Summary: Jakob Nielsen’s top articles from 2024 document UX as a field in transition, being revolutionized by AI, causing a need for professional development among design professionals, and a shift in design leadership to integrate better with accelerating business practices.
Here are the ten articles I published in 2024 that proved the most popular with readers. I covered the following trends for UX during the year:
Recognizing my top 10 articles of the year. (Leonardo)
For better or worse, my articles documented 2024 as a year where the UX profession was transitioning from the old ways of handcrafted design to our new AI-fueled future. Many legacy companies (including many old-school UX consultancies and design agencies) will soon be out of business, but new opportunities will arise. (Ideogram)
Artificial Intelligence's impact on UX stands out as a dominant theme throughout the articles. While AI is fundamentally transforming how UX work is done, it’s not replacing the core principles of user experience. Instead, I discussed AI as a multifaceted tool that can serve as an intern, coworker, teacher, and coach. The focus is consistently on how AI boosts productivity and enables smaller, more efficient teams, with particular emphasis on the optimal partnership between humans and AI rather than AI replacement.
The evolution of UX leadership emerges as another crucial theme. I identified a significant shift away from traditional hierarchical structures toward what he calls the "pancaking" of UX organizations into flatter structures. He advocates for a "Founder Mode" leadership style that emphasizes vision and direct involvement rather than traditional management layers, suggesting this approach is better suited to the emerging AI-enhanced workplace.
Business integration remains a critical concern, with Nielsen addressing the persistent need for better alignment between UX and business objectives. He outlines three strategic approaches - adapt, shape, or select - for improving this alignment, while consistently emphasizing the importance of measuring and communicating the financial impact of UX work. This theme reflects an ongoing challenge in the field: making UX work more business-friendly without compromising its core principles.
The enduring relevance of foundational UX principles forms another major theme. My audience liked reading the continued importance of concepts like Gestalt principles and empirical research with real users, while also advocating for discount usability methods. The articles demonstrated how these established principles remain relevant even as technology evolves, showing how to balance traditional UX wisdom with new technological capabilities.
Professional development emerges as the final major theme, where I emphasized how UX professionals must adapt to AI integration while maintaining their core expertise. I stressed the importance of developing new skills and working in smaller, more efficient teams, while maintaining a focus on continuous learning and adaptation. This theme reflects the broader changes in the field and the need for UX professionals to evolve alongside their tools and methods.
The world is turning upside-down for product design professionals. Those who adapt have a bright future. (Ideogram)
These themes from the top 2024 articles paint a picture of a UX field in transition, grappling with technological change while staying true to its fundamental principles. The top articles suggest that success in modern UX requires embracing new tools and methods while maintaining a focus on user needs and business value.
2024 was a year of transition for the UX field. We’re getting ready to take off for a better world, but most UXers are still stuck in the past. (Leonardo)
UX in 2024, as documented in Jakob Nielsen’s articles. (Napkin)
2024 in UX Summarized as Haikus
AI and Human
Partners in design, not foes
Each making both strong
Flat teams rise and thrive
Old towers of power crumble
Small groups move mountains
Show worth in dollars
UX must speak business tongue
To earn its true place
Test with real users
Time-tested truths still guide us
Through new digital seas
Learn, adapt, and grow
As tools transform around us
Skills bloom like spring flowers
Haikus are a concise format with an alternative perspective of 2024 as the year of transition for the UX profession. I decided to give you more Haikus for each of the individual top 10 articles to supplement the dry prose summary. (Midjourney)
1: Top AI Tools Used by UX Professionals
A comprehensive survey reveals that UX professionals are actively embracing AI tools, with ChatGPT dominating usage at 83%, followed distantly by Midjourney and Perplexity. The average UX professional uses 2.5 AI tools regularly, choosing from 93 different options. UX-specific tools like FigJam, Wondering, and Miro show promising adoption rates. Content generation, research/analysis, and ideation emerge as the primary use cases.
Notably, UX professionals' tool preferences differ significantly from the general public's, reflecting specialized needs. While practitioners praise AI's time-saving capabilities and value as an ideation springboard, they express concerns about output inconsistency and lack of precise control. The sentiment toward AI in UX remains cautiously optimistic, with professionals viewing it as a powerful assistant rather than a replacement, emphasizing the need for human oversight and refinement of AI-generated outputs.
