Think-Time UX: Design to Support Cognitive Latency
Summary: Next-generation AI-UX design must deliver human handoff harmony, with seamless transitions between machine execution and user cognition that recognize people’s limited mental processing budgets across different time periods. Includes 23 UX design patterns that support cognitive latency. Design to support the different time scales of human cognition. (Seedream 4) My good buddy Steve Krug famously said, “Don’t Make Me Think,” as his rule number one for achieving usab
Jakob Nielsen
Oct 2327 min read
Slow AI: Designing User Control for Long Tasks
Batch processing returns as AI agents run for hours or days, eliminating traditional turn-taking interaction. Slow AI creates control and observability problems; users forget context during long waits. UX solutions include upfront clarification, explicit run contracts, checkpointing for recovery, conceptual breadcrumbs showing reasoning, and progressive disclosure of partial results.
Jakob Nielsen
Oct 1328 min read
UX Roundup: GPT 5 | AI in Education | UXR Repositories | AI Cannibalization | Map vs. Territory | Patients and AI vs. Doctors | AI Speed | User Test Methodology
GPT 5 put to the test: Explain UXD and UXR to a 5-year-old | AI in Education | AI makes repositories of old user research findings more useful | AI summaries cannibalize clickthrough from web searches | The journey map is not the territory of user actions | Patients reveal more to clinical AI than when talking with human physicians | Response time matters for AI usability | Leading the participants in a usability study
Jakob Nielsen
Aug 1118 min read
UX Roundup: Field Observation of Sticky Notes | Performative Privacy | Response Time Delays | Jakob Fireside Session | Content Supremacy
Users posting sticky note reminders = bad usability | Performative privacy vs. practical privacy | Response time delays: Endlessly watching the spinner
Jakob Nielsen
Jun 3011 min read
UX Roundup: AI Panic | Progress Indicators | Reversing Idea Flow | AI-Native Companies | Fake AI Research
GUI panic vs. AI panic | Progress bars and percent-done indicators | Reversing the sequence between idea and result | AI-native companies rethink workflows | Fake research: MIT retracts AI creativity paper
Jakob Nielsen
Jun 27 min read
UX Roundup: AI Editing | Speaking This Week | Bad Innovation | Faster Midjourney | Feeling Less Rushed | Improving International Collaboration | OpenAI o1
From AI generation to AI editing | Innovation can be harmful | Is Midjourney getting faster? | AI may make workers feel less time pressure
Jakob Nielsen
Sep 16, 202411 min read
UX Roundup: Perceived Speed | AI Ideation | Deterministic vs. Probabilistic UX | McKinsey AI | No-Scroll Google | AI Imposter Syndrome
Perceived fast response times improve the user experience | Many ideas in no time from AI | Deterministic UI vs. probabilistic AI UX
Jakob Nielsen
Jul 15, 20247 min read
Time Scales of UX: From 0.1 Seconds to 100 Years
UX unfolds over time, with a factor of 31 billion from the shortest time period of interest (0.1 seconds) to a century for social change.
Jakob Nielsen
Jan 24, 20248 min read