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2025
Michal Malewicz
No bullshit $0
guide to UX
Learn UX the easy way
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Why we do UX
8
2. Design
45
3. Design Roles
52
4. Design Thinking
62
5. Research
71
6. The struggle
80
7. Things we do
91
8. Laws of UX
172
9. Dark pa!erns
186
10. Future of UX Research
198
11. AI vs UX
207
12. Our process
216
13. What’s next?
225
This is the FREE version of the book. It includes 3 full chapters (1, 8
and 9) and half of Chapter 7. This is a unique way for you to get to
know the material before buying the full ebook.
For research methods and test results go to malewiczmethod.com
The premise for this eBook comes from the fact that I started as a
UI designer that over the years had to learn all the research
methods and techniques to keep in touch with what’s needed in
the industry. I am sharing my point of view with you - one that I’ve
been successfully using for years and that helped me complete
over 500 projects in the last 26+ years.
2
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Before we begin
Before we begin I need to say that this book is a di!erent
approach to UX than you may be used to. It's not academic by
any means and it doesn't treat UX as a science. Instead I show it
as a way of solving problems, based on my personal experiences
with a large number of projects - but I'm not saying my way is the
only way and that it's 100% right. I'm sharing my perspective,
because I've been successfully doing this design thing for over
20 years.
Still, I encourage you to not jump in blindly. Use your own bullshit
detector to get out of this read as much valuable information as
you possibly can. Discard the rest.
Treat it as a guide and an overview of my personal approach
- not a source of truth. You can use the knowledge within these
pages to be successful, but you can also be successful using
- in many cases - complete opposites of the methods I outline
here.
There is no one right way of doing these things. This book is me
explaining how we did some stu! to you, as if we were in a bar.
Pick one that's right for you by merging di!erent perspectives.
With love,
3
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Before we start exploring the world of design together, I wanted
to explain the title. Or, to be more precise the word Bullshit.
Doesn’t sound very UX’y right? That was exactly my idea.
Let me elaborate.
UX design education, as an industry, has gravitated towards
being overly academic, scienti"c and serious. It desperately tries
to up itself with that seriousness, so that maybe one day people
will mentally place „UX Scientists” in the same row as people who
cure diseases and launch rocket ships into space. A#er all, it’s all
science, right?
Not exactly. UX design is a very good job choice, as it pays
surprisingly well and the rates are only going up. But that
scienti"c image is doing the industry more harm than good.
Academic language, while may be helping some seasoned
designers feel be$er about their perceived intelligence, makes
it a lot harder to grasp for beginners.
That leads to extreme gatekeeping in UX, with the barrier
of entry being set way too high for what the job actually is.
4
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Gatekeeping
Gatekeeping means
people already in
the industry are
making it di"cult
for others to join.
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Let’s #ght gatekeeping
I want to change that, because I used a backdoor to get to where
I am. I never completed any UX Bootcamps, courses or classes,
but rather simply when UX became be$er known, I was already
years in the web design industry. I remember in 2001 I had my "rst
web design job at a startup. Yes, a startup in 2001.
Do you know how many sticky notes were on the walls at the
o%ce? None. Do you know how o#en they made personas,
outlined empathy maps? Not once.
Low "delity sketches of screens were also pre$y rare back then.
Did that startup fail miserably because of not using a UX process?
No. It’s still around today, a#er over 20 years.
Now, of course the reason they are successful is because they use
the foundation of UX, a bit subconsciously. They design, test and
repeat - constantly trying to improve the product.
And this is exactly my point - the actual goal of a UX designer is
not to go through some mystical process every time, but rather
use the method of design, test, repeat to improve your work.
At its core it is really basic.
6
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Since 1998 I have worked on over 500 di!erent products, from
banking apps, triple A games, iPhone games all the way to
pregnancy trackers. If there’s a product category, chances are
I have worked on at least one product in it.
That gives me a unique perspective on which parts of the UX
process are used, when and how they’re used and what parts are
the most necessary to succeed.
In this book I will try to explain everything you need to know about
UX, using simple, easy to understand language.
First, I want to focus on the essentials - because they’re what
pushes you and your work truly forward. But I will also cover less
popular techniques, including the ones that are barely ever used.
7
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1
Why we
do UX?
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Why we do UX?
I remember my "rst real, industry job. In October of 2001, a li$le
a#er 3 PM I arrived at a 4-story marble building in the center of
Warsaw, Poland. The building was a modern o%ce-space housing
at that time o%ces of a couple well known companies, including
the o%ces of IKEA. It looked modern, clean and very intimidating.
Like a smaller version of a Manha$an skyscraper, with a lobby,
a guy in a suit at the door and everything.
I just came back to Poland from the US, this time for good and
a#er four years of doing cheap HTML websites I decided to "nd
my "rst real job.
Lucky for me, back in 2001 the Internet wasn't really as popular
yet and people who knew how to design or code were so few, that
I was likely the only candidate to have replied to their job post.
And yes, that job o!er was posted in a regular newspaper.
Printed! The dark ages!
I took the stairs and entered the o%ce. A secretary led me to the
meeting room, where the CEO and his right hand were waiting
for me. It was a startup from the tourist industry - a website that
allowed you to book a hotel or a holiday trip to Poland, including
additional tours or a$ractions.
9
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The sun was se$ing, leaving a beautiful orange glow on the
opposite wall as I talked with the bosses about my web design
experience. I got the job and was to start early next week.
This is the company I mentioned before. They still exist to this day.
How did this happen, if UX as a full industry launched around
2008-2009. Of course the term was &oating around for a while,
thanks to Don Norman, but the process wasn't yet fully de"ned,
and post-it notes were only used to leave joke messages on your
friends large CRT displays.
How did they manage to deliver anything of value to the
customers without a UX process? There can be two answers to
this question, but of course the truth lies somewhere in between.
The simple answer would be that there wasn't a lot of competition
back then, so people simply *had to* use that website to book
their trips and hotels.
I think it's the second option though: the company had the right
approach to building the digital product. They used the simple
analytics that existed back then (remember, that was before
Google!) and made changes to see if it works be$er.
10
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They surveyed their customers to identify some pain points,
and without a single low-"delity wireframe, they went straight
to high-"delity design, or sometimes even prototyping in code.
Do you see a pa!ern here?
The product cycle was a repeating series of the same steps over
and over again. Design a new feature based on what the users
said. Test it on said users - on production, and if it works, re"ne
it further. If it doesn't work as expected, remove it.
11
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1.1
The
all-knowing
UX Guru
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The all-knowing UX Guru
Maybe I was unlucky, but most senior UX people I met were
egomaniacs. A large portion of them were jerks too. They felt
like gods of product, and praised the full UX process as the
most important invention since sliced bread.
