What is the main characteristic of a good professional? Yes, talent and creativity are essential for any specialist, but knowledge and experience top this list. The ability to learn and develop through the time is one of the coolest skills a person can have.
Today people don’t have to spend hours in a library to get the latest info about new trends and techniques in a particular field. Internet makes things easier and much more accessible. Multiple blogs (corporate and personal) share with users their experience and offer helpful advice on their area of expertise. Aside of such reputable web design blogs and IT blogs like Smashing Magazine, Mashable, Designmodo, that feature a separate UX-dedicated category, there are many blogs that pay exclusive attention to the user experience topics.
10 Best Blogs to Learn UX Design
This roundup features the top 10 most influential blogs that are perfect to learn UX design, usability techniques and tools. They’re sorted out in no particular order, but share the characteristics we consider any trustworthy resource should possess. All these blogs have high Alexa Traffic Ranks which are based on the frequency of website visits. The higher the Alexa rank is (1 is the best), the bigger amount of unique visitors view the website every day. We also paid attention to blogs with a widespread social media community and a great number of loyal followers in Twitter and Facebook. All these criteria in combination with a posting frequency (not less that one post a week) make these blogs the best options to follow and get high-quality info on the UX design.
Nielsen Norman Group
Alexa Rank: 11K
Social Media: Twitter – 35.2K followers
Posting Frequency: 2-3 articles per month
Types of Content: surveys, analytical articles.
A leading resource in the UX field. NN/g experts provide valuable and trustworthy surveys on user experience that can be helpful for both website owners and their clients. Any user can find results of these researches on the NN/g blog and get the latest info about UX trends. Many of their full surveys are available for purchase, but there are enough cool articles on UX that contain researches results and detailed analysis.
UX Booth
Alexa Rank: 38K
Social Media: Twitter – 57.1K followers
Posting Frequency: 4-5 articles per month
Types of Content: researches, analytical articles, UX tips.
This blog is focused on novice and intermediate UX and interaction designers, but anyone who’s interested in making web experience more advanced and convenient is welcomed here. The UX Booth blog shares articles on different web-related topics – from visual and universal design and information architecture topics to business and content strategy researches. UX Booth is open to new contributors and accepts high-quality posts from UX practitioners.
UX Magazine
Alexa Rank: 19K
Social Media: Twitter – 127K followers; Facebook – 93,520 likes
Posting Frequency: 3 – 4 posts per week
Types of Content: articles, roundups, event announcements.
UX Magazine is an open resource that explores all sides of experience design. This blog explores the latest trends and best practices of the UX offering its readers engaging articles and researches. Here you can find thought-out articles on UX strategies, user-centered design and accessibility as well as conferences, workshops, and meetups announcements.
UXPin Blog
Alexa Rank: 7K
Social Media: Twitter – 6,936 followers; Facebook – 25,561 likes
Posting Frequency: a few times per month
Types of Content: general UX articles, tips, freebies, studies.
One of the most famous wireframing and design companies’ blog offers the best info about UX, usability research and UI design. Here you will find some case studies about using UXPin’s tools for creating UI and getting the best experience from users. The company’s team creates cool eBooks on various UX topics, so you can find their announcements and links for download right on the blog.
Usabilla
Alexa Rank: 43K
Social Media: Twitter – 8,662 followers; Facebook – 2, 371 likes
Posting Frequency: 3-5 posts per month
Types of Content: articles, reviews, interviews, videos
Usabilla is a dutch company’s corporate blog that contains a whole batch of usability-related posts, “how-to” tips and researches. Usabilla also offers events announcements and case studies. On this blog you can also find engaging videos on UX design, including interviews with the experts in this field.
UX Matters
Alexa Rank: 39K
Social Media: Twitter – 43.7K followers
Posting Frequency: 5 posts every 2 weeks
Types of Content: surveys, interviews, practices and tips, analytical articles.
This awesome blog contains tons of helpful articles and surveys on UX-related topics. It offers info for advanced UX practitioners and beginners. UX Matters covers various topics – from actionable practices and advice for novice UX specialists, ideas discussions to deep exploration of strategies and various aspects of user experience.
Usability Geek
Alexa Rank: 64K
Social Media: Twitter – 14.7K followers; Facebook – 4,278 likes
Posting Frequency: 2 – 5 posts per week
Types of Content: articles, tips, reviews, useful resources and deals roundups
Usability Geek is a blog of Justin Mifsud, a web usability/UX consultant, a Smashing Magazine member and a real usability geek. It started as a personal project and then evolved in an awesome resource of UX and accessibility tips, surveys, articles and interviews. Today blog offers various content on UX, IA (information architecture), human-computer interactions and even Ecommerce and business.
Luke W Blog
Alexa Rank: 45K
Social Media: Twitter – 116K followers
Posting Frequency: from 4 posts per month
Types of Content: analytical articles, reviews, video tutorials.
Cool minimalist blog from one of the most experienced UX practitioners, designer and developer. Luke Wroblewski worked for Yahoo, eBay and NCSA and created a few successful projects acquired by Google and Twitter. His blog is a real treasure of cool tips and tutorials, conference reviews and notes as well as general posts on UX issues. Conference notes appear on his blog monthly. And you can always find there useful “how-to” videos on usability design.
MeasuringU
Alexa Rank: 132K
Social Media: Twitter – 18.8K followers
Posting Frequency: every Tuesday
Types of Content: analytical articles, tips.
It’s a blog of Jeff Sauro, founder of Measuring U Company that provides UX consulting and statistics for such companies as PayPal, Sage and McAfee. In his blog Jeff offers thought-out research and analytical articles on usability testing and UX issues.
User Testing Blog
Alexa Rank: 7K
Social Media: Twitter – 23K followers; Facebook – 49,694 likes
Posting Frequency: 3-4 posts per week
Types of Content: researches, general UX articles and tips, webinars.
This blog offers the best and latest news, researches and studies on UX topics. The articles are also closely connected with accessibility of eCommerce websites and apps as well as with the best marketing practices. Webinars and eBooks are two of the most interesting categories on user Testing blog.
Of course, the above mentioned blogs are not the only resources where you can learn UX, usability testing and design. If you have your favorite blogs and websites on UX topics, feel free to add your suggestions in comments.