Newsletter Archive
We've been publishing monthly articles and videos on usability and user experience since 2007.
2020
- July 2020: User research when social distancing. How to create bulletproof survey questions. Can you re-use usability test participants? Why you don't need user representatives.
- June 2020: Should a design agency test its own design? The paradox of usability benchmarking. Segmenting users. Understanding users is not your job.
- May 2020: What are the competencies of UX? Remote usability testing - Dealing with lag. How to level up your firm’s UX maturity. Two questions to ask on a field visit.
- April 2020: Alternatives to field research in lockdown. Revenue streams for freelance user researchers. Traps for Usability Test Moderators. Doing User Research During a Pandemic. What makes a good usability test?
- March 2020: What does good Discovery research look like?Are you a Positivist or an Interpretivist user researcher? '3 of 5' users or the majority' of users? Why involve the team in UX research?
- February 2020: Should UX Designers be able to code? Which usability testing method should I choose? Testing assumptions in user research. Stop Selling UX.
- January 2020: What should UX researchers be focusing on in 2020? Can we automate UX expert reviews? My Biggest Blooper. Dealing with feature-obsessed product teams.
2019
- December 2019: Usability task scenarios: The beating heart of a usability test
- November 2019: Common traps in user needs research and how to avoid them
- October 2019: Transitioning from academic research to UX research
- September 2019: The minimalist field researcher: What's in my bag?
- August 2019: The future of UX research is automated, and that's a problem
- July 2019: Talking to computers (part 2): VUI as an error recovery system
- June 2019: Talking to computers (part 1): Why is speech recognition so difficult?
- May 2019: The Principle of Least Surprise
- April 2019: 'And the award goes to…' How to avoid winning a Procrustes Award for bad UX
- March 2019: Repeat after me: Preference testing is not A/B Testing
- February 2019: Is UX Certification worth it?
- January 2019: 12 symptoms of a back-to-front design process
2018
- December 2018: 10 diagrams to help you think straight about UX Research
- November 2018: See different
- October 2018: Storytelling in UX research
- September 2018: Using the cognitive interview to improve your survey questions
- August 2018: How to create a POWERful case study for your UX portfolio
- July 2018: Anatomy of a user research consent form
- June 2018: How to spend your first month in a UX research role (and stay friends with your new work colleagues)
- May 2018: Do I need a Masters in User Experience?
- April 2018: Why you don't need a representative sample in your user research
- March 2018: Steve Jobs on 6 key principles of user experience
- February 2018: What is design ethnography?
- January 2018: The User Researcher's Field Guide to Psychology
2017
- December 2017: Warning: Your web survey is a lot less reliable than you think
- November 2017: Minting new design ideas from usability test data
- October 2017: User experience research and strength of evidence
- September 2017: How to find more usability problems with fewer users
- August 2017: User journey mapping
- July 2017: A practical guide to getting your user research started
- June 2017: 10 findings from psychology that every user researcher should know
- May 2017: 30 Days of User Experience — The Bathroom Edition
- April 2017: Is Usability a Science?
- March 2017: Why iterative design isn't enough to create innovative products
- February 2017: The Beginners' Guide to Contextual Interviewing
- January 2017: The 8 competencies of user experience: a tool for assessing and developing UX Practitioners
2016
- December 2016: Non-UX books that every UX practitioner should read
- November 2016: What one UX skill or ability is the most important to master?
- October 2016: What do we mean by user experience leadership?
- September 2016: The Reflective User Researcher
- August 2016: Going Beyond the Obvious
- July 2016: The two questions we answer with user research
- June 2016: What user researchers ought to know about informed consent
- May 2016: Measuring Usability With The System Usability Scale (SUS)
- April 2016: 5 reasons why your first user research activity should be a usability test
- March 2016: Keeping Yourself out of the Story: Controlling Experimenter Effects
- February 2016: The 4 mistakes you'll make as a usability test moderator
- January 2016: Desk research: the what, why and how
2015
- December 2015: Uncovering user goals with the Episodic Interview
- November 2015: Usability maturity, 13 years on
- October 2015: Testing for a user need
- September 2015: What user researchers can bring to the Design Studio Methodology
- August 2015: A task-focussed user experience reading list
- July 2015: Are personas past their prime?
- June 2015: 6 mistakes that prevent UX teams from having boardroom influence
- May 2015: Why I changed my mind about UX Certification
- April 2015: The 3 lenses of usability evaluation
- March 2015: Evangelising user research
- February 2015: Field visits and user interviews: 7 frequently asked questions
- January 2015: 20 things you can do this year to improve your user's experience
2014
- December 2014: The 7 Deadly Sins of User Research
- November 2014: 60 ways to understand user needs that aren't focus groups or surveys
- October 2014: Conducting an effective stakeholder interview
- September 2014: What car park payment machines can teach us about usability
- August 2014: 5 provocative views on usability testing
- July 2014: Reusing cases across different widgets and events in Axure RP Pro
- June 2014: Eliciting user goals Part 1
- May 2014: Eric Morecambe's lesson for user experience teams
- April 2014: How to Experiment
- March 2014: A little known factor that could have a big effect on your next usability test
- February 2014: How red routes can help you take charge of your product backlog
- January 2014: The missing role in your design team
2013
- December 2013: The UX debrief: A tale of two meetings
- November 2013: How to wow me with your UX research portfolio
- October 2013: Does your company deliver a superior customer experience?