But was it really that innovative? In many cases it was simply
taking the most logical approach to building stu! - build, test,
improve.
Three steps. Simple, right? And a lot easier to comprehend
at a high level - design is these three steps. And if the result
is positive - i.e. we made something that's be$er than it was
before - it means we did good design. Then the process repeats.
For years that feeling of superiority of many UX designers was
annoying and confusing me.
"Why do they need to wrap a rather simple process in all that
jargon and fake-di%culty?"
Now, I'm not expert enough to answer that question, but luckily
I got through that when I realised what you should also consider
- that it doesn't ma$er.
13
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First of all, we're doing a rather easy, yet well paid job. Design
is moving rectangles around, based on some simple data. It's
baby research. Almost anyone can learn that.
Taking that approach many years ago, led me to understand
the industry be$er, and yes - it also led me to improve the quality
of my work. That's because having a structure and a plan of
action is good. The UX process is not at all evil, stupid or useless.
It's o#en simply overblown a li$le, and especially for junior
designers - it's presented in a complicated, intimidating way.
We design experiences to solve a problem. Most o#en it's
a business problem of not enough pro"t, and we want to do
everything we can to maximize that pro"t for the company.
And unhappy users aren't that keen on paying, so to achieve
more pro"t we need to make their experience as &awless as
we can.
And then test and repeat.
14
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1.2
What is
UX Design?
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What is UX design?
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1.3
The curse
of UX Agencies
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The Curse of UX Agencies
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2
Design
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Design
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3
Design Roles
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Design roles
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4
Design
Thinking
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Design thinking
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5
Research
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Research
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6
The struggle
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The struggle
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7
The things
we do
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The things we do
In this chapter I’ll brie&y go through many of the UX methods
and processes - o#en with di%cult to understand names - and
show you whether they’re actually used beyond your junior
portfolio.
Keep in mind that the fact that we don’t use something, as
a company, doesn’t mean it’s not used at all - but I tried asking
a lot of similar sized businesses and some larger ones, so in many
cases the tra%c-light rating is pre$y accurate.
Of course that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn these things
when you’re a beginner - but some of them de"nitely require less
focus and energy, as they likely won’t be used in any real-world
scenarios.
Treat it as a guide, but make sure to check what processes your
future employer uses and how because it’s not 100% universal
- if anything ever is.
Note: This is the #rst batch of methods and processes that was
requested by my readers. Based on future requests I will be
adding new content to this chapter regularly!
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Tra"c lights
To di!erentiate them, I decided to use a familiar tra%c light
pa$ern. Next to each term there will be a colorful dot. If it’s
green, it means that this technique or concept is essential and
commonly used in daily work.
If it’s orange, it’s something that’s sometimes used, but not
essential for many projects.
If it’s red, it means that it’s a part of the process mostly used in
UX Courses, but rarely used in any real work. Many of the things
in red, however, are necessary for your junior portfolio.
Ready? Let’s go!
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Personas
Rarely Used
Christopher Evans
27, Sales Manager
About Christopher
Context of use
His goals
His frustrations
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Personas
Personas are a great way for junior designers to learn how
to empathize with their users. And by empathize I mean how
to try and feel and think what the user feels and thinks.
Yes, that makes sense at the early stage, and especially when
building a portfolio. Personas to many recruiters are an important
“check” on a list of things to look for in a junior portfolio so at this
stage de"nitely make sure to use them.
But …
They are very rarely used in any real projects, however, because
most of the data on a typical persona sheet is irrelevant to any
real "ndings. And the time you spend thinking about names,
looking for photos or writing a description can be be$er spent
actually analyzing the market segments and "nding out who your
users are.
In our work we rely on customer models, which are data sets
of only the relevant information. There’s no need and no time
to create “arti"cial people!”
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ProtoPersonas
Rarely Used
Chloe Nielsen
26, Product Manager
About Chloe
Context of use
Her goals
Her frustrations
Q
Q
Q
L
L
L
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Proto-Personas
Proto-personas are fake-people generated for the initial client
meetings. They’re not research based, and their main role is for
the client presentation to look be$er. It means they’re just slides,
nothing more.
While regular personas are devised based on what you know
about your user groups, these are just hypothetical assumptions
at best, and "ller-content in most cases.
The o#en used reason for creating these, is that they’re so vague
they’re likely to "t an actual user group, even if accidentally.
It’s one of those elements that gave UX a bad reputation among
clients, as more and more clients are starting to see them as
tactics to “pretend to do more work” and simply charge more,
while discarding all that extra work as useless.
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Customer
Journey
Maps
Sometimes Used
Step 2
Step 3
Feelings
Step 1
Solutions
User’s experiences
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Customer Journey Maps
Customer journey map is a timeline, o$en presented as a table,
showing the entire interaction of a user with your product.
It usually starts with how they "nd out about it, and ends with the
user achieving their goal (or not achieving it and complaining
to customer service).
The problem here is similar to the one with personas - most of
the time hypothetical journeys are either already well known
(especially for simple products) or a market segment group is
established.
It can be helpful if the product never had a journey mapped in
any way (including as a simple set of bullet-point steps) or to
make sure that everyone is on the same page.
In my career, we’ve mostly worked on very simpli"ed maps based
on market segments / user categories. For example we can
create a typical scenario of a step by step how a new user
approaches the product vs a second option where a power-user
is using it. That can help with ge$ing a perspective and
understand we may need to modify the messaging to cater
to all kinds of users.
It’s not a very popular technique in real projects though.
99
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Customer
Experience
Maps
Rarely Used in UX*
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
* They are o!en used by sales and product teams and delivered to the UX team
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Customer Experience Maps
Customer Experience Maps are similar to the Journey Maps
we outlined before. The main di%erence is that they try to talk
about the entire experience, and include marketing, branding
and sales in the evaluation.
That basically means it’s a much wider scope of a journey map
and o#en something that is done by marketing or product teams
and not UX people.
This process is good to have, but it’s not our responsibility to do it.
Some UX agencies add it to be able to bill some extra hours while
involving the marketing and sales teams anyway.
While useful to UX designers, don’t think that you need to actually
be doing these yourself.
However, breaking down customer experiences into a timeline
style, easy to digest steps is something you will be doing quite
a lot as a designer. We just don’t call them “maps” of any kind
and they don’t have to follow any speci"c procedures. Their goal
is to clarify and simplify sets of data so you can see the bigger
picture and faster "nd solutions to the problems.
What you call some of these processes is less important than
how you understand what the user does and why.
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Empathy
Maps
Rarely Used
Says
Thinks
Does
Feels
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Empathy Maps
Empathy maps are usually a part of the design thinking process
and are based on previously created personas. You create one
map per one persona, o#en during a workshop with clients and
stakeholders to get them engaged in the process.
