Top 20 UX Design Blogs and Resource Websites

The world of user experience and user interface has never stopped evolving and taken front stage where everyone seems to know about the buzzwords. It’s of utmost importance to stay up-to-date on the latest ideas and conversations happening in the industry, but the abundance of resources somehow makes it hard to find the truly helpful materials. That’s where blogs come in handy.

The following list collects some of the best blogs of 2016 on user experience and user interface design, providing a quick and easy way to remain current. Some of the picks are specially authored by only one blogger, while others pool the knowledge of industry experts and leaders. With no further ado and in no particular order, let’s get inspired in below.     

1. UI / Interfaces

These blogs display a plethora of tips, tricks as well as advice on how to create effective & user-attractive user interfaces. No matter building UIs for mobile apps, products or sites, the information included within those websites cannot miss out. 

a.   Dribbble (https://dribbble.com), a community of fellow designers to post and answer questions each day. It caters about design and showcases creativity almost from UI perspective.

b.   Behance (https://www.behance.net/), a great source of inspiration where traditional graphic design and high-quality design projects can be founded there. It’s not primarily iconography nor web/mobile UI.

c.   Site Inspire (https://www.siteinspire.com/), a website to provide web-based UI, with live snapshots and location of each website. There feature 2,500 websites searchable by subject, type, and style as well.

d.   Smashing Magazine (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/), a leading blog site providing resources and information related to the web design and development. It’s a go-to place when you need inspiration based on latest trends in development.

e.   Usability Post (http://usabilitypost.com/), a site that contains lots of web design and usability issues, along with great resources for trend predictions and project management.

2. UX/UI Strategy

Theses blogs feature a number of practical guidelines and techniques to be implemented on achieving design objectives or goals. The information varies from design ideas to project management methodology.

a.   Usability Geek (http://usabilitygeek.com/), a site focusing on the intersection between business and design, and you can discover plentiful articles regarding improving designing and conversions for business purpose.

b.   Medium (https://medium.com/), an excellent place to read, write and interact with the stories of fellow designers. It’s a vibrant online publishing platform, with thousands of new stories updated daily.

c.   Nielsen Norman Group (https://www.nngroup.com/) (NNG), the trusted authority in all things about UX, providing articles and reports related to user experience research. 

d.   Webcredible (http://www.webcredible.com/blog/), a London-based UX agency that collaborates with many brands worldwide to deliver award-winning work. The blogs contain UX articles and resources.

3. UX Design

These resource websites discuss the topic of UX design for both services and products, ranging from industry trends in UX field to reviews on tools and software for new practitioner and seasoned veteran.

a.   Awwwards (http://www.awwwards.com/), a site that awards the best of the best in mobile and web design. It’s where to find industry standards and stay relevant ahead of the curve.

b.   Mockplus (http://goo.gl/OHRk8L), the best selection of user experience/interface design and trend predictions blogs. All articles are hand-picked and well-written on how to output effective design works.

c.   Designmodo (http://designmodo.com/), another comprehensive website featuring both standard and obscure design topics, plus development, WordPress, tips & tutorials and much more.

d.   UX Myths (http://uxmyths.com/), a popular source of information for some common but untrue myths regarding UX design, by citing links, studies and facts to prove why those myths are false.

e.   UX Booth (http://www.uxbooth.com/), a leading publication for thorough UX topics, allowing readers to search content by sub-categories, such as Content Strategy and Information Architecture.

f.    UX Matters (http://www.uxmatters.com/), blogs here provide inspiration and insights into both professional who are working in all aspects of UX and newbies who are just stepping into the field.

g.   UX Movement (http://uxmovement.com/), a user experience blog which showcases how UI affects user behaviors. The concepts there are presented through visual examples.

h.   User Ability Stack Exchange (http://ux.stackexchange.com/), a question-and-answer website that is exclusively for UX design. Frank opinions from real-life experts can be discovered here.

