The hottest UX Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Unintended Consequences

Fish Food for Thought • 20 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Unintended consequences are inevitable; well-meaning fixes can create worse problems or surprising new opportunities, so assume surprises will happen.
  2. Chasing metrics without context makes products drift from their purpose, because optimizing numbers can reward harmful or shallow behaviors; always measure real human outcomes and watch for distortions.
  3. Treat every launch as the start of learning: test for misuse, listen to real users, and build a culture that adapts quickly instead of blaming mistakes.

Quiz Answers: What Happened in UX & AI in 2025?

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 13 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
🪑 Design UX
  1. AI is shifting value away from routine craft toward human skills like agency, judgment, and persuasion; tools like vibe coding and generative UIs let people state intent while AI handles implementation.
  2. UX practice must evolve with new interaction patterns for AI: design for long-running "Slow AI" tasks (return recaps, conceptual breadcrumbs, tiered notifications), use prompt-augmentation interfaces (prompt builders, parametrization), and optimize content for AI citation (GEO).
  3. AI will reshape organizations and the economy by lowering transaction costs and flattening firms, displacing many routine knowledge jobs while creating new roles (super-users, auditors, FDEs) and exposing gaps in how we measure value and ROI.

Part 1: AI Use Among UX Professionals

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 17 Aug 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Artificial Intelligence is significantly impacting User Experience (UX) by providing new tools and methods for research and design.
  2. UX professionals have varying levels of AI knowledge and usage, with concerns including potential errors, biases, and job security.
  3. Even though many UX professionals are incorporating AI into their work, there is still caution and a desire to ensure responsible AI use and human augmentation.

Deepfake Personas in UX

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 06 Jul 23
🕹 Technology UX
  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.

The Creator's Blind Spot

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Understanding the psychology of AI creators is crucial as they may have an overly optimistic view of their own creations, known as the Inventor's Bias Effect.
  2. Inventors may view their products more positively due to personal identification with their creations, indicating biased decision-making.
  3. The importance of diverse input in decision-making processes to prevent overblown expectations about fairness and efficiency in AI tools.
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Do papercuts matter?

Register Spill • 157 implied HN points • 30 Apr 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Papercuts in software are small annoyances that don't necessarily affect functionality but can be fixed.
  2. Even though papercuts may be annoying, they often don't prevent users from achieving their goals when using software.
  3. Having papercuts in software may not always directly relate to a negative user experience or impact the success of the software.

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 UX
  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.

Part 2: Examining UX Professionals' Attitudes Towards AI

UX Psychology • 138 implied HN points • 14 Sep 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. UX professionals generally have a positive outlook on incorporating AI into their work, emphasizing the importance of AI enhancing human potential rather than overshadowing it.
  2. Even though most UX professionals display a positive attitude towards AI, there is still a degree of caution evident.
  3. Individuals with higher self-reported AI knowledge tend to have more favorable attitudes towards AI and use AI tools more frequently in their work.

Welcome to Full Moon

New World Same Humans • 15 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
🪑 Design UX
  1. Full Moon is a new space for deep thinking at the intersection of humans, technology, and business, aimed at designers, marketers, strategists, founders and other creative knowledge workers.
  2. It will publish a monthly deep-dive essay on each full moon and offers paid benefits like a monthly podcast, video Q&As, shorter Ideas, and early access to in-person events.
  3. The launch focuses on the future of design in an AI age, arguing that feeling, relevance, and human consequence matter, and members can gift a free year to someone aged 28 or under to bring younger voices into the conversation.

From Challenges to Opportunities: Insights into the Neurodiverse Experience in UX

UX Psychology • 99 implied HN points • 24 Nov 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Neurodiversity refers to a natural variation in how people think, perceive, and learn, and includes conditions like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia.
  2. Neurodivergent individuals can struggle with employment due to sensory sensitivity, social difficulties, and executive functioning challenges, but with the right support, they can thrive professionally and bring unique value.
  3. In the field of UX, neurodiverse perspectives can offer diverse skills and innovation, but individual assessment and customized support are crucial for success as each person's strengths and challenges vary.

