NN/g latest articles and announcementshttps://www.nngroup.com/feed/rss/The latest articles and announcements from Nielsen Norman Groupen-usThu, 16 Dec 2021 15:08:51 +0000UX-Maturity Stage 5: Integratedhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stage-5/Organizations at this stage are in an excellent position, with successful, sustainable UX practices and committed people.Kara PerniceSun, 12 Dec 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/ux-maturity-stage-5/?1639328400Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Organizations at this stage are in an excellent position, with successful, sustainable UX practices and committed people.</p><hr/><br/><p> <em> This article describes stage 5 in the six-stage NN/g </em> <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/"> <em> UX-maturity model </em> </a> <em> . Get an idea of your organization’s UX maturity by taking a short </em> <a href="https://forms.nngroup.com/s3/Maturity-Quiz"> <em> quiz </em> </a> <em> (10 minutes or fewer). </em></p><p> Stage 5 is a great place to be in terms of UX maturity. Organizations at stage 5 have successful and sustainable UX practices. Most teams at stage-5 organizations are performing efficiently and effectively and have a strong focus on users. There is often innovation in UX methods and processes and, sometimes, there is even contribution to UX as a field. When UX is integrated, there is high awareness and buy-in for UX-focused activities and processes. People across the organization understand users and focus on them to deliver products and services that meet their needs. Stage 5 is the highest stage of UX Maturity that most organizations will ever reach, though our model includes one more rarely attained stage above it.</p><p> Stage 5 encompasses stage 7 of our <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stages-1-4-original/"> previous model </a> . Most companies are at a stage below 5 and achieving this stage is a good UX-maturity goal.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/ux-maturity-stage-5/">Read Full Article</a>Recognize Strategic Opportunities with Long-Tail Datahttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/long-tail/Be a strategic thinker by recognizing opportunities at scale with seemingly small and insignificant data.Evan SunwallSun, 12 Dec 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/long-tail/?1639328400Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Be a strategic thinker by recognizing opportunities at scale with seemingly small and insignificant data.</p><hr/><br/><p> Years ago, if you wanted to purchase a new shirt or book, you had to visit a store and pick among the available products for sale. Discovering a new band meant listening to the radio, attending concerts, buying a tape or CD, or asking friends. Those with niche tastes had a problem — they could settle for what was available, look up a specialist vendor in the phone book, or buy nothing at all.</p><p> When you plot sales data, it typically takes the form of a <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/zipf-curves-and-website-popularity/"> power-law distribution </a> , composed of a <strong> head </strong> containing a <strong> small number of dominant products </strong> and a <strong> long tail </strong> spanning a <strong> large number of rarely sold products </strong> .</p><p style="margin-left:40px"> <strong> Definition: </strong> The <strong> l </strong> <strong> ong tail </strong> refers to the data points at the trailing end of a power-law distribution. A long-tail strategy involves efficiently exploiting these low-impact — but numerous — data points for an aggregated benefit.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/long-tail/">Read Full Article</a>UX Conference March Announced (Mar 14 - Mar 25)https://www.nngroup.com/training/march/Take up to 6 in-depth training courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Conference focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. March 14 - March 25, 2022.Wed, 08 Dec 2021 06:48:00 +0000/training/march/?1638946080Event<p>Take up to 6 in-depth training courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Conference focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. March 14 - March 25, 2022.</p><br/><br/><a href="/training/march/">See Full Schedule and Pricing</a>Design-Pattern Guidelines: Study Guidehttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-pattern-guidelines/Unsure how to design and implement user-interface patterns? Use this collection of links to our content about specific patterns.Alita JoyceSun, 05 Dec 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/design-pattern-guidelines/?1638723600Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Unsure how to design and implement user-interface patterns? Use this collection of links to our content about specific patterns.</p><hr/><br/><p> This article lists some of our content that provides <strong> specific guidelines on designing a variety of interface patterns </strong> , from toggle switches to navigations tabs.</p><p> If you’re new to designing interfaces, check out the <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/"> <strong> 10 usability heuristics for user-interface design </strong> </a> , which are foundational principles for interaction design. From there, use the resources below for guidance on designing specific interface patterns.</p><p> After a couple of years, <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/durability-of-usability-guidelines/"> are these guidelines still valid </a> ? These usability guidelines are dependent mostly on human behavior, which changes slowly, and a lot less on the specifics of a given technology, which can change quickly. As you adopt the following guidelines in your own work, consider the core user behaviors and usability principles at play (not just the technology). Don’t throw out old findings because of their age.