4. UX Tools & Software

These sites feature topics regarding the newest software, UX tools, code snippets and many other items that are indispensable to one’s design arsenal. Also, those included resources are fundamental to stay updated on the greatest and latest design tools.

a.   Creative Bloq (http://www.creativebloq.com/), a widely-acknowledged website for UX information and article regarding the most current design tools. It’s possible to find several online magazines of general interest and worth scrolling.  

b.   Mockplus (http://goo.gl/OHRk8L), features useful software resources and information which include extensive tips on how to using their prototyping and wireframing platform Mockplus.

c.   Little Big Details (http://littlebigdetails.com/), a curated collection of design inspiration tips, updated on daily basis.

d.   Boxes and Arrows (http://boxesandarrows.com/), a provider of design principles, methods, processes as well as interfaces. The peer-written journal features an incredible range of posts related to software & hardware.

e.   UXPin (https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/), one of the web’s most popular blogs focusing on user experience from website perspective. There is plenty of resources for both hardware developers and designers.

5. UX Trends

These blogs are all about general movement, opinions and processes shared within the design community widely.

a.   Joshua Garity (http://www.joshuagarity.com/ ), a blog developed by a digital marketing consultant - Joshua Garity, offering design psychologies and strategies to boost conversion and revenue,

b.   52 Weeks of UX (http://52weeksofux.com/), a site containing timeless discussions around UX and UI, dozens of interesting tidbits can be found via digging through the archives on human behavior and design.

c.   Nilsen Norman Group (https://www.nngroup.com/), the comprehensive collection of groundbreaking research, UI evaluations and reporting done by Nielsen Norman Group.

d.   Usability Geek (http://usabilitygeek.com/), a go-to place for solid information from web’s foremost usability experts, with conversion related topics included meanwhile.

6. Book Reviews

Those websites give expert reviews on the most recent design publications, with an incredible range of design related resources yet to be found, including free UI/UX ebooks (http://goo.gl/kqngSD), digital guides as well as case studies.

a.   Luke W (http://www.lukew.com/), publications and reviews about product design, with bountiful materials for mobile and web design strategy by Luke Wroblewski.

b.   UX Mastery (http://uxmastery.com/resources/books/), a library of free UI/UX ebooks containing tools, degrees and conferences to a wide range of other online books.

c.   UX Mag (http://uxmag.com/), a one-stop resource for UX books and usability topics, providing a steady stream of design related materials.

d.   The IxD Library (http://theixdlibrary.com/), focusing on the best books, presentations as well as articles that are related to interaction designer. No general experience or usability information discussed here.

Wrap Up

These are just a few websites that I visit for my daily does of design inspiration. They could help us stay current on what’s happening in the design world, and stay relevant in the ever-changing industry. Hope you enjoyed this post and please comment below if I miss out your favorite one.

About Author
Berry Sarah
Enthusiast for developing prototyping tools, hoping to make friends with all like-minded guys around the world.
Email: bleachmizu@gmail.com

Top 13 UI/UX Design Posts for Reference

This article curated some of the most recommended design posts in 2016, such as the principles, books, and tools helpful on UI/UX design, methods and suggestions on how to make better design, as well as the new design trends.

1. The State of UX in 2017

We are looking forward to how UX will evolve in 2017. In the meantime, here's our take on looking at the past, understanding the present, and anticipating what the future holds for UX.

2. Why Design

In some ways, this knowledge is bittersweet. Nothing gold can stay. You make a thing that changes the world, and before long the world has changed to the thing. It no longer inspires the same kind of wonder. Given time, we will always demand more.

3. Design Better Forms

Whether it is a signup flow, a multi-view stepper, or a monotonous data entry interface, forms are one of the most important components of digital product design. This article focuses on the common dos and don'ts of form design. Keep in mind that these are general guideline and there are exceptions to every rule.