A Fresh Look at Analytics

trydeepwork • 2 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
🪑 Design UX
  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.

Designing the AI Future

New World Same Humans • 11 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
🪑 Design UX
  1. A research service is focusing on the intersection of technology, business, and creativity to help professionals make sense of rapid change. It targets marketers, designers, strategists, innovators and other knowledge workers who need clear foresight.
  2. The central challenge is crafting an AI-powered future that’s worth living in, not just more capable systems. Decades of design experience suggest feeling, relevance, and human consequences will matter more than technical capability alone.
  3. The approach is to explore these questions through deep essays and conversations so ideas become practical insight. Those resources aim to help people see what’s coming and do work that matters.

Screenshot roundup and 🤖 AI positioning in ads

Mehdeeka • 5 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
💼 Business UX
  1. Small UX and copy choices — like using navigation to show value propositions or a blunt “what is X” line — make websites much clearer and reduce user confusion.
  2. Short, creative activations (limited digital giveaways, playful Gen Z copy, or logo-as-art) are scroll-stopping and build goodwill, though they often rely on strong existing brand recognition.
  3. Be careful with AI messaging: only call out AI when you can clearly explain what it does for users, because vague AI claims spark short-term interest but then invite skeptical questions.

The little green "Active" dot.

Nate is Learning • 58 implied HN points • 20 Apr 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. The 'Active' dot in Slack can create a culture of optics and virtual micro-management.
  2. Some users appreciate the 'Active' dot as it shows extra effort put in.
  3. There can be a dilemma between catering to daily users and maintaining status quo for paying users.

The Sequence Engineering #551: Magentic-UI Push The Boundaries of Agentic User Experience

TheSequence • 35 implied HN points • 28 May 25
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Magentic-UI is a new web interface by Microsoft that helps with complex tasks using AI. It allows people to work together with AI in a more effective way.
  2. This interface combines large language models with real-time feedback, making automation dynamic and secure. Users can complete multi-step tasks more easily.
  3. Agentic user experience is an emerging area in generative AI, and Magentic-UI aims to improve how we interact with AI beyond just chat interfaces.

Psychological principles in product design — a closer look at Duolingo

UX Psychology • 198 implied HN points • 05 Oct 21
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Small improvements near the end of an experience can significantly impact how people remember the entire event.
  2. Highlighting a unique option among similar choices can make it more memorable and likely to be chosen.
  3. As people make progress towards a goal, they tend to speed up their actions to reach it faster, indicating motivation by the remaining distance to the target.

2025 - Year in Review

trydeepwork • 2 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
🕹 Technology UX
  1. The tool is widely used — about 29,420 hours logged (~14 full-time years) — and user habits shifted, with peak focus moving from 2 pm to 10 am and many sessions happening late at night.
  2. Auto-abandoning tasks proved hugely valuable. About 23% of tasks are abandoned and 98% of those are automatic, which cuts clutter and decision fatigue.
  3. Small UX and workflow tweaks changed behavior: Time Dots, step breakdowns, microWork sessions, and improved scheduling made progress more visible and lowered friction to start work.

Merging Can Be Made Eventually Consistent

Bram’s Thoughts • 19 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. In distributed version control, there's a way to ensure consistent merging regardless of the order merges are done.
  2. File states can be represented as a set of line positions with generation counts to determine the winning state during merging.
  3. Handling conflicts in merging requires presenting changes in the order they'll appear to everyone, not based on 'local' or 'remote' changes.

What 1,250 Workers Really Think About AI (And Why You’re Probably Lying to Yourself)

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 3 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
🕹 Technology UX
  1. There’s a big perception gap: people say AI mostly augments them, but actual behavior shows heavy automation, so you must measure real usage not just ask users.
  2. Social stigma makes many professionals hide their AI use, which skews adoption metrics and creates workplace theater, so design for disclosure comfort and respect identity.
  3. Different professions treat AI differently — creatives want control and pride, scientists want trustworthy, explainable partners, and general workers want to preserve identity — so segment by professional identity and build transparency and reliability features.