The idea is to de#ne what the persona sees, hears, says and does
and later also thinks and feels.
It’s a purely theoretical exercise that a#er a while turns to most
of the six "elds having the exact same answers - like the person
feels fear of making a decision and if you look at examples of
empathy maps online, you’ll "nd out that most of it is the same
stu! over and over again. While they can be helpful to establish
some initial goals for the product, this entire process (of both
personas and empathy maps) is now replaced by creating
customer segments and simply asking the users how they feel
about particular features. Because then you’ll know what they
really feel, not what you assume they feel during a workshop.
We’ve worked on over 500 digital products since 2011 and haven’t
used empathy mapping even once in that time. This entire
process can simply be done faster, and as a result much cheaper
to the client. They are “good to have” in your junior portfolios.
In the real world? Not so much.
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Low Fidelity
Wireframes
Sometimes Used
Logo
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Low Fidelity Wireframes
When you search for images related to UX, a low-"delity
wireframe is o#en the "rst result you see. Their main advantage
of lo-" wireframes was that they’re quick (and thus cheap) to
create. The problem however was that most users and a lot of
stakeholders and clients don’t understand the "delity decrease.
Even when it’s explained to them, they still perceive them (o#en
subconsciously) as an “ugly project” and that turned out to skew
their overall experience to be a bit more negative.
Testing Low Fidelity Prototypes on users (clickable &ows composed
of Lo-Fi wires) used to be a very popular initial phase in most
product design sprints, but over the years people realized that
the results we get from low "delity can be o! by way too much to
justify doing them. Another reason for doing low-"delity was that
people don’t focus on “fonts and colors” as much, and can pay
more a$ention to the &ow - but that argument is lost with human
nature - we don’t care about ugly wires.
With modern design tools and easy to use design libraries, going
mid-"delity is just as fast right now and yields much be$er results.
Quick low "delity sketches can be a good idea for very complex
projects and to determine whether we understand it the same
way the client does however...
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2024 update
For many years typical low "delity wasn’t really a thing. We have
however hit a wall of design system based, unoriginal UI’s that
took over most of design. Next to that, many designers showcase
portfolio projects that don’t make any sense as a product. That
brings back the so called “Dribbblization” of design - focusing on
artwork and not functionality.
In late 2023 we decided to take a step back and change our ways
as a company. This changed our whole process dramatically and I
decided to add a chapter that outlines our typical process.
Check it out in the table of contents.
Short story is: we now do more low "delity wireframes AND lo-"
sketches than ever before, but we don’t do it for everything.
It all relates to guiding the clients and stakeholders through some
parts that even they may not be 100% certain about. What we do
is usually a mix of low-"delity sketches and wireframes with
annotations in red - see relevant chapter.
That allows us to quickly "gure out the implications of a new
feature and design something be$er in the end.
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Low Fidelity
Sketches
Sometimes Used
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Low Fidelity Sketches
This is another relic from the past and a way agencies used
to be sneaky and charge clients more. The &ipchart meeting
scribbles that barely resemble wireframes were used as a way
to explain some basic navigation concepts to the client and other
meeting participants. But because in most cases there was no
text on them, just scribbled lines, they were pre$y useless a#er
the meeting.
Taking a photo “for later” generally meant you come back
to a series of badly drawn lines with no context.
While they may be useful to the person doing them, as it may help
them to think visually, they’re generally a time-waste and "ller
that is practically never really used in any real work.
It can be used to add some more billable hours to a meeting,
if that’s your goal.
Making slightly higher "delity (with real text on bu$ons and cards
for example) wireframes can be done faster and much clearer on
a computer than on a &ipchart.
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User
Stories
O!en used in complex
projects
Chris, 27
Sales manager
As a (role)…
Chloe, 26
Project manager
I want (goal)…
As a (role)…
So that (gain)…
I want (goal)…
So that (gain)…
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User Stories
User Stories sound like another complex UX thing, right? Well,
luckily the structure for them that we’ve been both using and
seeing in many projects is super simple.
It’s a li$le bit like a customer journey map, but wri$en as a short
story - literally a couple of paragraphs. You create them for all
types of users - so for example the regular customer, a moderator,
an administrator and so on.
In the user story you simply write, in easy to understand language,
what the user does in the product step by step. Don’t focus on how
they get or install the app, just outline the actual interaction. For
example:
“The user enters their email and password and creates a free
account. They have to click on a con"rmation link in the email to
activate it. A#er that’s done, they can "ll in the rest of their pro"le
right away for extra discounts, or start shopping right away.
They’re asked to select a couple of product categories they like,
so we can tailor the products that they see”.
You usually request these from the client, just to see how they
understand what they think their product should be doing. Then,
together, you "ll in all the extra details to iron out the experience.
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A"nity
Diagrams
Rarely Used
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
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A"nity Diagrams
A"nity diagram, or A"nity mapping, is a way of sorting data
into a couple (usually #ve or six) main categories. It’s o$en
presented either as a data table, or as clusters of square post-it
notes in various colors.
As with most other methods in typical design thinking processes,
it serves as a way to make the information coming from many
di!erent people easier to process.
In real work this process happens automatically and is not called
by any speci"c names. Grouping information is usually as simple
as pasting some bullet points into a couple of sections.
A%nity diagrams are almost never a client-deliverable, which
means you don’t make them to show to the clients. They’re
a way to make your ideas clearer and potentially pick be$er
ones. Because of that they’re not really a part of any real work.
The process of combining data into categories does occur, but
happens without thinking about it, and o#en it happens in your
mind, without creating anything visual.
They are, like many other processes, a good thing to showcase
in your junior case study to show how you evaluate ideas.
Outside of case studies they’re not really used.
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Storyboards
Rarely Used
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
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Storyboards
Storyboards are a concept coming from movie sets. They’re like
a simple, usually 8-frame comic book. In those four or eight li!le
squares they try to show a speci#c process. In UX it’s usually
the user trying to achieve something.
It’s basically a user story, but in a visual form. It can be a good
idea for a case study, but avoid even doing it in every case study
you have, as it doesn’t really contribute that much. Unless your
illustration skills are really high, in most cases it ends up being
a bunch of not-that-pre$y images with a story that could’ve been
a few bullet points.
Are they used in the real world? Not really. On client meetings
a story can sometimes be presented, or acted out, but almost
nobody really creates those drawings as it’s considered a waste
of time and resources.
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Crazy 8’s
Rarely Used
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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Crazy 8’s
You take a piece of paper and fold it a couple of times #rst.
Then you unfold it again and have it naturally divided into eight
sections. Then with only one minute per section, and a running
timer, you sketch out a solution to a problem or a product &ow.
