Ideation Articles & Videos

  • Quantity Yields Quality in UX: Iterative vs. Parallel vs. Competitive Design

    No design is perfect on the first try. Combining iteration, parallel design, and competitive testing helps teams move quickly, explore broadly, and make confident, evidence-based design decisions.

  • Using AI for UX Work: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about the best ways to use artificial intelligence for UX work.

  • Problematic Workshop Participants: A Pattern for Working with Them

    Start subtle with problematic workshop participants, but get progressively more direct if things aren’t getting resolved.

  • AI as a Creative Teammate

    AI acts as a creative teammate in group settings as it does for solo work. Thoughtful facilitation ensures teams leverage AI effectively in workshops and critiques.

  • Direct Phrases for Managing Problematic Workshop Participants

    Adapt these phrases to address domination, tangents, negativity, and distractions while facilitating workshops.

  • 3 Design Processes for High Usability: Iterative Design, Parallel Design, and Competitive Testing

    3 methods for increasing UX quality by exploring and testing diverse design ideas work even better when you use them together.

  • NN/g’s Free UX Templates and Guides

    Use this curated set of free NN/g templates and guides for inspiration and to accelerate your product development activities and UX career.

  • The Diverge-and-Converge Technique for UX Workshops

    By first working independently on a problem and then converging to share insights, teams can leverage the benefits of both work styles, leading to rapid data analysis, diverse ideas, and high-quality designs.

  • Affinity Diagramming for Collaboratively Sorting UX Findings and Design Ideas

    Use affinity diagramming to cluster and organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops.

  • AI as a UX Assistant

    Generative-AI bots support UX professionals by acting as content editors, research assistants, ideation partners, and design assistants.

  • Ideation is a Mindset

    If you understand how to ideate well, you can always find ways to incorporate this process into your work.

  • CSD Matrix: Framework and Template for Shared Understanding

    A CSD matrix outlines and simplifies project context and understanding by categorizing information into three distinct types: certainties, suppositions, and doubts.

  • Mood Boards in UX: How and Why to Use Them

    Create mood boards to collect visual inspiration, communicate brand identity, and decide on the product's visual direction.

  • Groupthink in UX Work

    Groupthink is the human tendency to follow the opinion of the majority. This instinct can save time but can also lead us on the wrong path.

  • Day-0 Calls: Avoid UX-Workshop Disasters by Aligning on the Basics in Advance

    A lack of agreement on goals and other basics can derail an entire workshop. Hold a call prior to the workshop to establish these basics in advance.

  • How to Build a Participant List for UX Workshops

    A successful UX workshop includes a relatively small number of diverse participants and prioritizes users’ needs.

  • User Research for Nonexistent Products

    If your product doesn't exist yet, and you don't even have a prototype, you can (and should) still base design decisions on user research. Observational research methods can gather information about user needs and provide input to new-product ideation.

  • How to Draw a Wireframe (Even if You Can’t Draw)

    Even people with limited drawing abilities can learn to sketch a wireframe if they learn a few common conventions used to represent various design elements.

  • User Feedback vs. Innovation

    Relying too much on feedback from customers risks hampering innovation, so what is the best balance for UX design?

  • Scenario Mapping: Design Ideation Using Personas

    Persona-based scenarios can be leveraged to influence design through guided brainstorming workshops called scenario-mapping workshops.