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Articles

Alita Joyce

Alita Joyce is a User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. She is a mixed-methods researcher with a specialization in cognitive psychology and behavioral observation. Alita has published research on a diverse range of topics, such as interface design patterns, young technology users, social media, emerging technologies, and strategic design initiatives. 

@alitamjoyce

Articles and Videos

  • Design-Pattern Guidelines: Study Guide

    Unsure how to design and implement user-interface patterns? Use this collection of links to our content about specific patterns.

  • Overcoming Service Blueprinting Frustrations

    Our research with UX practitioners found 3 main areas of frustrations with service-blueprint projects. Here are recommendations for overcoming or alleviating these problems.

  • Social Proof in UX

    Users take cues from other humans: if many others like something or do something, that makes people feel that this thing must be good.

  • Service Blueprints: How to Choose What Experience to Visualize

    Start with a small-to-medium experience, that is known to be problematic, comes with existing data, will be redesigned soon, and that you can control.

  • 3 Types of Onboarding New Users

    How to familiarize users with new user interfaces? Onboarding techniques include feature promotion, customization, and instructions. All must be kept simple.

  • Principle of Closure in Visual Design

    People tend to fill in blanks to perceive a complete object.

  • 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Virtual Reality

    Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics can improve the user experience of VR applications.

  • Social Media UX: 3 Research Insights

    Companies should experiment with interactive social media content types, include relevant calls to action in posts, and avoid posting too frequently.

  • Tooltips in the User Interface

    Tooltips are small user-triggered popups that explain UI elements when the user points to something. They are useful, but don't use them for critical information.

  • The Scarcity Principle in UX: Don't Miss Out!

    When people think that something is rare or only available for a limited time, they will tend to act fast to secure that scarce item. This behavioral principle can be used in user experience design, but beware of overuse.