The idea is a li$le bit like storyboards, but because of the limited
time you don’t have the time to overthink things. We already
know that our "rst ideas are o#en the best ones, and this exercise
relies on that. O#en the ideas sketched out with such limited time
are somewhere between bad and interesting. When they’re
interesting, and when it’s done in a team so we have a lot of the
ideas, we can then try to merge the best ones into a single
concept.
At least that’s what this exercise is on paper. In my career we
have never, ever worked this way because, especially now, you
come up with a solution to a problem by quickly "nding the right
“pa$ern” in your mind - most UX problems have already been
solved somewhere.
You can add crazy 8’s to your portfolio case study, but don’t add
it to each one, as it’s not really something that brings anything of
value to the table. Just another way to quickly generate ideas,
which a#er a while simply happens automatically.
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Competitive
Analysis
Almost always used
Chloe Nielsen
Product Manager
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Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis simply means looking at other products
from the same category and seeing “how they do it”.
We do this with practically every project, to "gure out what
others do well, and where we can improve on what they do
and do it a lot be$er.
Evaluating the competition is a very useful process!
Also, at this point most products are simply sets of features from
other, existing products - combined in a new way. That’s why
using the collective knowledge of others is always a good idea no need to reinvent the wheel.
You can both analyze HOW other apps or websites accomplish
a task (what steps do they use to guide the user to completion)
or look at customer feedback in the app stores.
This is a qualitative approach, meaning you need to read the
detailed comments as they o#en show what issues the product
has. If there are many repeating comments that all talk about
the same problems, you know what to avoid in your product.
It’s as simple as that!
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If you want your analysis to be even more thorough make sure to
focus both on direct and indirect competitors. First of all that
gives you a wider range of companies or products to look at and
a lot of potential for a more innovative approach.
Let’s "rst break it down what each of them means:
- Direct competitor is a product that does 90% of what you do - if
you’re making a taxi app then you’re looking at Uber here.
- Indirect comptetitor is a product that matches some of your
core functionalities but is a di!erent product category - for a taxi
booking app an indirect example would be a food ordering app it still involves a driver, a destination picker and a map view but is
fundamentally di!erent at the core.
The problem with direct competitors is that when analysing only
those products we tend to get lazy and just try and copy some of
their best ideas.
When comparing both direct and indirect it can spark a lot more
creativity, associations and generally new ideas. You can merge a
couple of approaches unseen in your industry and create
something unique instead of just assembling from industry
practices. One is safer, both are worth doing.
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User
Interview
Almost always used
User interview
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
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User Interview
It is exactly what it sounds like. You "nd a group of users and ask
them questions. To make it easier to process a#erwards, it’s best
for the questions to be the same, so you can focus on the answers.
It helps you to "nd out about the user’s needs, experiences,
a$itudes and goals.
There are many templates on how to do these interviews, whether
they’re in form of an online survey, conducted in person, or over
a conference call.
The most important part, as with any user research, is to guide the
users but never suggest anything to them. They either know the
answer to a question or not - and if they don’t it’s also a valuable
insight for us. It means we may have to rethink that product or
feature so it’s clearer.
We do this quite o#en, but mostly as an online survey with up
to "ve open questions. With time, you’ll be able to re"ne those
questions so that you’ll get the most useful information from
them, so don’t worry if your "rst interviews don’t bring a lot of
useful insights. You’ll get there.
Keep them short, under 5 minutes to complete, as those tend
to yield the most submissions.
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Usability
Testing
Very o!en used
Dashboard
1
Chris Evans
Problem
Sales Manager
2
Helpful feature
Problem
K
3
K
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Usability Testing
This is a very useful method, but when described it’s unnecessarily
complicated.
A usability study is a one on one session with the user and (most
o$en) a prototype of the product. The interviewer has a list of a
couple of tasks they want the user to complete. Those tasks can
be completely separate user &ows that don’t need to connect you can just switch the prototype for each task to a new one.
They’re usually quite short, for example: how would you invite
a friend to the service, starting on your pro"le screen. That is ONE
action. A full study can have a couple of simple actions like that.
When planning which ones to check, make sure they’re actually
relevant to the product’s success - it barely makes sense to test
whether they know how to agree to the terms and conditions.
Registration on the other hand is almost always a must!
It’s important to record AND evaluate mentally what the user
does and what they click/tap, but never suggest anything.
If they don’t know - they don’t know. Redesign and come back
for another study.
It’s a very useful exercise and we try to do it with at least half of
the consumer facing products, but there are a couple of things
that I found that can negatively impact the experience.
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Whenever you can, use a high or at least mid-"delity prototype
for usability studies. Even when the users understand what
a low-"delity wireframe is, their perception is subconsciously
skewed by “using an ugly product”. It’s just how our brains work.
If you’re making drastic changes, and testing them on the same
user, you can easily fall into a bias trap. It means the user will be
so used to the previous prototype, they’ll say it’s be$er even when
it’s clearly not the case. A good practice to resolve that is to test
both on the same users you tested before, AND add a new control
group of a similar size to every radical redesign study.
Don’t test obvious or not quite necessary things like “how would
you change your pro"le picture” because the user feels like it’s
a functionality that’s not that important in most products and
it gets re&ected in the results. Try focusing on the most relevant
&ows for the product to serve its purpose. If you’re making
a ride-sharing app, test the actual booking of a cab as the most
important process.
Usability testing works great if it helps you improve the really
important parts of the product. Only do it when you feel it will
contribute, never to just “add it” to the project scope.
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Also, don’t get too a$ached to the name. You can call it
anything. I usually call it a “Product vs User” test. What’s
important here is not the industry jargon, but rather whether
the user actually knows where to click or tap to go forward.
There’s always some bias, so try to minimize it but don’t feel
bad a#er the fact - we’re only human and you should treat it
like watching another human ride a bike (use your product)
- observe, take notes and get over it.
This method also works best when the prototype is as close to
the "nal product as possible. Sure, you can test in a Sketch or
Figma prototype, but from my experience it’s actually be$er
to code an HTML prototype. It doesn’t need a database, all the
content can be hard-coded into it. But with that you can add
something like hotjar to gather some extra heatmap data from
it next to your regular observations.
The more it looks and feels like a real product, the be$er the
outcome. Of course if the product is already out, you can also
do some testing on it. Just make sure the user doesn’t feel like
they’re using a low "delity demo.
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Eye Tracking
Rarely Used
Logo
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Eye Tracking
Eye tracking was one of those features companies that could
a!ord a set of expensive cameras and glasses always showed
o! to the clients at meetings.
In short: the cameras and glasses allow us to create a heatmap
showing what the user is looking at exactly at any given time.