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/design-pattern-guidelines/">Read Full Article</a>When to Use Context Methods: Field and Diary Studieshttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/context-methods-field-diary-studies/Context methods provide an understanding of users’ real-life settings and behaviors. They inform the design of products and services.Kate Moran, Maria RosalaSun, 05 Dec 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/context-methods-field-diary-studies/?1638723600Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Context methods provide an understanding of users’ real-life settings and behaviors. They inform the design of products and services.</p><hr/><br/><p> Some <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-research-cheat-sheet/"> UX-research methods </a> involve asking users to pretend they’re in a <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/authentic-behavior-in-user-testing/"> realistic but hypothetical </a> situation. For example, in a usability test, participants may be given the task to book a hotel room for an upcoming vacation to Croatia.</p><p> Other UX-research methods like interviews, surveys, and focus groups can involve asking people to describe how they did something in the past. For example, in an interview, we might ask a participant to tell us about the last time that they booked a vacation.</p><p> While we hope that users will remember important details or behave as if they really were planning a vacation, there might some important contextual information we’d miss out on by using these user research methods alone.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/context-methods-field-diary-studies/">Read Full Article</a>Johnson & Johnson’s Intranet Consolidation and Roadmaphttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/intranet-roadmap/Johnson & Johnson’s redesigned intranet centralizes company news and digital-workplace tools on a single platform. Its intranet roadmap focused on problems to solve to improve productivity and boost the intranet’s perception.Anna KaleySun, 28 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/intranet-roadmap/?1638118800Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Johnson & Johnson’s redesigned intranet centralizes company news and digital-workplace tools on a single platform. Its intranet roadmap focused on problems to solve to improve productivity and boost the intranet’s perception.</p><hr/><br/><p> Johnson &amp; Johnson is the world’s largest healthcare company. Its intranet, <strong> <em> Home, </em> </strong> supports a global workforce of over 135,000 employees. The goal of its recent redesign was to better unite the <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/digital-workplace-tools/"> digital-workplace ecosystem </a> and drive a one-stop experience for employees.</p><h2> An Employee-Centered Approach to Reducing Fragmentation</h2><p> Before the redesign, Johnson &amp; Johnson’s intranet team gathered <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/videos/comparing-qualitative-and-quantitative-ux-research/"> quantitative and qualitative data </a> to learn more about employees' problems with the then current toolset. Workers were frustrated by the absence of a cohesive intranet and surveys revealed that digital tools and content were lacking. Employees shared negative comments such as:</p><p> “Bring together the variety of Johnson &amp; Johnson websites into one easily accessible place, so when I need something, there is one website and I know where to go.”</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/intranet-roadmap/">Read Full Article</a>5 Facilitation Principles for Both UX Workshops and User Testshttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/facilitate-ux-workshop-user-test/Both UX workshops and usability tests benefit when facilitators are focused on goals, follow a meeting guide yet are open to improvisation, encourage participants to act, and don’t talk too much.Kara PerniceSun, 28 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/facilitate-ux-workshop-user-test/?1638118800Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Both UX workshops and usability tests benefit when facilitators are focused on goals, follow a meeting guide yet are open to improvisation, encourage participants to act, and don’t talk too much.</p><hr/><br/><p> UX designers often profess they have strengths in <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/workshop-facilitation-101/"> facilitating UX workshops </a> , but weaknesses in <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/quantitative-research-study-guide/"> conducting research </a> . On the flipside, many UX researchers feel unprepared for facilitating UX workshops but have command over a multitude of user-research methods.</p><p> The truth is that facilitating workshops and moderating user tests are not so different: <strong> you can transfer your </strong> <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/videos/user-testing-facilitation-techniques/"> <strong> facilitation skills </strong> </a> <strong> from one to the other. </strong> This article discusses 5 facilitation techniques that can be applied in both settings.</p><h2> Differences Between UX Workshops and User Tests</h2><p> At their core, UX workshops and user tests are quite different; a few of the major differences are summarized in the table below.