

The 10 Usability Heuristics in Cartoons
Finally, what you have been waiting for: a humorous take on Jakob Nielsen’s classic 10 usability heuristics explained in 80 cartoons.

Jakob Nielsen
Jun 513 min read


The Meaning of Usability Explained in Creative Writing
Usability goes beyond simplicity; it's a dialogue between design and user, built on subtlety, emotional insight, and cognitive understanding

Jakob Nielsen
May 2216 min read


UX Roundup: Midjourney Usability Atrocity | AI Drives Traffic | Lip Synch Improvements | Progress in AI Music | You ≠ User
Midjourney doubles down on usability atrocity | AI drives website traffic | Improvements in lip synch for AI avatar videos | AI music improves with Suno 4.5 | You are not the user

Jakob Nielsen
May 129 min read


UX Roundup: Hindsight Bias | Rubric for Insightful AI | User-Contributed Photos | Black Forest AI
Stakeholders deem UX work to be “obvious” | Rubric for scoring insightful use of AI | Make it easy to see all user-contributed photos

Jakob Nielsen
Aug 12, 20247 min read


Usability Labs: Cool or Old School?
Richly illustrated historical overview of the transformation of usability labs from dedicated spaces to Zoom calls.

Jakob Nielsen
Nov 29, 20237 min read


Jakob’s Law of the Internet User Experience
Users spend most of their time on other websites, so they expect your site to work like all the other sites they already know.

Jakob Nielsen
Sep 8, 20238 min read


Classic Usability Important for AI
AI products are fraught with basic usability errors, violating decades-old UX findings. Simple fixes will save AI users much pain.

Jakob Nielsen
Sep 1, 20238 min read


What Is UX? (Part 1 of 2 of Jakob Nielsen’s UX Basics Article)
The information everybody should know about user experience, defining and explaining the terminology. (Part 1 of 2)

Jakob Nielsen
Aug 14, 202310 min read


Direct Manipulation: A Fundamental Element of Graphical User Interfaces
With direct manipulation users control visual objects through physical gestures, incremental reversible actions & real-time feedback.

Jakob Nielsen
Jul 27, 20234 min read


The 10 Usability Heuristics Reimagined
Many people have published great new ways of explaining the classic 10 usability heuristics.

Jakob Nielsen
Jul 19, 20234 min read


Reviews Warn Against Bad Product Usability
It used to be "buyer beware" for the usability of products (like the Ford T), but now consumer reviews often warn customers of bad design.

Jakob Nielsen
Jun 24, 20231 min read


The Articulation Barrier: Prompt-Driven AI UX Hurts Usability
Prompts for intent-based outcomes require users to be articulate in writing prose, which is a challenge for half of the population.

Jakob Nielsen
May 25, 20236 min read