This can let you know whether they noticed an important bu!on
at all, or have they read the entire paragraph of text or just
skimmed through it quickly.
While it de"nitely looks impressive and high-tech, we only used
this three times in our career. The main issue I see with this
method is that a#er a while it brings very similar results based
on the good practices of how our brain processes what we see.
Once you know how to design a good UI hierarchy, that’s clear
and readable, the results will be very similar. For now I don’t
believe this method should be considered by almost anyone.
However, with the upcoming Apple AR Glasses, and likely a bunch
of other companies making their own - eye tracking can have
a comeback, but it will likely work in a completely di!erent way
that we have yet to de"ne. Don’t worry about it today.
On a side note there was a free tool called EyeTato that used AI
to predict where the users would most likely look.
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Movement
Tracking
O!en used
Logo
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Movement tracking
While we don’t track the eyes of our users as o#en anymore,
there’s another type of tracking that is actually done very o#en.
Mouse movement and scroll tracking can be done mostly on the
web, but it allows you to record the actions of your users and
create heatmaps of what they click the most and where they
hover their cursor most o#en. That is super useful!
We try to do it for every single web project, because these
recordings show us how users interact with the current website
- what are their problems, at what stage do they quit the process
(like abandoning the cart mid-way) and what’s o#en neglected
- what are they clicking on exactly?
This is helpful because very o#en you’re able to notice people
clicking on things that are not links or bu$ons while completely
missing the actual clickable objects. Recordings like these are
super helpful to be$er understand the problems with the website
and how to optimize it to perform be$er.
There are many tools you can use to do it, including ones that
have free plans. We mostly use HotJar, Mouse&ow, SessionCam
and more.
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A/B Testing
O!en used
A
B
Hello, Chris
K
Hello, Chris
K
K
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A/B Testing
A/B Testing usually means a test on a live product that’s
available to all the users. We split them randomly into two
groups, and each gets a slightly di%erent interface. It is used
to see which option converts be!er.
Big companies like Net&ix or Google are using it all the time
to improve their product.
We are using it about half the time. The main problem with those
tests is that they’re very o#en not necessary, or you can get
be$er results from a set of usability studies.
Another common problem is, that when the change is too
revolutionary, the conversion can actually drop for the "rst month
or two, before users get used to the new way. Even if the new
version is be$er, it will initially show as worse, and many product
teams don’t have the patience to run these tests long enough.
If you’re working at a small startup, chances are you’ll do
a couple of these in the very initial stages of growth to "gure out
what works. The next stage in which A/B testing happens a lot is
when you’ve reached a point of having so many users the growth
seems to slow down - there simply aren’t enough humans on the
planet. In that case it can be a good idea to resume A/B testing
because even small improvements can lead to big results.
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I personally really like doing A/B tests, but it’s important to
understand that they can also lead to revenue over user - o#en
pushing for shady, dark-pa$ern practices just because they’re
sure to increase revenue at the expense of the users.
I’ve been to a presentation, where a big company showed how
they used A/B testing to upsell to 37% of their existing users
a low-quality product that nobody really needed and the
company wanted to get rid of it.
When you’re planning an A/B test about an important feature of
the product (for example two di!erent ways to sign up for it) do
a quick usability study "rst to iron-out as many small issues as you
can before placing the tests live.
Real life example
One of our clients has a successful B2C product that operates in
almost all markets. They found out that for some categories
objectively “pre$ier” design doesn’t convert as well as one that
most designers would label as “worse”. That’s why it’s important to
get rid of that mentality and focus on conversion.
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There is an important distinction to be made though. You’re
probably seen posts like these all over the internet now.
Checkout
Checkout
Choose payment method
Choose payment method
Apple Pay
PayPal
Apple Pay
CARD
PayPal
Promo code
Promo code
Adds automatically
Adds automatically
$410
Total
Con"rm payment
CARD
$410
Total
Con"rm payment
Which design is be!er? A or B?
This is not A/B testing even though it may look like it. This is social
media engagement farming because in 99% of these posts the
di!erences are marginal and super"cial. It’s not supposed to
answer any design question, it’s just supposed to get you to
choose what you feel you like more - as a designer.
It’s not being tested on target users either in most cases, so it’s
just a way for people to write their 5 cents under the post and
drive views / likes up.
Participating in stu! like that is a pure waste of time.
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Design
Systems
Sometimes Used
bU++ON
CTA Bu!on
Dropdown
Primary
Option A
Option B
Secondary
Teritary
Form
Type something…
Heading 38p
Q
Heading 28p
Regular text 18p
Active link
Used link
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Design systems
This chapter is ONLY available in the full version of the book.
You can get it right now 25% cheaper with the code:
s4di50a
Use the link below to apply the code, or enter it manually:
h!ps://hype4academy.gumroad.com/l/guidetoux/s4di50a
Owned by over 7000 designers and brands
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8
Laws of UX
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Laws of UX
“If UX has laws, does it mean we’re all lawyers now?”
This question has been on my mind for years, because while very
useful in real work, most of those UX laws are stated like real law with complex, industry language that makes it really hard to
grasp even simple concepts.
I decided to slightly rewrite some of them, with simpler language
and whenever possible - examples from our approach as design
practitioners.
A#er all, for laws to be followed and respected, people need to
understand them "rst, right?
I’m going to start with a couple basic ones and grow this chapter
with future updates.
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Minimize choices
Also known as Hick’s Law
The more choices, or options a person has, the longer they need
to think about what to do next. There’s also a bigger chance
they’ll be confused.
Example
The form on the right side is the "rst
Create account
Twi!er handle
E-mail
Phone
Facebook
time a person decides to sign up for
a service.
@michalmalewicz
Design skill level (0-100)
Right from the start it o!ers WAY too
53 - Mid Level Designer
many options which will discourage
most people from ever completing it.
Registration should always be about
the minimum number of "elds possible.
Apps I know
Sketch
Figma
Paint
Place of residence
London, UK
Always try to only show the necessary options and hide
everything that is not needed - because all those extra things
add to the cognitive load. A high cognitive load means our brains
need to work really hard to understand all the stu! we are looking
at. Too much information to process = high cognitive load.
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Don’t be too original
Also known as Jakob’s Law
People mostly use other apps and sites, so they expect familiar
pa!erns in your product.
While a triangular form "eld can seem
like a cool new idea, most people will
be confused by it because they
expect a form "eld to look in a
speci"c way - usually a rectangle.
Send a bug report
Yo
ur
fe
ed
ba
ck
:
Example
I
want
to report
that this site
is somehow very
had to use for me.
Same with a polygon-shaped bu$on.
Avoid originality for the sake of being
SEND
di%erent.