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/facilitate-ux-workshop-user-test/">Read Full Article</a>UX Conference April Announced (Apr 4 - Apr 8)https://www.nngroup.com/training/april/Tue, 23 Nov 2021 14:21:09 +0000/training/april/?1637677269Event<p></p><br/><br/><a href="/training/april/">See Full Schedule and Pricing</a>UX Conference April Announced (Apr 4 - Apr 8)https://www.nngroup.com/training/april/Tue, 23 Nov 2021 14:21:09 +0000/training/april/?1637677269Event<p></p><br/><br/><a href="/training/april/">See Full Schedule and Pricing</a>UX-Maturity Stage 4: Structuredhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stage-4/An organization recognizes the value of UX and has semisystematic UX-related methodology that is widespread, but with varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency.Rachel KrauseSun, 21 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/ux-maturity-stage-4/?1637514000Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;An organization recognizes the value of UX and has semisystematic UX-related methodology that is widespread, but with varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency.</p><hr/><br/><p> <em> This article describes stage 4 in the six-stage NN/g </em> <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/"> <em> UX-maturity model </em> </a> <em> . Get an idea of your organization’s UX maturity by taking a short </em> <a href="https://forms.nngroup.com/s3/Maturity-Quiz"> <em> quiz </em> </a> <em> </em> <em> (10 minutes or less). </em></p><p> Stage-4 organizations recognize the value of UX and have one or more established UX teams. Leadership usually supports UX and sometimes even incorporates it into high-level strategies and initiatives.</p><p> Design is widely understood across the organization and there is an established, iterative human-centered–design process. User research is conducted throughout the entire product lifecycle.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/ux-maturity-stage-4/">Read Full Article</a>Growing in Your UX Career: Study Guidehttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/growing-your-ux-career-study-guide/Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to articles, videos, and a free report for advice to grow in your user experience career.Mayya AzarovaSun, 21 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/growing-your-ux-career-study-guide/?1637514000Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to articles, videos, and a free report for advice to grow in your user experience career.</p><hr/><br/><p> UX practitioners come from different backgrounds, yet there are specific skills and responsibilities deemed as crucial <strong> </strong> in the industry today. Here’s a compilation of NN/g’s most useful articles and videos about growing in your UX career. We also share a free report based on research studies carried out with <strong> 722 UX professionals </strong> around the world. Within each section, the resources are in recommended reading order.</p><h2> UX Careers: An Overview</h2><p> This compilation is a collection of resources geared toward existing UX practitioners and those considering a career transition into UX.  It’s meant to help you with career-related questions such as which path to choose within UX or what to include in a research or design portfolio.</p><p> As people come to UX at very different stages of their lives and from different roles, the resources are divided by career levels ( <a href="#entry"> entry-level </a> and <a href="#mid-senior"> mid-level or senior </a> ) so you can jump straight to the content that applies to you. The first section <a href="#below"> below </a> is dedicated to the general UX-career advice and ways to present your work when applying for user-experience positions.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/growing-your-ux-career-study-guide/">Read Full Article</a>DesignOps: Study Guidehttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-ops-study-guide/Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about the components of DesignOps and get started implementing DesignOps activities.Kate KaplanSun, 14 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/design-ops-study-guide/?1636909200Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about the components of DesignOps and get started implementing DesignOps activities.</p><hr/><br/><h2> DesignOps: An Overview</h2><p> Definition <strong> : DesignOps </strong> refers to the orchestration and optimization of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design’s value and impact at scale.</p><p> Our <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-operations-101/"> DesignOps framework </a> has 3 core areas:</p><h2> Understanding DesignOps</h2><p> If you’re totally new to DesignOps, or still trying to understand what it is, we recommend that you explore the following resources in order, from top to bottom.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/design-ops-study-guide/">Read Full Article</a>5 Prioritization Methods in UX Roadmappinghttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/prioritization-methods/The best prioritization method depends on project context, team culture, and success criteria.Sarah GibbonsSun, 14 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/prioritization-methods/?1636909200Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;The best prioritization method depends on project context, team culture, and success criteria.</p><hr/><br/><p> Prioritizing work into a roadmap can be daunting for UX practitioners. Prioritization methods base these important decisions on objective, relevant criteria instead of subjective opinions.