User Experience

Four CHI '26 papers I wish I wrote

Janet Davis highlights four CHI 2026 papers she wishes she had written, reflecting on research themes and why each piece of HCI scholarship stood out.

Essay · Research · User Experience · Design · Education

Trust Calibration for AI Software BuildersOriginal article link with an AI-written directory summary

Daniel Botha examines how software should earn an appropriate level of user trust. Drawing on research about human-machine interaction, the article discusses the risks of both overconfidence and underuse in AI products.

Essay · AI · User Experience

Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps

Ink & Switch’s essay on malleable software: why today’s locked-down apps strip user agency, and what it would take to restore tools people can reshape themselves.

Essay · Software Engineering · User Experience · Product · Open Source

How to Conduct a Heuristic EvaluationOriginal article link with an AI-written directory summary

Kate Moran and Kelley Gordon provide a process for conducting heuristic evaluations. The guide covers choosing principles, preparing the review, working independently, and consolidating findings into actionable usability issues.

Tutorial · User Experience · Usability Evaluation

Website footers are (literally) bigger than ever. Here's why

Elizabeth Goodspeed on The Big Footer™: full-viewport logos at the bottom of sites, how print/fashion logo culture and better screens revived ornate marks, and why footers became the unexpected stage for brand recognition.

Blog post · Design · Web Development · User Experience

Journey Mapping 101Original article link with an AI-written directory summary

Sarah Gibbons introduces journey maps as a way to represent the process of accomplishing a user goal. The article explains common components, variations, and how teams can use the resulting view.

Guide · User Experience · Journey Mapping

Service Blueprints: DefinitionOriginal article link with an AI-written directory summary

Sarah Gibbons explains service blueprints and their relationship to customer journeys. The article shows how mapping people, processes, and supporting resources can reveal how an organization delivers an experience.

Guide · Service Design · User Experience

Usability 101: Introduction to UsabilityOriginal article link with an AI-written directory summary

Jakob Nielsen gives a concise introduction to usability and why it matters. The article defines its major components and explains the role of repeated testing with representative users during product development.

Guide · User Experience · Usability Testing

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignOriginal article link with an AI-written directory summary

Jakob Nielsen presents ten broad principles for assessing interface usability. The guide covers feedback, consistency, error handling, user control, and other recurring concerns that evaluators can apply across products.

Guide · User Experience · Interaction Design