4. Design Doesn't Scale

Design Doesn't Scale is a statement that has bothered me for the last four-years. When I joined Spotify's design team in 2012, the level of inconsistency and fragmentation shocked me. Up-close, the treatment of type, color, imagery, layout, IA, and interactions just didn't seem to align anywhere. And when I started talking about it, I realized the whole team was frustrated too. We concluded that the fragmentation in the product was just reflecting the fragmentation in the team, that designers spread across so many different projects, timezone and competing timetables, just didn't stand a chance. And, after all, weren't these factors inherent in all modern tech companies anyway? It was then that I first heard myself say, “Design Doesn't Scale”.

5. The Difference Between UX and UI Design-A Layman's Guide (by Emil Lamprecht)

We've all overheard conversations, walking down hip streets of the world's tech capitals, discussions about the great 'UX' of a product, or the poor 'UI' of a website. Is it a secret language you will never be privy to? Are these people just using slang to look cool? Well, ok probably yes to the latter, but a determinate NO to the rest. Read on to learn what these terms mean, which jobs are better paid, and how to become a UX designer or UI designer. Scroll to the middle of the post to watch a video of me speaking about this article, and giving you some extra info on what being a UX or UI Designer really means.

6. Complexion Reduction: A New Trend In Mobile Design

Over the last several months, some of the leaders of innovative design have taken 'minimal design' to the next level. Facebook, Airbnb and Apple have followed a similar blueprint to simplify prominent products in a way that reflects this new trend of 'Complexion Reduction' in mobile design.

7. UX vs UI vs IA vs IxD : 4 Confusing Digital Design Terms Defined

Once upon a time, if you said the word “design”, the odds were overwhelmingly likely you were talking about graphic design. But nowadays, the digital world is becoming increasingly more complicated and a lot of new job positions appearing, which lead to confusion for people outside or new to the design industry. Here's a quick overview on the four different primary forms of design to help you understand what they mean.

8. Hamburger menu alternatives for mobile navigation

If you're working on digital products, you have already read dozens of articles describing how and why the hamburger navigation on mobile (and desktop!) hurts UX metrics due of its low discoverability and efficiency. (You can read some of best articles on the topic here, here, here, and here.)

9. How to apply a design thinking, HCD, UX or any creative process from scratch

This how-to article aims at providing designers, creative thinkers or even project managers with a tool to set up, frame, organise, structure, run or manage design challenges, and projects: The Double Diamond revamped.

10. Best Practices for Microinteractions 

Microinteractions are subtle moments centered around accomplishing a single task. Almost all applications around us are filled in with microinteractions. Here are just a few examples:

Confirming an item is added to cart

Use pull-to-refresh to update content

Interface animation that confirms an action (e.g. toggle button)

11. The Best UI/UX Design Books & Resources for Designers

Want to be an excellent designer? Looking for the best UI/UX books and resources? Nowhere to go or to gain the right and effective channel for becoming an outstanding UI/UX designer? Just follow me, I have compiled a list of high-profile UI/UX books, which are recommended by the major professional websites, and blogs.The topic is mainly covering UI design, UX design, and web design. Hope it is helpful and useful to you. Any resource you think it's worth to be included, please feel free to give a message below the comment area or simply drop me a line on LinkedIn.

12. 12 Design Tools & Websites for UI/UX Designers 

The continuous improvement of designing tools, have a positive impact on usability and user experience, that provides great convenience for designers, as well as the users. Therefore often a good web designer will try to be updated with frontier, and master the latest tools. Hundreds of design blogs and websites update design articles, share design skills, and recommend new tools today on the internet. That is the important source of information for designers.

13. Unintuitive Lessons on Being a Designer

I sometimes joke that everything I have ever learned about design, I learned from my first job. Nowadays, this first job has extended to nearly ten years, its soul consistent even as its shape unfurls in depths and colors I could never have imagined in the beginning.

Original Post at www.mockplus.com

About Author

Grace Jia

Prototyping tools, UI&UX news & information, article sharer, writer.

Email: grace@jongde.com 

Web: Mockplus