Evaluating UX in robots

UX Psychology • 39 implied HN points • 11 Nov 22
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Robots are being increasingly utilized, especially in response to crises like the pandemic, where they help in multiple ways from monitoring patients to making deliveries.
  2. When evaluating social robots for usability, methodologies include using textual descriptions, video demonstrations, live interactions, and the Wizard of Oz method.
  3. Evaluation dimensions in social robot studies cover utilitarian aspects like ease of use, emotional appeal, and trust, with methods like questionnaires, interviews, biometrics, and video analysis.

What AI Can and Cannot Do for UX

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 87 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
🕹 Technology UX
  1. AI has a strong role in user experience and professionals should embrace it.
  2. AI is creative, productive, and can create and analyze content at scale.
  3. AI may eventually design good user interfaces but will never replace the need for human users in user research.

Where could Spotify take Audiobooks?

Making Connections by Jax • 19 implied HN points • 27 Oct 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Spotify could help authors reach a wider audience by leveraging its large subscriber base and marketing tools.
  2. Spotify has the potential to revolutionize book clubs by using playlists creatively and involving celebrities.
  3. Spotify may introduce new narrative formats and revenue streams for authors similar to the music industry's evolution.

Implicit measures in UX

UX Psychology • 99 implied HN points • 11 Oct 21
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Self-report methods like questionnaires and interviews are commonly used in UX research, but they have limitations due to factors like social desirability bias and limited introspection.
  2. To fully understand user experience, it's important to consider unconscious motives like emotions and implicit attitudes, which can be measured using implicit techniques such as the Implicit Associate Test (IAT).
  3. Implicit measures, like the IAT, provide insights into unconscious processes influencing behavior, and can offer additional valuable information in UX research compared to traditional explicit measures like questionnaires.

#88 Go reconfigure

Design Lobster • 119 implied HN points • 04 Oct 21
🪑 Design UX
  1. Designs are becoming more personalized, like Google's Material You design language that adapts system colors based on the user's wallpaper choice.
  2. Designers may need to embrace flexibility to allow users to contribute to the end result, as seen in the unique design approach of Material You.
  3. Creating a delightful user experience involves making the process of configuring designs enjoyable, like the adjustable Tizio lamp designed by Richard Sapper.

How I Developed the 10 Usability Heuristics

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 75 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics were developed through factor analysis to explain a database of usability problems, with the final list chosen for its explanatory power.
  2. The initial heuristics in 1989 were based on opinion and teaching needs, while the refined 1994 list was derived through systematic research and factor analysis.
  3. The 10 heuristics have remained relevant for 30 years due to their grounding in fundamental mismatches between humans and machines, and their broad, general applicability across different user interfaces.

#4 - Build a powerful pagination

A Good Interface • 19 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Learn how to create effective pagination between inventory and leaderboard.
  2. Understand the benefits of pagination like facilitating navigation and saving data in a game.
  3. Improve pagination with tips like correct placement, next/prev buttons, visible states/actions, and offer more control with filters and sorts.

#3 - The benefits of white space

A Good Interface • 19 implied HN points • 23 Aug 23
🪑 Design UX
  1. White space is crucial in design, existing between elements to enhance clarity and organization.
  2. White space is not wasted space; it guides users, showcases important information, and brings a sense of calmness to interfaces.
  3. Effective use of white space improves user experience, leads users through logical grouping, focuses attention on key elements, and reflects a game's branding and tone of voice.

SEO & UX: Search Engine Optimization Best Practices

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 19 implied HN points • 05 Mar 25
🕹 Technology UX
  1. SEO is changing from a focus on tricks to prioritizing what users actually want. It’s about giving people good experiences rather than trying to fool search engines.
  2. Quality content is key for SEO now. Instead of pumping out lots of low-quality articles, businesses should create useful, in-depth content that truly answers user questions.
  3. Building trust and authority online is crucial. Websites need to show expertise and be credible, as Google favors content from trusted sources.

