UX lessons live in specific moments

Talking about UX in the abstract — “make it simple,” “reduce friction,” “design for the user” — produces advice that’s correct and not very actionable. The real lessons live in specific moments inside real products.

Across many products, specific UX patterns have repeatedly worked, and specific patterns have repeatedly failed. The reasons aren’t mysterious. They show up consistently enough that, once you’re aware of them, you can spot the same opportunities and traps in your own work.

This topic walks through some of the wins and mistakes that show up across real products.

Wins: fast time to value

Products that consistently produce a useful result in the first session retain users at much higher rates than those that don’t.

The specific implementations v...

UX wins and mistakes (real examples)