What Jakob Nielsen thinks about design
Usability pioneer; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group and founder of UX Tigers; author of the ten usability heuristics and of Jakob's Law.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Jakob Nielsen did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
18 dated positions, 2023 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Jakob Nielsen has said — not written or endorsed by them.
Our readingThe frame here is that AI is the first new interface paradigm in sixty years, and the rest follow from it: interfaces generated for each user, a flattened profession, design moving to policy. Underneath sit two blunter claims: the average user is a statistical artifact, and accessibility has failed.
Their wordsThe third UI paradigm, represented by current generative AI, is intent-based outcome specification. The user tells the computer the desired result but does not specify how this outcome should be accomplished, such as the steps to be executed. Compared to traditional command-based interaction design, this completely reverses the locus of control.
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Their wordsThe winning system of the next decade will not be the one with the most aesthetically pleasing buttons, nor will it be the one with the fewest screens. It will be the system that best understands the human’s “job to be done,” autonomously selects the right tools on their behalf, clearly shows the user what is about to happen, and gracefully recovers when the user’s context is incomplete or ambiguous.
↗Intent by Discovery: Designing the AI User Experiencejakobnielsenphd.substack.com
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Their wordsThe reason companies pay for design is to get customers to buy more and users to look at more advertisements.
↗Intent by Discovery: Designing the AI User Experiencejakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsIn the world of high-stakes digital strategy, the “average user” is a dangerous statistical artifact.
- 10 months earlier
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Their wordsSo no, UX doesn’t die; it metamorphoses. We’ll still craft humane experiences, but increasingly through policies, protocols, and orchestrations rather than panels and palettes.
- 7 weeks earlier
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Their wordsUX design has been steadily improving over the last 50 years and is now reasonably good. The low-hanging fruit of terrible usability has long since been picked.
↗Declining ROI From UX Design Workjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsThe new trend toward vibe coding and vibe design may be upending the user-centered design paradigm that has remained based on the same ideology since the first UX design projects at Bell Labs, starting in 1947.
↗Does User-Driven Design Still Need User-Centered Design?jakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 6 days earlier
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Their wordsVibe coding can execute instructions, but deciding what the software should do and why is not automated. Product managers and designers must still do user research, market analysis, and creative brainstorming. In that sense, vibe coding changes the implementation phase more than the planning phase of the product lifecycle.
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Their wordsIn a vibe coding future, companies will hopefully invest more in understanding user needs, refining the interface, and polishing details that delight users, because those are harder for AI to get right without guidance.
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Their wordsEssentially, vibe coding makes it trivial to create front-end code, so designers can skip static mockups and go straight to building a UI that works.
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsOnce, humans navigated the web manually. In the future, AI agents will act on our behalf, browsing, clicking, and deciding. This shift marks the end of traditional UI design and accessibility, ushering in a future where agents are the primary users of digital services.
↗Hello AI Agents: Goodbye UI Design, RIP Accessibilityjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsWhen a team of 10 AI-enabled super-designers can do the work that used to require a UX department of 100, the need for higher management levels shrivels. I call this the “pancaking” of the design profession.
↗Design Leaders Should Go “Founder Mode”jakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsRight now, they can make simple social media posts for small companies and individual influencers. Two years from now, they can make simple campaigns and tradeshow collateral for mid-sized businesses. And in 10 years, I bet that even the richest brand will rely heavily on these tools.
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsAccessibility has failed as a way to make computers usable for disabled users. My metrics for usable design are the same whether the user is disabled or not: whether it’s easy to learn the system, whether productivity is high when performing tasks, and whether the design is pleasant — even enjoyable — to use.
↗Accessibility Has Failed: Try Generative UI = Individualized UXjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
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Their wordsI foresee a much more radical approach to generative UI to emerge shortly — maybe in 5 years or so. In this second-generation generative UI, the user interface is generated afresh every time the user accesses the app. Most important, this means that different users will get drastically different designs.
↗Accessibility Has Failed: Try Generative UI = Individualized UXjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 8 months earlier
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Their wordsGUIs have superior usability because they show people what can be done rather than requiring them to articulate what they want.
↗The Articulation Barrier: Prompt-Driven AI UX Hurts Usabilityjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsI doubt that the current set of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, Bard, etc., are representative of the UIs we’ll be using in a few years because they have deep-rooted usability problems.
↗AI Is First New UI Paradigm in 60 Yearsjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
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Their wordsThe third UI paradigm, represented by current generative AI, is intent-based outcome specification. The user tells the computer the desired result but does not specify how this outcome should be accomplished, such as the steps to be executed. Compared to traditional command-based interaction design, this completely reverses the locus of control.
↗AI Is First New UI Paradigm in 60 Yearsjakobnielsenphd.substack.com
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Their wordsThus, the 2nd UI paradigm will survive, albeit in a less dominant role. Future AI systems will likely have a hybrid user interface that combines elements of both intent-based and command-based interfaces while still retaining many GUI elements.
↗AI Is First New UI Paradigm in 60 Yearsjakobnielsenphd.substack.com