Psychological time and UX

UX Psychology • 59 implied HN points • 07 Oct 21
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Psychological time, influenced by factors like anxiety and cultural background, affects how we perceive waiting time.
  2. Changing passive wait time to active engagement can significantly improve user experience in various scenarios.
  3. To enhance user experience, minimizing traditional wait times and engaging users with activities can create a more enjoyable waiting experience.

🙄 The AI is coming for my UX job

Counting Stuff • 54 implied HN points • 13 Apr 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. A startup is using AI to create fake personas for product testing, but it misses the point of user testing.
  2. Usability studies run by project managers may be biased without proper training, focusing on understanding user motivations rather than specific actions.
  3. Like machine translation disrupted the translation market, AI in UX may provide some value for simple tasks but human experts are still needed for complex nuances.

UX Roundup: World Usability Day | Bits to Atoms | Doing vs. Learning | AI Denial

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 9 implied HN points • 11 Nov 24
🕹 Technology UX
  1. World Usability Day is on November 14, and it's a chance to appreciate good design. Instead of only pointing out bad usability, try to share something that has made your experience better.
  2. Humanoid robots like Tesla's Optimus could become a reality within the next 5 to 10 years. These robots are being designed to closely mimic human movements and may handle most physical work.
  3. AI can be a helpful learning tool, but the way you use it matters. Students learn better when AI acts as a teacher rather than doing the work for them, so it’s best to engage with AI for deeper learning.

I am terrible at talking about my achievements

Counting Stuff • 32 implied HN points • 06 Jun 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Talking about your achievements is important for recognition and career advancement.
  2. It's common to downplay your own work and focus on flaws, but it's crucial to highlight the positive impact.
  3. Emphasize concrete facts and context when discussing your achievements, and seek feedback to improve your communication.

Unreasonable Support: Design for the Unhappy Path

The Kahneman Bot • 2 HN points • 19 Feb 24
🪑 Design UX
  1. Designing for the unhappy path in user experiences is crucial for creating user loyalty and retention.
  2. Unhappy path design can trigger a sense of reciprocity in users, leading to positive responses to issues or faults.
  3. Providing what users perceive as unreasonable levels of support can result in long-term loyalty and cost-effective retention strategies.

The 10 Usability Heuristics Reimagined

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 23 implied HN points • 19 Jul 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics are crucial for UX design.
  2. Many individuals are reimagining and presenting these UX principles in creative ways.
  3. Various resources such as memes, icons, and scorecards provide different perspectives on the 10 heuristics.

LLMs, anthropocentric thinking, accuracy, and self-driving

Apperceptive (moved to buttondown) • 16 implied HN points • 16 Feb 23
🕹 Technology UX
  1. Large language models are different from earlier neural network models in architecture and scale of training data.
  2. Large language models exploit the anthropomorphic fallacy, making people interpret them as conscious beings.
  3. The illusion of cognitive depth in machine learning systems like large language models can lead to misunderstandings and challenges in applications like autonomous cars.

#18 Nuclear meltdown, torn clothes and the astonishingly ordinary

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 29 May 20
🪑 Design UX
  1. Bad design can lead to catastrophic consequences, as seen in the case of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown.
  2. Sashiko, a Japanese sewing repair technique, shows how framing flaws can enhance the overall design aesthetically and functionally.
  3. Finding inspiration in the ordinary can lead to extraordinary design ideas, as highlighted by Design Director Kenya Hara.

UX Roundup: Time Estimates for Quant Projects | LinkedIn Rant | Benchmarking UX | Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan UX | Free AI Courses | New Music Tool

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 3 implied HN points • 11 Mar 24
🕹 Technology UX
  1. For quantitative user research projects, default time estimate is one month, divided into planning, data collection, analysis, and final results stages.
  2. LinkedIn algorithm reduces reach for posts with external links, hindering usability and user experience on the platform.
  3. Benchmarking UX quality over time can help track improvements, emphasize UX importance, and guide corrective actions when needed.