Read the full article: Top AI Tools Used by UX Professionals.
Haikus about this article:
ChatGPT commands
Eighty-three percent embrace
Its guiding wisdom
Midjourney conjures
Visions quick as lightning bolts
Inspiration flows
Research flows like streams
AI sorts through endless notes
Insights emerge clear
Time saved becomes gold
While human judgment still rules
Perfect partnership
Start small, start today
Triumph and pitfall align
Growth demands bold steps
2: How I Developed the 10 Usability Heuristics
Jakob Nielsen’s iconic 10 usability heuristics, celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2024, emerged from rigorous research rather than mere opinion. Initially created informally in 1989 for teaching purposes, they were systematically refined through factor analysis in 1994. Nielsen analyzed 249 usability problems from 11 professional projects against 101 fundamental usability principles, creating a matrix of 25,149 datapoints. The final 10 heuristics represent the key factors that best explained the usability problems encountered.
The enduring relevance of the 10 heuristics stems from being grounded in fundamental human-machine interaction patterns rather than specific interface technologies. While more heuristics could have provided marginally better coverage, ten proved to be an optimal number for memorability and practicality. Despite regretting the potentially confusing term "heuristics," Nielsen maintains the terminology to avoid vocabulary inflation in the field.
Read the full article: How I Developed the 10 Usability Heuristics.
Haikus about this article:
Numbers tell the truth
Two hundred forty-nine flaws
Ten rules emerge clean
Factor analysis
Distills wisdom from the noise
Time proves their value
Thirty years have passed
Yet human nature stays fixed
Guidelines light the way
3: Commodification and Pancaking of UX: Accept Reality and Plan New Career Paths
The UX field is undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting from an elite, centralized discipline to a commoditized, distributed model. Nielsen argues this "pancaking" effect—where UX expertise spreads thinner but wider across organizations—is ultimately beneficial for users and the industry. The rise of AI is accelerating this trend by increasing productivity, enhancing creativity, and lowering skill barriers.
Career paths are evolving from traditional hierarchical ladders to expertise-based progression, where professionals own increasingly larger scopes of design rather than managing more people. The "amateurization" of UX, exemplified by Fidelity's training of 300+ non-research staff, demonstrates how basic UX methods can be effectively distributed across organizations. While this transformation may challenge traditional UX structures, it enables broader implementation of good UX practices and creates new opportunities for expertise development.
Read the full article: Commodification and Pancaking of UX: Accept Reality and Plan New Career Paths.
Haikus about this article:
Expertise flows now
Like syrup spreading outward
No more ivory towers
AI lifts us all
Amateur hands join the dance
Skills spread far and wide
Thin but powerful
Like pancakes stacked with purpose
UX transforms all
4: User Research with Humans vs. AI
User research fundamentally requires human participation to remain effective, even as AI integration offers new possibilities. Four potential combinations of human and AI involvement reveal varying degrees of viability in research scenarios. The traditional human researcher-human participant model remains most effective, particularly when enhanced by AI tools for planning and analysis. Using AI to simulate participants proves problematic, as it misses crucial surprises and unexpected behaviors that make research valuable.
While AI researchers working with human participants show promise, offering benefits like consistent neutrality, multilingual capabilities, and potentially increased participant honesty, this approach requires careful implementation.
The concept of using AI for both researcher and participant roles is fundamentally flawed despite its superficial appeal. The core purpose of user research—discovering unexpected behaviors and preventing costly post-release surprises—inherently requires human participants to maintain its value, even as AI technology continues to evolve and enhance research capabilities.
Read the full article: User Research with Humans vs. AI.
Haikus about this article:
Users surprise us
AI can't replicate that
Truth lives in chaos
Research needs real souls
Machines can help, not replace
Human hearts reveal
Tools enhance our sight
But only humans can show
Tomorrow's problems
5: 4 Metaphors for Working with AI: Intern, Coworker, Teacher, Coach
Four metaphors for AI collaboration reflect its evolving capabilities beyond the outdated "eager intern" model of early 2023. As a coworker, AI can handle independent assignments or collaborate on tasks, leveraging its strengths in analysis and creativity. As a teacher, AI offers personalized, patient instruction with infinite explanations and just-in-time learning. As a coach, AI helps professionals refine existing skills through critique and questioning, even in areas where human expertise exceeds AI capabilities. The intern metaphor remains relevant for specific tasks but limits potential growth.
