Top 10 UX Articles of 2023

The user-experience articles published in 2023 that our audience read the most

The following user-experience articles published in 2023 were the ones our audience read the most:

1. Heuristic Evaluations: How to Conduct

   Step-by-step instructions to systematically review your product to find potential usability and experience problems. Download a free heuristic evaluation template.

2. User Journeys vs. User Flows

   User journeys and user flows both describe processes users go through in order to accomplish their goals. While both tools are useful for planning and evaluating experience, they differ in scope, purpose, and format.

3. AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years

   AI is introducing the third user-interface paradigm in computing history, shifting to a new interaction mechanism where users tell the computer what they want, not how to do it — thus reversing the locus of control.

4. Error-Message Guidelines

   Design effective error messages by ensuring they are highly visible, provide constructive communication, and respect user effort.

5. The Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design on Desktop

   Mobile-first web designs cause significant usability issues when viewed on desktop. Content becomes overly dispersed across long scrolling pages with expansive white space and enlarged images and fonts, making it difficult for users to consume and understand the information.

6. ChatGPT Lifts Business Professionals’ Productivity and Improves Work Quality

   In a study of business professionals using ChatGPT to write business documents, task time decreased, while rated quality improved substantially.

7. The Anatomy of a Good Design: An Analysis of 4 Sites

   Visually pleasing designs use consistent type styles and spacing, create a visual hierarchy, and utilize an underlying grid structure.

8. Bottom Sheets: Definition and UX Guidelines

   A bottom sheet is a user-interface pattern used commonly in mobile apps for providing contextual details or controls in the lower area of the screen.

9. Onboarding Tutorials vs. Contextual Help

   Tutorials interrupt users, don’t necessarily improve task performance, and are quickly forgotten. Contextual help signals can avoid these pitfalls but require unintrusive ways to activate.

10. UX-Research Methods: Glossary

    Use this glossary to quickly clarify key terms and concepts related to research methods in UX.

Bonus: Top 5 Articles from Last Year

The following articles were published in 2022 but were so popular in 2023 that they would have earned a place in the above list based on this year's readership numbers alone:

A UX strategy is a 3-part plan that fosters shared understanding of direction toward achieving goals before designing and implementing solutions. It serves to intentionally guide the prioritization and execution of UX work over time.

1. When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

   Modern-day UX research methods answer a wide range of questions. To help you know when to use which user research method, each of 20 methods is mapped across 3 dimensions and over time within a typical product-development process.

2. How to Analyze Qualitative Data from UX Research: Thematic Analysis

   Identifying the main themes in data from user studies — such as: interviews, focus groups, diary studies, and field studies — is often done through thematic analysis.

3. Data Tables: Four Major User Tasks

   Table design should support four common user tasks: find records that fit specific criteria, compare data, view/edit/add a single row’s data, and take actions on records.

4. Using Grids in Interface Designs

   Grids help designers create cohesive layouts, allowing end users to easily scan and use interfaces. A good grid adapts to various screen sizes and orientations, ensuring consistency across platforms.

5. UX Strategy: Definition and Components

   A UX strategy is a 3-part plan that fosters shared understanding of direction toward achieving goals before designing and implementing solutions. It serves to intentionally guide the prioritization and execution of UX work over time.