That right now can be half-true, as there are some people that
use TikTok 99% of the time, not other sites or apps, but still - it’s
valid. You can still play around with how you present the interface
- using di!erent colors, shadows, fonts or decorating it with a
cool, animated illustration that follows your typing progress.
Breaking established pa$erns, however, always ends with the
user not knowing what they’re looking at.
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Big (Touch) Targets!
Also known as Fi"’s Law
Bigger bu!ons with enough space between them are easier to
access (aim). We click and tap things all the time now - but both
with our #ngers and with our mouse cursor, our target needs to
be big enough to comfortably aim at.
Example
When your bu$ons are too small and
very close together, they can both "t
under your "ngertip at once. If you’re
Clear history
Are you sure you want
to clear your purchase
history?
trying to make a choice, there’s no
No
Yes
way you’ll know what you actually
pressed in this case.
No
Make sure all UI elements can be
Yes
Your "nger
tip size
accessed individually.
Follow the interface guidelines from the platform you’re designing
for, or to be safe always use at least 44x44 mobile touch targets
and 24x24 (and preferably 32x32) on desktop. The cursor is more
precise but it also moves faster - so even on desktop try to make
all clickable elements as easy to aim at as possible.
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Almost done!
Also known as Goal Gradient E#ect
The more you feel like the task is close to done, the faster you
work to complete it. This means it’s important to show progress,
as the closer that progress bar is to 100%, the more inclined
people are to #ll it.
Example
This is a li$le lie many products do,
showing you the "rst step as 0% and
then the second step (out of two) as
95%. This approach motivates you to
"nish as you know that you’re
practically done already so it’s not
worth it to abandon the process.
Almost done!
Your Twi!er handle
@michalmalewicz
We will pre-"ll your name and photo from
your Twi$er pro"le, you can change them later.
Create account
In all longer processes show progress, avoid unnecessary
elements or "elds and whenever you can, pre-"ll the forms for the
user. If you can get their name from their Twi$er handle, pre-"ll it
and let them change it if they need to. By showing the progress
bar going fast towards completion, you’ll in&uence your users to
stick around and "nish their task.
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Instant access
Also known as Doherty Threshold
The user should not wait for the system to respond. When
loading things keep them engaged! Our a!ention spans are low
and our devices and the internet are fast. We don’t have the
patience to wait longer than a few seconds for anything.
Example
Loading data…
When loading a lot of data you can use
both a progress-bar (so something is
“moving” while the user waits) and
skeleton screens that roughly show the
structure of what will load and where.
In this example we know there will be
two graphs on top and some text.
Create report
Skeleton screens are a great way to trick users into thinking the
product is working faster than it is. The worst thing you can do
is to have an empty loading screen that doesn’t have any
movement or indicator that it’s actually loading. People can
accept a progress bar, or even a spinning wheel because when
things move we understand that something is going on.
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Reduce complexity
Also known as Miller’s Law
Our memory and processing is limited, so don’t overload people
with too much stu% to think about. Our short term memory can
only store a limited number of items - that’s why it’s best to
divide all complex tasks into smaller, well categorized steps.
Example
Split tasks into logical, easy to
process steps so users are not
overwhelmed. For example, don’t ask
the user for their address right next to
their email - they can o#en "ll in the
address later - a#er they create the
Your Twi!er handle
@michalmalewicz
We will pre-"ll your name and photo from
your Twi$er pro"le, you can change them later.
Create your account
account.
Don’t mix together elements that can’t logically be a group.
That’s o#en a problem with longer online forms - they really work
best when you group information into sections and don’t mix your
pro"le picture with your address. Separation like that makes it
clearer and a lot less stressful for the brain as we simply process
things faster as logical groups.
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Simple is best
Also known as Occam’s Razor
Less is more. Keep only the design elements necessary to
complete the task. When you complete your initial design, ask
yourself: what can I remove without sacri#cing functionality?
What is NOT important here?
Create account
Example
Twi!er handle
E-mail
Phone
Facebook
In the example from the "rst law we
can easily remove a choice of
di!erent login methods and just use
Twi$er handle. We can also remove
the apps and design skills because
users can add it later, in their
account se$ings if they really need
to. Registration should be simple!
@michalmalewicz
Design skill level (0-100)
53 - Mid Level Designer
Apps I know
Sketch
Figma
Paint
Place of residence
London, UK
The Occam’s Razor says that when you see two solutions to a
problem, you should pick the simpler one. You can solve many
design problems with very complex, demanding solutions, or you
can just make things simpler.
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Pre!y feels be!er
Also known as Aesthetics Usability E#ect
We perceive beautiful products to also be be!er, easier and
more fun to use. That can be an advantage!
Aesthetics are
not important
Who would care
about aesthetically
pleasing UI’s anyway?
Yes i completely agree
What are aesthetics?
Aesthetics are
important!
We naturally perceive
well structured visuals
as more usable.
Good to know this!
I will do that
Minimalism, clarity and readability are all a big part of aesthetics.
If your design is all over the place with chaotic layout, out of
place typography and colors that hurt the eyes, it will be
perceived as “worse” than a similar product that only looks
be$er. Even if the functionality is exactly the same, the be$er
looking product will get be$er scores for functionality from users.
Focus on the visual quality and readability at every stage of the
user facing design.
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First and last stick
Also known as Serial Positioning E#ect
When looking at a group of objects, users remember the #rst and
the last one the most. You can use it in navigation to highlight
the most important pages.
We remember
the "rst item
And the very
last one
Example
In the example above the "rst icon is remembered because it’s the "rst thing you
see. It’s o#en called the “Primacy e!ect”. Then the ones a#er that are scanned
quickly, and once we get to the end of the list we remember the last one because it
was a conclusion of the entire group. This is o#en called the recency e!ect
because it was the most recently seen one.
This e!ect works on all kinds of objects, not just menu items. You
can also use it with cards in a grid view, or even sentences in a
paragraph - the "rst and the last one will be the most
remembered so make them count!
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Notice the di%erence!
Also known as Von Restor# E#ect
In a group, the object that di%ers from the rest will be noticed
faster and remembered be!er.
Most popular!
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The most prominent item
gets the most focus
Example
In the example above the most popular plan is bigger, more colorful and a lot
easier to focus on. That makes it instantly more recognisable than all of the other
plans. You can use this e!ect to highlight the most important actions you want your
users to take. In case of pricing plans it’s also a psychological factor of “oh, I don’t
need the most expensive one a#er all! So I’m practically saving money!”
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How precise do you need to be?
Also known as Accot-Zhai Law
In a series of expanding, context menus make sure it’s easy to
move your cursor between them without accidentaly exiting and
closing the whole stack. This is super-annoying!
