are now looking at China differently and even romanticizing life there. This shift seems to stem from frustrations with their own lives and technology in America.

Elegant Solutions

David Friedman’s Substack • 404 implied HN points • 22 Dec 24
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. Using both words and numbers when writing a check helps reduce mistakes, making it much harder to misread the amount. It's a clever way to prevent errors and fraud.
  2. The design of everyday items, like rubber spatulas and manhole covers, often has simple solutions to practical problems. These designs make them more useful in various situations.
  3. When faced with a decision or a problem, looking for the simplest and most practical solution is key. Sometimes, the best way to find a solution is to observe how things are naturally done.

"A Browser with a ChatBot": Watching the Evolution of The Browser Company Toward "AI", Whatever That Might Become

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 169 implied HN points • 05 Jun 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. The Browser Company is trying to create a new web experience by mixing a familiar browser interface with a chatbot. They hope this will make it easy for users to adapt to their product.
  2. There is a lot of competition in the browser market, with big companies like Google and Apple also developing AI features. This makes it hard for smaller companies to stand out.
  3. The goal is to not just be another browser, but to help users manage their entire online life better. They want to offer advanced features that save time and improve productivity over time.

Words Matter: How Terminology Affects User Responses to AI System Failures

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 17 Nov 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. The specific terminology used to describe AI systems significantly impacts user perceptions and expectations.
  2. Research shows that labeling a system as 'AI' versus 'algorithmic' affects trust, satisfaction, and acceptance after errors.
  3. Transparency, explainability, and careful terminology choices are essential in maintaining user trust and satisfaction with AI systems.

How to talk to someone who doesn't trust AI

The AI Frontier • 59 implied HN points • 25 Apr 24
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Many people doubt AI tools because they believe they only look good in demos but don't perform well in real life. Trying out LLMs like ChatGPT can often change that opinion for the better.
  2. Some skeptics challenge AI by asking tricky questions that the AI can't answer. It's important to remember that AI has limitations and not every mistake means it's useless.
  3. People notice that AI responses can seem similar, making it hard to trust their accuracy. Customizing answers and improving quality can help address this issue.

The origins of human-centered design

Can We Still Govern? • 151 implied HN points • 11 Jun 25
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. Human-centered design started in the military during World War II. It focused on understanding how people interacted with equipment to prevent crashes and improve safety.
  2. John Arnold formalized human-centered design processes in the 1950s, laying the groundwork for its use in technology and public services.
  3. In recent years, human-centered design has gained attention in government to enhance services. It's about putting people's needs first to build trust and engagement.

The UX Recruitment Struggle Is Real: How to Find Participants

UX Psychology • 238 implied HN points • 21 Jul 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Finding the right participants for UX research can be a major challenge, hindering the effectiveness of your study.
  2. Being resourceful in recruiting participants is key - leverage niche communities, engage with customer-facing teams, and consider using professional panels.
  3. When facing internal roadblocks, start small to showcase the value of UX research, analyze indirect user touchpoints, and conduct desk research or UX audits as alternative solutions.

Feeling the Design

UX Psychology • 238 implied HN points • 05 Jun 23
🪑 Design User Experience
  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: How People Use AI | AI Does User Research | Founding Designers | Prompt Engineering | AI Agent Use Cases | Electricity Fuels AI | GPT 5.2 Beats Humans

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 23 implied HN points • 15 Dec 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Workers are already using AI a lot — often secretly — so product design must support both automation and collaboration, teach prompting, and give users control (especially for creative workflows that need canvas-style UIs and curator tools).
  2. AI can run and analyze large-scale interviews, turning qualitative insights into quantifiable themes and making researchers into orchestrators, but agent behavior and user needs change over time so longitudinal usability studies are essential.
  3. Simple persona prompts don’t improve factual accuracy, yet models and costs are improving rapidly — cutting task costs and enabling AI to outperform experts on many half-day tasks — so designs and infrastructure (including power capacity) must evolve quickly.

You can’t build a moat with AI (redux)

Generating Conversation • 256 implied HN points • 20 Feb 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Using AI like LLMs isn't unique anymore. Just having AI in your product doesn't really set it apart from competitors.
  2. To really stand out, focus on making a great user experience and integrating your product into how users already work. This makes your tool more valuable and hard to replace.
  3. Data is crucial for AI. It's not just about having lots of data; it's about using it smartly over time to improve your product and understand your users better.

#3 Industrial Design

Mountain Labs Newsletter • 59 implied HN points • 17 Apr 24
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. When developing a hardware product, focus on three key areas: energy, communication, and form factor. Energy determines if your device runs on batteries or needs to be plugged in.
  2. For B2B products, start with communication needs since they often integrate with other systems. But for B2C products, prioritize the look and feel of the device first.
  3. Always check the costs and manufacturability of your components. If it’s too expensive or hard to make, revisit your choices before moving forward with the design.

Steve Jobs vs. the Haters

Litverse • 219 implied HN points • 26 Sep 23
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. In 1997, Steve Jobs made strategic decisions for Apple that were heavily criticized, such as discontinuing OpenDoc and embracing a closed system approach.
  2. Jobs believed in prioritizing user experience over technology, leading to the success of Apple products despite criticism from early tech adopters.
  3. The essence of successful products lies in making life better through simplicity and providing a seamless, convenient user experience, as shown by Jobs' approach with Apple.

how are those design studies going?

vrk loves paper • 219 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. Recognizing a fear of judgment is important when learning something new, like fashion or design. It's okay to need time to learn and grow without worrying about how you look to others.
  2. Instead of focusing solely on perfection in design, aim to create joyfully and embrace mistakes. It's about the process, not just the final product.
  3. Learning takes time and comes with feelings of being behind, but having supportive friends and a clear vision of your goals can help you stay motivated.

The Social App where you only Post Once a Year

Messy Progress • 35 implied HN points • 15 Nov 25
🕹 Technology User Experience
  1. Slowpost is a social app that lets you post just once a year, focusing on simplicity. It helps people stay connected through annual personal newsletters instead of constant updates.
  2. Traditional social media can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing, but sending a yearly letter can strengthen bonds with friends and family in a more meaningful way.
  3. The app helps you manage who receives your annual letters, making it easier to reconnect with people you care about without feeling intrusive.

Do People Prefer Curved Lines?

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
🔬 Science 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.

Designing Digital Products for Older Adults

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 21 Sep 23
🪑 Design User Experience
  1. Designing digital products for older adults is crucial as their population grows and technology becomes more integrated into daily life.
  2. Age-related changes in vision, hearing, dexterity, processing speed, working memory, attention, and executive function must be considered when designing inclusive digital experiences for older adults.
  3. To create more inclusive digital experiences for older adults, simplify interfaces, support recognition over recall, offer clear wayfinding cues, minimize required steps, and provide feedback and error recovery options.

The Use of Scarcity Cues in E-Commerce: Impact on User Experience and Trust

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 05 Oct 23
💼 Business User Experience
  1. Online retailers often use scarcity cues like countdown timers and limited quantity messages to create urgency, but research suggests they can harm user experience and trust.
  2. Psychological theories show that scarcity can make products seem more valuable, yet artificial scarcity cues in marketing can annoy users and erode trust.
  3. Recent research found that scarcity cues, especially time-based ones, can lead to negative emotions, frustration, and reduced user trust, highlighting the need for transparent and verifiable messaging in e-commerce.