Universal Principles of UX: 100 Timeless Strategies to Create Positive Interactions between People and Technology (Rockport Universal)

hard to decipher, and harmful to the overall user experience. When in doubt, it’s best to always accompany an icon with a text description, and if you can’t, at least keep them in an expected location so users will know where to look for them based on muscle memory alone.

High usability is very important when it comes to websites or interfaces where users are trying to complete a task. But if we want to encourage people to play or want to be experimental, making something that violates all usability rules and is deliberately anti user friendly can actually increase engagement (see Principle 29).

understanding where exactly competitors are falling short, we can design a superior flow or experience (see Principle 60). Plus, there’s no need to make the same mistakes as others, right?

Once all features are clearly described, unambiguous, and concise, we measure each feature based on its business value, user value, and technical complexity on a scale of high/medium/low.

Now, as far as visualizing everything, any shape or color works, as long as they’re clearly marked in the legend and applied consistently. In our studio, we use the following conventions: Circles for entry and exit points Transition arrows for user navigation Green outline for the happy path

“Plurality must never be posited without necessity.”

As UX designers, we need to master the art of interrupting, otherwise we run the risk of ending up with another Clippy. If we treat the user’s time as valuable and think of notifications as an assistant in potential moments of confusion, not as a sales tool, we’re on the right track. The guiding principle should always be, “is this actually helpful

Bad typography leads to bad UX.

In our studio, whenever we start a project, Anton and I first read through the brief by ourselves. I try to formulate some sort of early problem statement to ground my thinking (see Principle 41), and we both try to come up with ideas before we discuss any solutions together. That’s because it’s better to walk into a brainstorm prepared with at lea

And it’s not just me. The UIE conducted two experiments to better understand our relationship with icons. When they changed what the icons looked like but kept them in the same location, users were able to adapt and perform their tasks without much additional effort. But when they kept the design of the original icons and shuffled their locations a