Insert
Layer
Text
Prototype
New page
Insert
Layer
Text
Prototype
New page
Shape
Rectangle
Vector
Oval
Pencil
Rounded
Line
Shape
Rectangle
Vector
Oval
Pencil
Rounded
Line
Example
In the example on the le# the list items are very narrow, which makes it easier to
accidentaly move the mouse cursor outside of the frame (red markings) and
collapse the second submenu. Once we give it more space - like in example on the
right - we have a lot more room for the cursor to move to the right comfortably
without accidentaly switching the menu o!.
Any accidental mouse movement or click by the user that results in
an undesired action is really annoying and decreases the fun of
using the product. Make sure all your labels, targets and active
elements are always big enough for comfort. That also includes
bu$on sizes - when they’re bigger on desktop they’re also easier to
click.
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Deliver a frictionless experience
Also known as Postel’s Law a.k.a. Robustness Principle
Postel’s Law is the base of many human-computer interactions.
It both requires design to be accessible, &exible and reliable, and
to not require more from the user than is absolutely necessary.
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Example
An interface has to be easy to use for the largest possible user group. That requires
it to be accessible, readable but also easy to grasp quickly. The more user input is
required, the more di%cult it is for the user to complete the task. A good interface
only asks for the absolutely necessary, and helps the user along the way correcting and parsing their input and guiding them all the way. A good example is
with online forms. Making them readable and clear is pre$y obvious, but we should
also consider if we really need to ask the user all these questions. Maybe some of
them they can "ll in later, on their own? By asking only for the essentials, we make it
easier and faster to complete the form so more users can complete it without
frustration.
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9
Types of dark
pa!erns
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Dark side of UX?
We already mentioned that many companies may push you into
designing purposeful dark pa$erns for them. It means misleading
and deceiving the user to do things they wouldn’t normally do.
In most cases it’s a tactic used to make more money and the
common reasoning is: “everyone else is doing it, so we can either
do it too or loose the money”.
As a designer you should "ght dark pa$erns whenever you can,
but of course to "ght an enemy you must "rst get to know them
be$er. Let’s go through the most common types of dark pa$erns
and how to spot them in the wild.
One thing you can do, if you notice a pa$ern like that done by a
big company is to publish it on Social Media - write about it so
they’ll have to explain themselves. A#er all if we’re all silent,
they’ll think they can get away with it.
The more voices speak out and point out these dishonest designs,
the less of them we’ll be seeing in our apps and on our websites.
One of the great voices that does exactly that is Harry Brignull
and his website h$ps://deceptive.design. In this chapter I want to
go through his dark-pa$ern examples and add a li$le bit of my
personal context to each one.
Ready to jump into the dark abyss of evil UX?
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Sneak into basket
On checkout a product adds an extra product that you didn’t
pick into your basket, usually a paid one that you have to
manually de-select to avoid paying extra. Most o$en it’s some
extra insurance, extended warranty or a small feature you likely
won’t need.
Example
Your cart
You’re just subscribing to a new yearly service
and on the last step they pre-select an option
Your yearly subscription
and sticker pack - $150
with an extra item for you. The option to just
Just the subscription - $120
selected, but is not the default. Many people
go with what you previously chosen can be
won’t notice that and quickly click on the
$150 - Pay now!
checkout bu$on. They end up paying more
and receiving an extra item that likely didn’t
want or need.
This is extremely popular with domain purchasing services, where
they add extra “protection”, SSL certi"cates, hosting services and
a wordpress site builder even if you only wanted to reserve a
domain name for your next great startup idea. You end up
manually deselecting all of those extra options and secretly
wishing for a be$er domain registration provider.
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Fear of Missing Out
Extremely popular especially on apartment and hotel booking
sites. They create a sense of urgency by creating (o$en false)
impression of scarcity, or showing that many people are
currently considering the product you’re looking at to push you
to act faster.
Example
On most hotel booking sites you see these extra li$le
nudges stating that this is the last room le# to
reserve in this place, that there are many people
Central apartment
• Only 1 le$ on our site!
• 9 people are looking at it now.
Special price ends in
15sec
considering now and sometimes there’s a special
time-limited promo to get it cheaper. All of these are
supposed to force you to quickly decide out of fear
that the deal will be gone. In reality most of these are
created as a simple random-number generator in
$150 - Book now!
code and are not a representation of any real
scarcity.
Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO for short is a very popular
marketing tactic. Of course you can’t completely quit it, as
running occasional (real) promotions is necessary to shake up the
business and get people interested. Going too far however is a
really manipulative tactic that pushes people to take actions
quickly and without thinking.
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Roach motel
It’s a tactics that makes it super easy to sign up or subscribe to
something, but the opt-out or unsubscribe process is extremely
di"cult and lengthy on purpose, so you’re unlikely to complete it.
We’re sorry to see you go!
To con"rm your opt out from our paid
subscription please write “CONFIRM”
in the box below
CONFIRM
Download and "ll the PDF opt-out form
below and send it to our address:
00-125 Fraud Street, Fraudsburg, US
Removal-from-service-form.PDF
16MB, 21 pages
Example
It can be as simple as requiring some extra
unnecessary "elds or triple image captcha
form, but many companies push it even
further with the necessity to download, print
and mail a document to unsubscribe from
their service - when the subscription itself
happened completely online.
Any unnecessary obstruction of the opt-out process is a dark
pa$ern and should be avoided. Sadly many companies put
considerable resources into making the signup process as easy
and frictionless as possible, and then use those same resources to
complicate the resignation process. If your product didn’t keep
the user happy (and paying), maybe it’d be be$er to do some
research to "nd out why and "x that, instead of just making it
harder for the user to quit?
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Con#rmshaming
Con#rmshaming is about using certain phrases to create guilt in
the user so they feel like the choice that they prefer is not the
right one a$er all.
SuperBlog
This experience is even be$er in our dedicated mobile application for iOS and Android.
Get our app now!
I want to be lame and use the web version.
Go pro!
We see you’re enjoying the app as a basic plan user. Consider going pro for more features!
Switch plan
I don’t consider myself a PRO
Examples
These are usually done with an overlay or a popup that tries to convince you to do
something di!erently by shaming you for your current way of doing things. In the
example above some popups say that not using the app and just sticking to their
web version is “lame”, while in the second example the phrasing speci"cally states
that maybe you don’t want to upgrade because you’re not a PRO, but rather a silly
“basic user”.
Please be respectful of your users. They’re people too.
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Trick questions
Some questions are phrased in a way that appear harmless, but
on a closer read it turns out that you really wanted to do the
opposite thing.
Example
Email se!ings
I do not want to be le#
alone without receiving
useful newsle$ers daily.
