User Experience
Jakob's Law: People Expect Your Site to Work Like the Others
Jakob's law says people expect your site to work like the sites they already use. See the research behind it, examples, and when breaking a convention pays.
All articles
81 articles since 2019, newest first. Pick a topic in the bar above to narrow down.
User Experience
Tesler's Law: Complexity Never Disappears, It Only Moves
Tesler's law says some complexity can never be removed, only moved between the user and the system. See where it came from and when moving it actually helps.
Design Fundamentals
Uniform Connectedness: Why a Line Can Group Things Better Than Space
Uniform connectedness says elements joined by a line or shared area read as one group. See how it beats spacing, where interfaces use it, and the research.
Design Fundamentals
Typeface vs Font: What Is the Difference, and Does It Still Matter?
A typeface is the design, like Helvetica. A font is one weight and style of it, like Helvetica Bold. See the difference, its origin, and why it matters.
User Experience
Progressive Disclosure in UX: Show Less First, Without Hiding What Matters
Progressive disclosure shows the basics first and the rest only when needed. See examples, the training wheels research, and when hiding things backfires.
User Experience
Dark Patterns in UX: Examples, Evidence and the Honest Alternatives
Dark patterns are designs that trick people into choices they would not make. See common examples, research on how well they work, the laws, and honest fixes.
Design Fundamentals
Types of Grids in Design: Manuscript, Column, Modular, Hierarchical and Baseline
The five types of grids in design: manuscript, column, modular, hierarchical and baseline. See when to use each, why 12 columns is popular, and how grids adapt.
Design Fundamentals
Visual Weight in Design: What Makes One Thing Feel Heavier Than Another
Visual weight is how strongly an element pulls the eye. See what adds weight, how it balances a layout like a seesaw, and which parts of it have been tested.
Design Fundamentals
Color Harmony in Design: What the Color Wheel Says, and What People Prefer
Color harmony is how well colors look together. See the classic color wheel schemes, what experiments found people prefer, and how to build a UI palette.
User Experience
The Doherty Threshold: Why Fast Responses Keep People Working
The Doherty threshold says people work best when a screen responds in under about 400 ms. See what the 1982 IBM paper found, and how to handle slow waits.
Design Fundamentals
Kerning vs Tracking vs Leading: The Three Kinds of Space in Type
Kerning sets the space between two letters, tracking the space across a word, and leading the space between lines. See each one and what the research says.
Design Fundamentals
F-Pattern vs Z-Pattern: How People Scan Pages, and Which to Design For
The F-pattern is how people scan pages of plain text; the Z-pattern is layout advice for sparse pages. See the eye-tracking evidence and which to design for.