Universal Principles of UX

We log more screen time than we do sleeping, and tweeting or checking emails is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol.

01

The user comes first.

When I first started working as a UX designer, I remember feeling a bit icky about the term “user.” For most people it probably holds more negative connotations than positive ones. Drug users, people who use other people. By itself, the word user only implies that someone is using something. And for a field that claims to be the design advocate for real-life human beings, calling those human beings “users” sounds vague and dehumanizing.

Unfortunately there isn’t a better alternative. “Individuals” and “people” are too broad and generic, “entities” feels like legalese and “actors” ...