These roles will expand with advancing AI generations, from current ChatGPT-4 level intelligence through expected milestones in 2025 (college graduate level), 2027 (PhD level), and 2030 (superintelligence). Success requires engaging with AI through multiple metaphors, choosing the most appropriate role based on task requirements and AI capabilities.
Read the full article: 4 Metaphors for Working with AI: Intern, Coworker, Teacher, Coach.
Haikus about this article:
Not just intern new
Teacher, coach, and partner true
AI grows with you
Four paths we can take
Each reveals a different strength
Choose what serves us best
Through metaphor's lens
We see AI's true power
Growth comes from within
6: Diamond Prompting in UX Work
Diamond prompting emerges as an effective approach to AI-driven UX work, alternating between exploratory and detail-refining phases. The exploratory phase employs zero-shot prompting to generate broad ideas without preconceptions, while the detail-refining phase uses few-shot prompting with specific examples to narrow focus. This approach operates at three interconnected levels: strategic (project planning), tactical (process definition), and operational (specific activities).
Recent research indicates senior UX professionals excel at creating detailed prompts, though junior staff quickly develop these skills. AI serves as a seniority accelerant, with hands-on experience often converting skeptics into advocates. The methodology mirrors the double-diamond design process but focuses on scope levels rather than problem-solution spaces. While AI integration in UX work remains understudied by the field, emerging research suggests significant potential for improving efficiency and effectiveness through structured prompting approaches.
Read the full article: Diamond Prompting in UX Work.
Haikus about this article:
Broad then narrow view
Diamond patterns guide our path
AI learns from both
First explore the wild
Then refine with proven ways
Wisdom flows between
Three levels we span
Strategy to daily tasks
Diamonds guide them all
7: 10 Foundational Insights for UX
Ten fundamental UX insights have shaped the field from Bell Labs' empirical testing in 1947 to modern AI applications. These insights build upon each other rather than replacing previous knowledge: empirical data from representative users, business value of UX, discount usability methods, augmented human intellect, graphical user interfaces, hypertext, information foraging, irrational user behavior, integrated software experiences, and intent-based AI interaction. While AI brings revolutionary changes to UX work and interfaces, core human-centered principles remain crucial.
The evolution from command-based to intent-based interaction marks a significant shift in user interface paradigms. Future developments in AI promise individualized experiences through generative UI, yet the foundation of understanding human behavior continues to drive effective design. The timeline of these insights suggests more fundamental discoveries await, with each new understanding adding to, rather than replacing, established principles.
Read the full article: 10 Foundational Insights for UX.
Watch my keynote talk about the 10 foundational insights (YouTube, 65 min., including Q&A).
Haikus about this article:
Test with real users first
Watch them work, learn from their ways
Truth lies in their eyes
Old wisdom still guides
As AI shapes our new path
Both must work as one
Past meets future now
Ten insights light up our way
More truths yet to come
8: Improving UX-Business Fit
Three strategies can improve the fit between UX professionals and corporate environments: adapt, shape, and select. Adaptation involves modifying UX practices to better align with business needs by using discount methods, prioritizing profit impact, and simplifying terminology. Shaping requires gradually increasing company UX maturity through demonstrated value and stakeholder buy-in, typically taking up to 20 years for significant change.
Selection—moving to a different company—should be used sparingly as a last resort. Unlike migratory animals that can easily move between environments, UX professionals face more permanent consequences when changing companies.
The most effective sequence is to adapt first and often, while simultaneously working to shape organizational culture. Only after sustained failure of both approaches should professionals consider selecting a new environment. This mirrors Darwinian fitness, where survival depends on the match between organism and environment rather than absolute capability.
Read the full article: Improving UX-Business Fit.
