I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Burleson, author of the new book The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid: An Innovation Architecture for Humans–Linking Function, Emotion and Identity. Scott has been working with Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) for a number of years and has come to realize that the framework, even though very powerful, also has some of its own challenges. With his book, Scott attempts to address these challenges through his JTBD Pyramid model.

From this interview, you’ll learn how Scott originally came up with the idea and how he is using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop and augment his model. If you want a rundown of what is in his book, read my book review on UXmatters.

Michael: Thanks for speaking with me today, Scott. Tell me, when was the moment you realized the need for the pyramid? Read More

Good UX design can guide, inspire, and even persuade, but when persuasion slips into manipulation, it crosses a line that erodes trust. Users today are not just consumers; they are active participants in digital ecosystems.

When a product nudges them into decisions that serve business goals more than user needs, it ceases to be good design and becomes coercion wrapped in aesthetics. Ethical UX design isn’t just about avoiding dark patterns; it’s about respecting users’ autonomy, building long-term loyalty, and acknowledging that good design should make users feel capable, not cornered. Read More

Incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into internal operations is about more than technology. It’s about the people using that technology. Getting the right mix of automation and human oversight is essential. UX research helps us find this balance, ensuring that AI tools boost productivity without reducing user awareness, trust, or comfort. In this article, I’ll look at what UX research tells us about the impacts of AI and share some practical ways of balancing AI automation with meaningful human involvement.

How Automation Changes User Behavior

Highly automated systems can quietly change the way people work. One common problem is automation-induced complacency, when users become less alert because they assume the AI has it covered and they start paying less attention to what the system is doing. This has happened in high-stakes activities such as aviation and driving when pilots or drivers trusted autopilot systems too much and didn’t notice problems until it was too late. The key point: no automation is perfect. When people start believing the machine will always catch mistakes, they stop catching those mistakes themselves. This loss of awareness can lead to serious errors. Read More

In 2026, digital visibility through search-engine optimization (SEO) will employ artificial intelligence (AI) and local intent. Local SEO connects community businesses with nearby, ready-to-buy customers. This local approach differs from broader international SEO strategies.

SEO isn’t just about keywords or backlinks anymore. It’s about the user experience, trust, and intent. In 2026, search will be smarter, users are sharper, and local businesses need to evolve if they want to remain visible. Local brands must modernize their approach, moving beyond outdated ranking tricks and instead building genuine connections with users. These new strategies focus on creating real authority and trust.

The 2026 SEO Landscape: Smarter Search, Smarter Users

AI has changed how search works. Modern search tools such as Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) instantaneously provide personalized answers. Voice assistants can deliver specific information in response to simple spoken commands. Users can now receive direct solutions instead of just a list of blue links. Read More

Every screen tells a silent story. The composition of each screen quietly shapes the user’s emotions and attention. Long before users read a word or tap a button, they feel the user interface (UI). The top of the screen commands attention, the bottom provides comfort or closure, and the empty spaces in between offer rhythm and breath. As designers, we often treat these zones as structural because we define them using grids, margins, and layout templates, but each area of the screen carries its own emotional gravity.

After years of designing digital experiences, I began to notice something subtle but consistent: users respond not just to what elements are on the screen, but to the areas of the screen on which they appear. A crowded header makes people tense. A wide margin creates calm. A soft, balanced footer feels reassuring, while a dense one feels heavy. These reactions are rarely conscious, but they influence how users navigate, decide, and feel.

In this column, I’ll explore how screen composition quietly shapes the user’s emotional response. I’ll look beyond visual hierarchy and accessibility to the psychological terrain of a user interface—the way its spatial structure guides attention, creates meaning, and even affects trust. By mapping the emotional tone of headers, footers, margins, and negative space, we can design user interfaces that don’t just function beautifully but feel right. Read More

Have you ever tried using a Web site that just didn’t work for you—with text that was too small to read, that was impossible to navigate, or silent when you needed sound? For millions of people with disabilities, such frustrations happen every day. As UX designers, we know true accessibility requires more than just checking boxes; it’s about ensuring that everyone, regardless of their ability, feels welcome and empowered in the digital world.

Lately, there’s been a lot of excitement—and some nervousness—about artificial intelligence (AI). In reality, when thoughtfully applied, AI can help us design digital spaces that adapt to everyone’s needs more quickly than ever before. If we use AI intentionally, it can be a great equalizer and enabler of human dignity. Read More

We’re trusting artificial intelligence (AI) in all the wrong ways, and it’s starting to backfire. AI isn’t the problem. How we use it is. More and more businesses are placing blind trust in AI tools, which is leading to costly mistakes, poor decisions, and misplaced confidence. What started as a productivity revolution is quickly turning into a cautionary tale. Therefore, for modern digital products, winning users’ trust is quickly becoming as critical as achieving good performance and creating high-quality user interfaces.

When an AI hallucinates—generating false or misleading information and presenting it as fact—it’s more than a glitch; it causes a collapse of trust. As generative AI (GenAI) integrates more deeply into digital products, trust has become the invisible user interface. As we incorporate generative and agentic AI into digital products, the invisible layer that binds users to these systems is no longer just about usability or performance; it’s about trust.

“By 2026, 88% of product leaders believe that trust frameworks will be a core differentiator for AI products.”—from McKinsey State of AI, 2024

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Let’s imagine this scenario: A product team has gathered for a design review and the UX design lead on the team enthusiastically proclaims, “We need to make the user interface easier to use and more engaging!” Heads nod around the table. The product manager thinks in terms of simplifying the feature set, while from the visual designer’s perspective, this could mean adding modern visuals that are inspired by Framer templates. A developer might think about optimizing performance. Everyone leaves the meeting confident that they’re on the same page, only to discover weeks later that they’ve all conceived of different solutions, resulting in a product hodgepodge that misses the mark entirely.

Such misalignment happens far too often on product teams—more because of misalignment in understanding rather than because of over- or undercommunicating. We toss around fuzzy UX terms and grand design adjectives, assuming that everyone shares a common understanding. And they might to a certain extent. However, in reality, vague communication is the perfect breeding ground for misunderstanding. As George Bernard Shaw famously quipped, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” UX and product design professionals are quite familiar with this illusion. We might think we’ve clearly communicated our vision while each teammate has heard something different. Thus, in the everyday hustle of product development, vague language can undermine both team alignment and project success. Read More

Enterprise technology has always been about getting the best out of an application, but we’ve introduced a different metric: the user experience. The user experience is worth more than all of an application’s features combined because we can consider the application a success if users can navigate, manage, and get the best out of its features. Thus, UX strategy becomes a key element in an enterprise application’s success.

For big companies, where workflows are complex and users can have very different roles, it is difficult to develop applications that truly serve all of their users. Nevertheless, by using the right UX methods, enterprises can create systems that offer great functionality and are also easy, quick, and fun to use. Read More