What if the heuristic is right, but the interface still fails? This article explores how evaluative tools can obscure as much as they reveal, and why reflection, not rule-following, is the real work of UX research....
When user findings conflict, it’s tempting to resolve the tension quickly. But what if contradiction isn’t a problem to fix, but a pattern to follow? This article explores sensemaking in UX research as a patient, interpretive process — one that holds ambiguity long enough for structure to emerge....
We often ask participants to be transparent, but not our tools. This piece explores how platforms — from sentiment analysis to AI summaries — quietly shape meaning before we begin. What ethical questions should we ask of the systems we rely on?...
What happens when users have no prior experience with the product or tool we are designing for? How can we help them build a mental model of how it works and make informed predictions about what will happen when they interact with it? One approach to this problem is to draw on psychological and cognitive theories of learning and problem-solving. In...