Haikus about this article:
Change yourself to fit
Or shape the world around you
Choose your path with care
Swift adaptation
Slow transformation follows
Moving comes at last
Like birds seeking warmth
We search for better climate
But change starts within
9: Gestalt Principles for Visual UI Design
The nine Gestalt principles provide fundamental guidelines for creating intuitive visual interfaces, based on how humans naturally perceive and organize information. Proximity groups nearby elements, similarity connects visually matching items, and enclosure defines boundaries. Closure allows viewers to complete incomplete patterns, while continuity guides the eye along smooth paths. Connectedness explicitly links related elements, and common fate groups items that change together. Prägnanz favors simple interpretations of complex visuals, while figure-ground separation helps distinguish foreground from background elements.
These principles, rooted in century-old psychological research, remain crucial for modern UI design. Designers should apply them to both unite related interface elements and differentiate distinct functions. Multiple principles often work together more effectively than relying on a single approach, ensuring accessibility and enhanced usability.
Read the full article: Gestalt Principles for Visual UI Design.
Haikus about this article:
Close things group as one
Like shapes dance in harmony
Eyes find order here
Nine ancient laws guide
How we see the world unfold
Design learns from sight
Form flows into whole
Mind connects what eyes perceive
Gestalt shows the way
10: Design Leaders Should Go “Founder Mode”
Design leadership is evolving from traditional hierarchical management to "Founder Mode" leadership, driven by AI's impact on team productivity. As AI enables small "pizza teams" to accomplish what once required large departments, the need for multiple management layers diminishes. Instead of aspiring to executive titles, design leaders should embrace hands-on, vision-based leadership characteristic of founders. This approach emphasizes direct involvement in product decisions, fast decision-making, and maintaining product-market fit—redefined as how well design serves organizational needs.
Like successful company founders, design leaders must own and drive their discipline's vision while engaging directly with team members regardless of hierarchy. The transition requires new skills beyond traditional design expertise, as demonstrated by corporate examples like Microsoft's leadership evolution. Success in this new paradigm depends not on formal position but on the ability to lead with founder-like vision and engagement.
Read the full article: Design Leaders Should Go “Founder Mode”.
Haikus about this article:
Two pizzas suffice
When AI helps teams soar high
Leaders walk beside
Vision guides the way
Not ranks and titles supreme
Founders show the path
Small teams swift and strong
Leaders close to daily work
Future blooms anew
See my music video about these 10 articles and UX trends in 2024. (YouTube, 3 min.)
For this music video, I reused avatars I had already made on HeyGen: my K-pop influencer (from the “founder mode” podcast) and my cowboy (from the “150,000 followers” country song), even though this song is neither K-pop nor country. Unfortunately, lip-synch was less good for this video than the previous time I used the exact same avatars. AI avatars are still not quite there. Even so, the music is good, and the B-roll animations (made with Kling 1.6) are fun.
Even though I used my K-pop influencer avatar to sing the song, I’m afraid there are no dance breaks in my music videos about the top 10 UX articles of 2024. (Leonardo)
Excluded From the List: Jakob’s Career Retrospective
I have to admit to cheating a little in creating the top-10 list shown above. Based purely on the pageviews the number one article should have been 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective (including a comic strip of how my invited lecture at Stanford University turned into a position on Google’s Advisory board during its startup years). This is the article I wrote when the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society gave me its “Titan of Human Factors” award.
I’m amazed that an article about my career has turned out to be that popular.
However, I didn’t want to include it in the list of top articles from 2024 for three reasons:
I thought it would be too rich to claim that my personal career was the most important issue in the UX field in 2024.
Even though the article was literally published in 2024, it’s really about the period 1983–2024, so it’s not a good match for the concept of “what happened in 2024,” which is the deeper purpose of publishing my top-10 list.
I link to this career retrospective article from my bio, so that likely increased the article pageviews “unfairly” relatively to other articles that didn’t get this repeated exposure.
Here are some Haikus based on my career retrospective:
Five kilobytes ran
Room-sized personal wonder
Freedom to explore
Teaching UX ways
Three jobs in Denmark back then
Now millions can work
Discount methods born
From scarcity came wisdom
Five users suffice
Bell labs spirit lived
Ten heuristics born from thought
Research set us free
Video calls gleamed
Future glimpsed in ninety-three
Before times were ripe
At Sun he transformed
Seventy-nine patents earned
Networks ruled the world
Forty years have passed
Technology transforms fast
Humans stay the same
AI-generated summary of the article about Jakob Nielsen’s 41 years in UX. (Napkin)