

Inactive GUI Controls: Show, Disable, or Hide?
Summary: Three design patterns exist for inactive UI commands: showing them as normal commands with an error message if clicked, a visibly disabled state, or completely hiding unavailable options. Best practice is to display disabled features in muted colors, accompanied by explanations of why they are currently unavailable. Short music video about this article (YouTube, 4 min.) Behold the epic saga of the disabled button: Sometimes, a command or feature is inactive , me

Jakob Nielsen
2 hours ago18 min read


UX Roundup: AI Music | Humans Impolite to AI | Subscriptions vs. Social Media | AI vs. Search
Summary : Experimenting with same song in different genres | Humans impolite to AI, which needs to be reflected in training data | Subscriptions beat social media for insightful content | AI answers beat search UX Roundup for November 10, 2025. (Seedream 4) Two New Music Genres I remade my opera about direct manipulation (YouTube, 4 min.) in two modern music genres: Jazz song about direct manipulation (YouTube, 3 min.) Rock song about direct manipulation (YouTube, 3 min.

Jakob Nielsen
3 days ago9 min read


When Humans Add Negative Value: AI Alone vs. Human–AI Synergy
Summary: The prevailing “human in the loop” paradigm for AI use must die or be drastically reduced. In many cases, human involvement already degrades AI performance, especially in analytical tasks. Creative fields still benefit from the positive synergistic effects of human-AI collaboration, but as AI improves, the scope for human involvement will likely shrink. Humans must move up the food chain to exhibit agency and strategic management, while letting superior AI systems o

Jakob Nielsen
Nov 632 min read


UX Roundup: Long-Running AI | Consistency | What AI to Use | AI Anxiety | AI Helps Blind Users | NPS
Summary : UX for long-running AI tasks | Consistent user interface design | What are the best AI models to use now | AI anxiety in the workplace | AI helps blind users, but a study found that accessibility challenges remain in current AI UI | NPS scored UX Roundup for November 3, 2025. (Seedream 4) UX For Long-Running AI Tasks New explainer video about the UX of AI that runs for hours or days (YouTube, 5 min.). Concept: Eton upperclassman. I had a hard time making this a

Jakob Nielsen
Nov 310 min read
