Insights
Industry insights, podcast episodes, and more—all focused on putting humans first.
Craft
Chick-fil-A vs McDonald's: Which Fast-Food App Has the Better UX?
In competitive markets, strong UX can tip the scales when users decide where to spend their money. We take a look at how Chick-Fil-A thoughtfully crafts a better app experience than McDonalds.
Most Teams Make Personas. Few Build Worlds.
Most UX teams stop at deliverables. Learn how worldbuilding turns personas, journeys, and systems into believable, testable models that guide better design.
The Tradeoff Every Product Team Faces: Global vs Local Optimization
Product leaders face a constant tradeoff; scale with global consistency or move fast with local wins. Here’s how to reduce user mental load.
The Creative Tug-of-War Generators & Synthesizers
Struggling to balance creativity and execution in product development? Learn how generators and synthesizers impact collaboration, decision-making, and innovation. Discover how to align your team for success on *Humans First*.
Your Roadmap Is Lying to You—Why Features Won’t Fix Your Product
Stuck in the feature trap? Discover how shifting from a customer-led to a design-led approach can lead to true innovation. Learn the three phases of product maturity and how to redefine your product experience to lead, not follow. Listen now!
The Best Customer Experiences Have These 3 Qualities
Most companies have a misperception about the experience they are actually delivering to their customers.
Understanding your Users: Conducting Early UX Research
User research is what sets user experience apart from most design processes. While it’s essential to make sure a system or product is designed to look great, if it’s not functional, those looks don’t matter.
Mental Models: Mind the Gaps
It goes without saying that most businesses realize success through customer growth and loyalty. Designing our products and services to match the models users have in their head—or making our product so clear they can easily generate an accurate model of how it works—directly impacts both growth and long-term loyalty.
Conversational Content is King
Customers are the driving force behind business strategy. It’s no longer enough to have a product that functions — there is now an expectation that a product should delight. The only way to know how someone feels when using your app, walking through your store, or calling your support team, is to let them tell you. We are in the age of the customer, and it’s high time we embrace it.
UX in Agriculture: What are we trying to do?
In farming, the precision agriculture ecosystem relies heavily on agronomic advisers, and software companies aren’t capitalizing on the existing gaps. Instead, it seems as though the focus has remained on digitizing the paper filled binders and modernizing (improving the short-term user experience), but not modifying, the processes of yesterday.
Form is Functional: Why Design is More Than Gold Plating
The ideal user experience not only relies on usability and usefulness, but desirability. How something looks and makes us feel molds our perception of how it will work.
Frameworks: Proving the Value of High-Level Design Thinking
Invest in a good framework up front, and your customers, your designers, and your developers will benefit from it in the long run.
The Unfriendly Experience of Flying the Friendly Skies
A colorful picture of air travel with a baby in-tow + free tips from a UX consultant for airports and airlines everywhere.
Reducing Choice Overload by Anticipating Your Users Goals
We encounter thousands of choices each day, some large and some small. We love having options—they’re empowering and give a sense of control. But sometimes too many choices can become overwhelming. Anticipatory design in UX can help reduce the number of choices users are faced with each day.
User Research Tips: 2 Ways To Maximize User Research and User Testing Budgets
Define product scope based on what users do; not what they say.
Desirable UX: The Power of Personality
The desirability of a product can make or break consumer following. What makes a product desirable? I’d argue personality. Relatable. Real. Human.
3 Things to Look For in a UX Agency
Learn how to find a professional UX agency in a sea of marketing firms and design shops trying to cash in at a prime time on the UX adoption curve.
Responsible Innovation: Safety in Product Design
As UX designers, it’s part of our job to make sure that the experiences we create are safe for people to use. It's important to design for the habits and goals of customers, as long as it doesn't come at the cost of user safety.
Make the Case for User Testing: 7 Excuses You’ll Hear, and How to Change Their Minds
Customers are the driving force behind business strategy. It’s no longer enough to have a product that functions — there is now an expectation that a product should delight. The only way to know how someone feels when using your app, walking through your store, or calling your support team, is to let them tell you. We are in the age of the customer, and it’s high time we embrace it.
Scientific Rigor and User Testing: How to Remain Unbiased in a World that Wants Results
A little while back, a study was published that examined the results of studies from cognitive and social psychology, revealing that only 36% of original studies, when replicated, yield near-same...
UX on the Move: How Can I Optimize UX across platforms?
From the moment you wake up to the minute you plug in your phone for the night, you’re surrounded by technology. It’s in your pocket, on your desktop, in your car, and maybe even on your wrist. It’s...
Does Customer Age Matter For My Product?
Age is a sensitive subject. It strikes chords and conjures preconceptions about a person’s worldview and, frankly, their capabilities. But is there value in age-related stereotypes?...
The UX Brain: How To Understand Users
The human brain is made up of separate parts, each responsible for performing its unique function: the hippocampus regulates emotions, the frontal lobe helps with problem solving and storing...
A Good Story Helps Unify Product Teams
Stories were told long before words were ever written to help people make sense of life (think cave drawings), and they have persisted as a universal tool used to pass on
What's Your Number: How UX Rating Systems work
Two thumbs up. 4 stars. A+. Our world revolves around different rating systems. Whether you’re looking at different reviews online for a product, which hotel to book your stay, or even your own...
5 Steps to choosing user-friendly colors
You’re designing a new product. It’s time to show your true colors! Unless your true colors aren’t legible. If the colors you’ve chosen force people to wince at a screen and shade it from the sun, it...
How do I choose a UX firm?
Choosing a UX partner is no easy task. Like any partnership, being a good fit while working together is important. Of course the UX firm you partner with has to bring you results, but you also need a...
The ROI of UX - Is it Worth the Investment?
Why establish a UX budget? Because a good user experience is the expectation, research and testing exposes opportunities and corrects misconceptions, and the ROI is significant.
User experience personas: Now, it's personal
When it’s time to solve a usability issue, it’s important to know who the frustrated person is on the other side of the problem. To solve their problem, you have to know their pain points. You have...
UX Design is Not Art
UX design is not about what you like. It's about what works best for the end user.
Paired Design: Iron Sharpens Iron
A seamless user experience requires thorough, deep thought. That level of thinking is best accomplished with two types of design thinkers: generators and synthesizers.
When I was a young information designer...
When I was a young information designer card sorting was all the rage. I first heard about it from the work being done at Sun Microsystems by Jakob Nielson and Darrel Sano. Even then it struck me as...
Subscribe to Humans First content
Level up your design maturity.
>