</p><p> This article outlines 5 methods for prioritizing work into a <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-roadmaps/"> UX roadmap </a> :</p><p> These prioritization methods can be used to prioritize a variety of “items,” ranging from research questions, user segments, and features to ideas, and tasks. This article focuses on using these methods within the context of roadmapping—prioritizing problems that need to be solved into a strategic timeline.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/prioritization-methods/">Read Full Article</a>UX Conference February Announced (Feb 12 - Feb 18)https://www.nngroup.com/training/february/7 in-depth, full-day courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Conference focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. February 12 - February 18, 2022.Wed, 10 Nov 2021 01:00:00 +0000/training/february/?1636506000Event<p>7 in-depth, full-day courses, teaching user experience best practices for successful design. Conference focused on long-lasting skills for UX professionals. February 12 - February 18, 2022.</p><br/><br/><a href="/training/february/">See Full Schedule and Pricing</a>Recruiting and Screening Candidates for User Research Projectshttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/recruiting-screening-research-candidates/Know the inherent biases in your recruiting process and avoid them in order to recruit study participants that are representative for your target audience.Therese FessendenSun, 07 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/recruiting-screening-research-candidates/?1636304400Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Know the inherent biases in your recruiting process and avoid them in order to recruit study participants that are representative for your target audience.</p><hr/><br/><p> Recruiting participants for research studies is a difficult task: you have to attract interested participants, schedule times to meet for the study, remind them to come to the study, and then hope that they do, in fact, remember to come to their scheduled session. To make matters worse, sometimes participants who do show up are not good candidates for the study because they simply do not have relevant life experiences to contribute meaningful feedback or insights, even with their best efforts. Suboptimal study participants negatively affect the quality of your research and of your design decisions.</p><p> <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/screening-questions-select-research-participants/"> <strong> Screening surveys </strong> </a> <strong> (also known as “screeners”) </strong> are questionnaires that gather information about candidate participants’ experiences to:</p><p> In this article we discuss the importance of screening in the user-research recruitment process and how to incorporate it into your recruitment strategy.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/recruiting-screening-research-candidates/">Read Full Article</a>Campbell’s Law: The Dark Side of Metric Fixationhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/campbells-law/When organizations optimize metrics at the cost of all else, they expose themselves to metric corruption. Ultimately, as the Facebook scandal illustrates, they may fail their users and their business goals.Page Laubheimer, Kate MoranSun, 07 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000/articles/campbells-law/?1636304400Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;When organizations optimize metrics at the cost of all else, they expose themselves to metric corruption. Ultimately, as the Facebook scandal illustrates, they may fail their users and their business goals.</p><hr/><br/><p> One of the most <strong> misquoted </strong> sayings in business is “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. This statement (and its variations) is often meant to say that, to improve something, we need a precise metric that captures it and that should be tracked in order to understand if our efforts to improve it are effective.</p><p> It is interesting that this “quote” is actually the complete opposite of the original, which was:</p><p style="margin-left:40px"> “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” — W. Edwards Deming ( <em> The New Economics </em> ).</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/campbells-law/">Read Full Article</a>How Many Participants for a UX Interview?https://www.nngroup.com/articles/interview-sample-size/In the early stages of a UX-design project, recruit enough people to gain an in-depth understanding of users’ experiences and needs. The number of people needed for an interview study is often smaller than you think.Maria RosalaSun, 31 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000/articles/interview-sample-size/?1635696000Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;In the early stages of a UX-design project, recruit enough people to gain an in-depth understanding of users’ experiences and needs. The number of people needed for an interview study is often smaller than you think.</p><hr/><br/><p> One common question I get when teaching <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/courses/user-interviews/"> User Interviews </a> , a full-day course at our UX Conference, is <em> how many people do I need to interview </em> ? Unfortunately, there isn’t a golden number. In this article, I’ll highlight some factors that will help you decide.</p><h2> Common Misconceptions</h2><p> Some UX professionals assume that the recommendation to <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/"> test with 5 users </a> applies to interview-based studies as well. In fact, <strong> for many exploratory-research studies, 5 participants are too few </strong> . Others have been taught to recruit 5 people per <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/persona/"> persona </a> , a rule of thumb to ensure that the sample is representative and large enough. However, this rule can result in many more interviews than necessary — especially when you have 5 or more personas. An experienced interviewer can extract in-depth insights from a much smaller number of interview sessions.