Create account
The beginning of the sentence makes you
think checking the box means no spam email
- but of course in reality it means the exact
opposite. The question is created in a tricky
way so you’ll check it voluntarily without
thinking about it, thus agreeing to spam.
A#er reading the question above you may think to yourself - who
does this? Is this a real thing? At "rst glance these questions look
silly, or even stupid. Sadly it works, because legally when you
check a box it means you’re agreeing with what it says. The more
complex and convoluted the message, the less you know what
you’re agreeing to, but they’ll always say that you could’ve
always le# the checkbox empty. I have noticed some respected
institutions (like banks) do these trick questions in their apps,
which only means that those big "ntech UX teams were tasked
with “increasing signups” and they went the evil way.
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Hidden costs
You complete a checkout process just to #nd that in the last step
some previously unmentioned extra costs were added to the
#nal price.
Example
Step 6 of 6
Final con#rmation
Dark Pa!erns TV
Series DVD Box Set
$25.99
In a very long, 6-step process you added an
item to your card, "lled in all your personal
information, credit card information and
shipping address. In steps one through "ve
Scented box set
$0.99
the only price you ever saw was $25.99, but
Eco-friendly cardboard
packaging
$14.99
exhausted with spending so much time in a
Shipping and handling
$19.99
then in the very last step, a#er you’re
series of long, complex forms you see that the
price is signi"cantly higher than you
expected.
Pay now - $61.96
Many e-commerce websites create especially lengthy checkout
processes, so that you feel so invested in them already, with all
your data added, that you simply swallow your pride and accept
the extra costs, because if you didn’t you’d have to look for
another store and start that whole process all over again.
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Friend spam
A product asks for permission to browse your contact lists,
including everyone’s phone numbers and emails and then uses
that information for their bene#t and not yours. It usually means
spamming your friends and acquaintances with marketing.
Example
Find and add your
friends!
Everything is be$er with
friends! See which ones of
your friends are already
using our app and invite
them to connect!
It all starts with the same premise - everything
is be$er with friends! Then the app asks you to
allow it to access your contacts so you’ll be
able to "nd your friends faster. In reality
you’re giving some company full access to a
lot of personal details that they can do
Import my contacts
whatever they want with, even if in some
places this practice is already illegal.
One example is a popular, audio-based social media app that
rose to fame in early 2021. It used phone numbers and contact
access to invite new people, but secretly collected that data in
their personal database. When that database eventually leaked
(supposedly) it contained phone numbers of both the users, and
some people who were in the user’s contact lists but never even
registered for the service or even heard of it.
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Disguised Ad
A product uses speci#cally targeted advertising that has call to
action bu!ons similar or identical to the website itself. That
leads to many people clicking on ads by mistake while trying to
complete their desired action.
Example
AwesomeFont.!f
17kb, $f format, free for both
personal and commercial use
Best in class antivirus
so#ware on the market!
Download
Download so$ware
This dark pa$ern is most common on web
content repositories from which you
download assets, fonts or so#ware. They stick
and advertisement between the title and the
“real” download bu$on that also has a
download bu$on - o#en looking exactly the
same or similar to the real one.
Start Download
Some sites go as far, as having their real bu$on as a simple text
link, with the Ad bu$ons being visual and very eye-catching. Very
o#en there’s also more than one advertisement with a download
bu$on - all placed strategically around the real one in a way that
you’re not sure which is which even a#er carefully looking at it.
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Bait and Switch
Bait and switch changes the action of the user from what the
user expected to happen, to something that’s more desirable for
the business.
Example
Get the book for FREE*
This amazing deal
sounds just too good to
be true doesn’t it?
Well it is true!
There is a promise of something free or well
priced, but in reality you either have to
provide a lot of personal details (so you’re
paying with your data) or there’s a hidden
monetary cost required for the product to
actually be free. They promise you something
Get it FREE now!
*When you purchase a yearly
subscription for $99.
good, but in reality it’s not as good as you
anticipated.
Many companies also use this technique to show a reduced price
for their monthly subscription, but once you click to con"rm it you
realise that the reduced price is only available with a yearly
purchase and suddenly the monthly price becomes much higher.
It’s a bait of something appealing and then a last-minute switch
to the harsh reality.
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Misdirection
Misdirection keeps your focus away from what you need to
know, hoping you’ll click on something without realising what
you’ve done.
Example
Room selected.
Select breakfast option
In this example you book a hotel room just to
end up on a page where you only have two
Continental - $50
paid options of extra breakfast and a huge,
high-contrast and very visible bu$on to
Vegan - $45
con"rm your selection. When you look closely
you’ll see that there’s a small, barely visible
Continue booking
I don’t want any breakfast
link that allows you to skip this step, don’t get
breakfast and avoid paying extra.
While similar to some of the other dark pa$erns, this one o#en
uses contrast and colors to guide your focus towards completing
the process without even looking for another option. Once again
this is very common in all booking services, from hotels all the way
to the airlines and they all know exactly what they’re doing!
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10
Future of
UX research
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Future of UX research
This chapter is ONLY available in the full version of the book.
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11
AI vs UX
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AI vs UX
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How we work
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How we work
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13
What’s next?
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What’s next?
If you want to learn about me methods weekly subscribe to
www.malewiczmethod.com free newsle$er!
A good testing scenario for most products is to start with
Competitive Analysis, then, if it exists go through user comments
and how (statistics) they use the product.
Based on that create a quick high-"delity prototype for the
usability study - preferably in HTML for best results. Once the
results are in, either iterate on another version, or if it roughly
does the job go into coding. If you had more than one idea, you
can also do a live A/B test - just avoid doing it on very important
product features - in that case do it in closed, smaller research
groups.
Then, as the live product is being used by more people, plan to
interview them - either through user survey, or through app-store
comments to "nd out if they’re having issues with some part of
the product. You can use analytics to "nd which parts of the
product are confusing (users are lost) and either just redesign
them for an A/B test again, or do another usability study to "nd
out if you can improve it.
This whole thing repeats. Over and over and over and …
Welcome to the world of UX.
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I hope you found my experience with UX useful and inspiring
enough to start experimenting and making great products
yourself!
All the best!
How can you contribute?
If you found any issues with the book (typos, mistakes,
omissions - let me know via email!) I’ll be happy to "x
them and add your name to the list of contributors at
the last page of the book. I want to grow this project
with your feedback, so it actually meets and exceeds
the needs of junior designers worldwide! Thank you!
You can reach me at michal@hype4.com
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Contributors
Version 4.4
Special thanks to:
Mohamed Elghamry
Cara Oberfoell
Roger Fung
Natalie Taylor
Brian Paul Smith
Khrystyna Goeijenbier
Dario Cianciarulo
Roxanne Stahl
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