Users don’t see algorithms; they see the words that communicate decisions. These words can provide clarity and dignity or quietly take both away. That is why—alongside our efforts to build fair AI models, clean up biased data, and improve accuracy—the communication layer needs equal care. Only then can a machine’s decisions become a human experience.

Writing ethically is how we show care for those moments of decision—not in abstract terms, but in the daily reality all product teams share: shipping product features under pressure, working within business and technical constraints, and trying to do right by the people on the other side of the screen. In this article, I’ll present a principle-based, targeted approach that represents a mindset shift for those critical moments when our words matter most. Read More

If you’ve been working in User Experience for more than a few years, you’ve probably seen the ground shift under your feet. Job titles are multiplying, toolsets are changing, and employers are asking for skills that did not exist a decade ago. Your company might call you a UX Designer, a Product Designer, or maybe a UX Researcher who also codes in Python. Everyone claims to know what User Experience means, but the hiring market tells a different story.

A few years ago, my colleague at Mercer University, Dr. Bremen Vance, and I decided to find out what employers were really looking for. We collected nearly 15,000 UX job ads from the ten largest metropolitan areas in the US and analyzed them using text-mining tools that could identify patterns in the language of the listings. The goal for our study was to cut through the noise of opinions and look directly at how companies describe UX work when they’re hiring. Read More

In digital design, accessibility has often been treated as an afterthought. Many teams focus on visual polish or adding new features, considering accessibility only if time and resources allow it. Now, the accessibility of user experiences is becoming an increasingly important foundation of UX design practice because of legal accessibility requirements and a growing awareness of how exclusion affects real people.

But the push for accessibility has been anything but smooth. In 2025, WebAIM reviewed one million Web pages and found that 94.8% contained detectable Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 errors. This indicates that, while awareness of accessibility has increased, most digital experiences still fail to meet even basic standards. Thus, real users are still encountering barriers that prevent them from participating freely online. Read More

UX design is not about creating pretty buttons or nice animations. It’s about understanding how people really tick—their habits, emotions, and why they behave in a subtle ways that they’re not even aware of—and serving their needs. Micro-communications could make the user smile, while a bewildering design might cause the user to slam his notebook computer shut.

At the heart of great UX design lies empathy. We try to get into the user’s head—not to trick the user but to make his journey easier, calmer, and even more enjoyable. Read More

As UX designers in the age of artificial reality (AI), we face intensifying headwinds that challenge our ability to make maximal impact. While we have always served as the voice of the customer / user in business- and technology-centric conversations, AI has amplified the pressures on UX designers within these contexts and narrowed the space for our insights to shape key decisions.

Many organizations view AI primarily as a technology revolution and a new driver of product success and operational efficiency. Driven by the hype about AI, many organizations are adopting a technology-first mentality, viewing AI as the savior for their future growth and success. This mindset has continually squeezed design teams, raising expectations regarding the value that we can deliver and the impact we can have—often overlooking critical user needs in the process. Read More

“You’re very well read, it’s well known

But something is happening here

And you don’t know what it is

Do you, Mr. Jones?”—Bob Dylan

I first wrote about the role of behavior in interaction design in 2007, expanding Gillian Crampton Smith’s four-dimensional interaction model by proposing behavior as a fifth dimension. [1] While Smith’s framework had addressed words, visual representations, physical objects, and time, [2] I argued that behavior serves as the mediating medium through which users and systems interact. Behavior coordinates the flow between action and reaction, a conversation that unfolds over time, shaping how user intentions translate into actions and how systems respond. [3] Our interactions with systems have fundamentally been bounded, whether they are fixed or personalized. Designers could anticipate, if not control, the range of possible system outcomes. Read More

Every few decades, a breakthrough in computing changes the way people interact with machines. The mouse and graphic user interfaces (GUIs) made computers accessible and easier to use. Touchscreens turned phones into pocket-sized hubs for our lives. Now, many are betting on artificial intelligence (AI) being the next leap.

Perhaps that’s why OpenAI spent $6.4B buying io Products. Who better to acquire when inventing the AI design to rule them all than the man who designed the iPhone? Many are already wondering what the AI interface will look like. Will it be entirely voice driven? Will there be wearables? Holographic projections? Most people’s only point of reference so far has been text-prompt windows as in ChatGPT and Gemini. What’s the next logical step for an AI assistant user interface? Read More

Designing and building Web sites to be accessible ensures that all people can use them, including people with disabilities. Accessibility focuses on enabling people with a wide range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive abilities to use Web sites and other digital tools. Its aim is to ensure equal access and participation for all users, regardless of their abilities.

Web sites that prioritize accessibility tend to offer better user experiences, leading to increased engagement and lower bounce rates. They also improve the performance of search-engine optimization (SEO ) by enabling more users to access information, make purchases, and engage with online services. To make a Web site inclusive for everyone, businesses and designers must focus on its format, structure, navigation, visual design, and textual content. Because accessible Web sites see 12% higher traffic, inclusive design broadens their audience and improves engagement. Read More

In the digital-first era, users experience brands through screens rather than storefronts. As a result, emotional UX design has emerged as the most influential means of creating brand affinity.

While functional user interfaces are the standard, it is the emotional moments that users recall, come back to, and share with others. In this article, you’ll discover what emotional UX design is, why it influences users’ decisions, and how to design emotionally engaging experiences that let users connect with your brand. Read More