However, as anyone who’s ever sat through an endless—and unproductive—brainstorming session knows, brainstorms can be a huge waste of time. That’s because spending days with a group of unprepared people will get you nowhere. Sure, we’ll have a wall full of sticky notes because “every idea is a good idea,” but we’re not going to have any real soluti

In our studio, to get to an MVP, we have what is basically a glorified spreadsheet that describes and imagines all the potential features in writing before we decide to design or build any of them. We solicit input from the business stakeholders and add the features that directly relate to a business objective. Then we add the features that map to

Well-annotated wireframes will answer every potential question to any audience, anywhere, at any time without the need to involve the UX designer. A developer on the other side of the world. A client in a different time zone. It also helps ensure all functionality is accounted for and allows us to refer back to our thinking weeks or months later. I

Keep users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time. Follow real-world conventions, make information appear in a natural and logical order, and use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user. Provide a clear exit to leave unwanted actions. Follow platform and industry conventions so user

So here’s how they differ. When mapping out the user journey, we are considering all of the product’s touchpoints. (If we keep with the car service analogy, that would include thinking about using a car service app, actually ordering a car, being in the car, being dropped off, and even interacting with customer service (see Principle 47). A user fl

Basic control and flexibility that allows the user to easily go back, cancel, close, or undo is a given and should be supported in any interface. But allowing users to completely customize their experience should be reserved only for professionals or not given at all. The happy intermediary, where everyday users have enough flexibility that they’re

There is not a single scenario in which it’s worth dealing with a bad client. Let me say that again. There is not a single scenario in which it’s worth dealing with a bad client. You’re better off eating ramen noodles for a month than dealing with a client who demands you start designing before you understand the problem, wants you to work out of o

High usability is very important when it comes to websites or interfaces where users are trying to complete a task. But if we want to encourage people to play or want to be experimental, making something that violates all usability rules and is deliberately anti user friendly can actually increase engagement (see Principle 29).

Describing the functionality in words also helps verify all logic and thinking. It’s very easy to accidentally overlook things like error states, edge cases, inactive states, hidden content, tool tips, logged-in states, or animations if they are not written down. Without annotations, it’s very difficult to reference decisions and rationale on proje