- September 2013: The 1-page usability test plan
- August 2013: How Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit can help save your project (and maybe your company)
- July 2013: Cheap and free under-the-radar alternatives to field visits
- June 2013: What Gordon Ramsay can teach us about giving feedback to design teams
- May 2013: My place or yours? How to decide where to run your next usability test
- April 2013: The usability error you don't know you're making
- March 2013: Adapting your usability testing practise for mobile
- February 2013: What Russian dolls and Fantastic Voyage can teach us about designing for mobile
- January 2013: "I want to speak to my users but they don't want to speak to me"
2012
- December 2012: Building a bridge between marketing and usability
- November 2012: The 15 warning signs that marketing is blocking your view of the user
- October 2012: 2 kinds of usability test
- September 2012: Dealing with difficult usability test participants
- August 2012: You have 19 days to define your research problem
- July 2012: The Beginners' Guide to Benchmarking User Experience
- June 2012: Help! What The Beatles can teach us about writing support material
- May 2012: The Wizard of Oz guide to usability testing mobile prototypes
- April 2012: How to tell managers they're wrong about UX research and still get hired
- March 2012: Lean ways to test your new business idea
- February 2012: What makes a great UX practitioner? Hint: It's not what you think
- January 2012: 20 things you can do this year to improve your user's experience
2011
- December 2011: 4 ways to prototype faster
- November 2011: How to manage design projects with user experience metrics
- October 2011: What user researchers can learn from Sherlock Holmes
- September 2011: Do you make these 4 mistakes when carrying out a usability review?
- August 2011: A CRAP way to improve usability
- July 2011: Games Usability Trainers Play
- June 2011: ISO 13407 is dead. Long live ISO 9241-210!
- May 2011: How to design like Leonardo da Vinci
- April 2011: Making usability metrics count
- March 2011: 4 forgotten principles of usability testing
- February 2011: 5 kinds of 'alt' text
- January 2011: Why you need a user experience vision (and how to create and publicise it)
2010
- December 2010: 7 myths about paper prototyping
- November 2010: Communicating errors
- October 2010: How to recruit a UX leader with the X factor
- September 2010: The 5 habits of highly effective field researchers
- August 2010: The 4 questions to ask in a cognitive walkthrough
- July 2010: Creating usability test tasks that really motivate users
- June 2010: Web survey design step-by-step
- May 2010: Creative ways to solve usability problems
- April 2010: Log usability tests like a pro
- March 2010: Usability for Medical Devices: A New International Standard
- February 2010: Card Games for Information Architects
- January 2010: 12 ways to turbocharge your usability career
2009
- December 2009: The Fable of the User-Centred Designer
- November 2009: Usability testing with hard-to-find participants
- October 2009: How to prioritise usability problems
- September 2009: Communicating User Experience Design
- August 2009: How to create personas your design team will believe in
- July 2009: 247 Web Usability Guidelines
- June 2009: Usability Test Moderation: The Comic
- May 2009: What every usability test moderator ought to know about good listening
- April 2009: The rule of 5: How to create a usability test highlights video you can be proud of
- March 2009: Two measures that will justify any design change
- February 2009: Creating a Usability Dashboard
- January 2009: New standards in usability
2008
- December 2008: Shopping basket usability: Nine tests for a usable checkout
- November 2008: Writing the Perfect Participant Screener
- October 2008: Credit-Crunch Usability: 10 ways to maximise your usability budget
- September 2008: How to run an unmoderated usability test
- August 2008: Field visit interviews — from good to great
- July 2008: Layout grids for Axure and Pencil
- June 2008: Measuring the usability of everyday products
- May 2008: Data collection for usability research
- April 2008 SPSS: Statistics for the mathematically challenged
- March 2008: Measuring satisfaction: Beyond the usability questionnaire
- February 2008: Measuring usability with the Common Industry Format (CIF)
- January 2008: Dragons' Den Usability
2007
- December 2007: Paper Prototyping with Morae
- November 2007: World Usability Day
- October 2007: A Business Case for Usability
- September 2007: Why you shouldn't ask "Why?" in a usability test
- August 2007: Heuristic Evaluation with Morae
- July 2007: The A-Z of Usability
- June 2007: Tips for writing user manuals
- May 2007: 20 tips for writing web surveys
- April 2007: Usability Expert Reviews: Beyond Heuristic Evaluation