</p><p> For <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/quantitative-research-study-guide/"> quantitative research </a> studies, it’s possible to perform sample-size calculations to tell us <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/summary-quant-sample-sizes/"> how many participants to recruit </a> in order to confidently make generalizations to the wider population. But interviews are a qualitative research method. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/videos/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/"> Qualitative research </a> aims to understand the human experience in detail, not to determine how many people have had a given experience or express a particular need. (That’s what a follow-up quantitative study can tell us.) It’s not possible to know <em> exactly </em> how many participants is enough to gain this in-depth understanding.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/interview-sample-size/">Read Full Article</a>The Golden Ratio and User-Interface Designhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/golden-ratio-ui-design/Although traditionally used in art and architecture, the golden ratio can be referenced to design aesthetically pleasing interfaces.Kelley GordonSun, 31 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000/articles/golden-ratio-ui-design/?1635696000Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Although traditionally used in art and architecture, the golden ratio can be referenced to design aesthetically pleasing interfaces.</p><hr/><br/><p> Proportional systems are based on ratios and have been used for centuries in architecture and art. The golden ratio was first mentioned as early as about 500 BC by Phidias, Plato, and then Euclid. It is fair to assume that this ratio has been discovered several times throughout history — hence its many names, including golden mean, golden ratio, golden section, divine proportion (coined by Leonardo Da Vinci) and the Greek symbol φ.</p><p> The exact mathematical definition is as follows (according to Wikipedia):</p><p style="margin-left:40px"> <strong> Golden ratio: </strong> Two quantities a and b (a&gt;b) are in <strong> the golden ratio φ </strong> if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities:</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/golden-ratio-ui-design/">Read Full Article</a>UX-Maturity Stage 3: Emergenthttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stage-3/A company’s UX efforts at this stage are functional and promising, but inconsistent and inefficient.Kate KaplanSun, 24 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000/articles/ux-maturity-stage-3/?1635091200Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;A company’s UX efforts at this stage are functional and promising, but inconsistent and inefficient.</p><hr/><br/><p> <em> This article describes stage 3 in the six-stage NN/g <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/"> UX-maturity model </a> . Get an idea of your organization’s UX maturity by taking a short <a href="https://forms.nngroup.com/s3/Maturity-Quiz"> quiz </a> (10 minutes or less). </em></p><p> Stage-3 organizations see more UX work happening across more teams than <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stage-1/"> stage-1 </a> and <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stage-2/"> stage-2 </a> organizations, but efforts are generally low-budget, unstable, and do not align to any organization-wide strategy.</p><p> A limited number of UX-specific roles exists, but it’s not nearly enough and they are left to function without centralized UX resources and frameworks. Understanding of UX value varies across teams and user-centered methods are applied inconsistently.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/ux-maturity-stage-3/">Read Full Article</a>Context Methods: Study Guidehttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/context-methods-study-guide/Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about ethnographic methods like field studies and diary studies — methods that help you learn about your user’s context.Kate MoranSun, 24 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000/articles/context-methods-study-guide/?1635091200Article<p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about ethnographic methods like field studies and diary studies — methods that help you learn about your user’s context.</p><hr/><br/><p> Context methods (such as field and diary studies) provide insights about a users’ real-life environment and behaviors and shed light on how products are used in a natural context.</p><p> Here’s a list of NN/g’s most useful introductory articles and videos about context methods (field studies and diary studies), as well as some related topics. Within each section, the resources are in recommended reading order.</p><p> Many <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-research-cheat-sheet/"> UX-research methods </a> involve asking users to pretend they’re in a realistic but hypothetical situation. For example, in a usability test, participants may be given the task to buy a new car. While we hope that users will behave as if they really were making this purchase, there might some important contextual details we’d miss out on with this method.</p><br/><br/><a href="/articles/context-methods-study-guide/">Read Full Article</a>