For those of us who have made our life’s journey all about UX design, we’re always on the lookout for the best articles and books to help us learn more about our craft. UX design is kind of like nature – it’s always evolving and frankly, when we start a project, we’re not 100% sure where it might take us, but the final view is well worth it.
Scouring the web for the best UX design articles is time consuming, so here’s a list of some of the best articles from the past year or so. While there are easily hundreds that could make this list, let’s limit it to 10 so we don’t get so sidetracked from whatever projects we’re currently working on.
1. Creating Perfect User Flows For Smooth UX
Understanding the end-user is crucial to more effective UX design. This is where creating user flows is important. This article by UXPin features the steps and reasoning behind how to create better user flows from an actual UX designer. Ideally, we can create more detailed user personas when we’re done reading.
2. User Memory Design: How To Design For Experiences That Last
We all want to create the perfect user experience, but the key to that is to design for the user’s memory. This Smashing Magazine UX design article focuses on creating not just experiences, but memories. This helps bring users back to a product, site, app, etc. over and over again.
3. Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
When we think of UX design, we usually think of apps, websites or products. This Nielson Norman Group post dives into UX for three popular services – Rent the Runway, Airbnb and Uber. It showcases not just UX design for a service, but a glimpse at real world UX.
4. Five Things Tinder Can Teach You About Mobile Experience
Looking at current trends and what users love right now is an important part of improving UX. This UX Magazine article shows us how the popular dating app Tinder nails human behavior. It’s the perfect example of a design that creates the ideal experience for it’s target audience.
5. Reducing Cognitive Overload For A Better User Experience
Let’s head back to Smashing Magazine for one of the more interesting UX design articles. It points out a fact that could change how we all design – “the best user experience is the one the user doesn’t notice.” It also teaches us how to design this way.
6. 39 Studies About Human Perception In 30 Minutes
This is a rather long one, coming in at about 20 minutes to read. However, it’s worth it for better understanding how humans perceive graphical information. It’s a little technical, but it provides valuable insight that every UX designer needs.
7. The UX Design Success Ladder: Achieving Meaningful Product Design
While this article from Design.org focuses on product design, we can all learn something important – the steps to take for more successful UX. It takes a ladder approach that’s easy to understand and makes us all wonder why we didn’t think of this before.
8. 4 UX Habits For Improving Interaction Design
Part of the user experience is how users actually interact with the design. This The Next Web article highlights four great habits for UX designers to improve the interaction portion of their designs. It’s informative and provides valuable resources for becoming a better overall UX designer.
9. 5 Things Everyone Should Know About UX Work
This one might not seem quite as in-depth as some of the other UX design articles on this list, but take a moment to read it anyway, especially if you’re just getting into UX design or are feeling a little lost right now. This article from Interaction Design highlights some of the frustrations we all face as UX designers. It also showcases what it’s really like to be a UX designer. Odds are, we’ll all relate and find ourselves nodding our heads along with each statement.
10. UX Research Cheat Sheet
We all know that UX research is important, but where do we start? It’d be great if we had the time to just walk down busy streets and ask random people what they think, but alas, we don’t have the time or probably patience for that. Wouldn’t a cheat sheet to help get the research process started be nice? This rather detailed cheat sheet from Nielson Norman Group is an important tool for every UX designer. Look it over before every project or at least every six months for better user research.
Continuing To Embrace UX Design
Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete with mentioning that UX designers should take some time to go through the past posts here on My UX Life. From learning how to better understand end-users to looking at how UX works in the real-world, such as how bathrooms are designed, you’ll find a smorgasbord of information to inspire and help you better embrace UX design.
A few posts to get you started include:
- 6 Problem Solving Skills You Can Use To Enhance Your Daily Life
- Empathy Is The Right Choice! Kindness Is Contagious After All!
- Reality Matters – UX For The Real World
Okay, now that we’ve all taken a much needed break from our design projects, let’s get back to work and try out some of the new things we’ve learned.
Images: Lukas Becker, Zoe Baum, Clem Onojeghuo, Breather, Glenn Carstens-Peters