Interactivity

Why is real-world ASR still ~85% when lab models claim >95%?

Curious to hear what approaches people are taking, what the bottlenecks are, and whether anyone here is pushing toward the goal of "AI that understands you, the first time."I've been diving into the gap between benchmark ASR performance and real-world speech. Models like Whisper and Deepgram show impressive >95% accuracy in ideal conditions. But in the wild — accents, noisy environments, emotional speech, code-switching, overlapping speakers — accuracy often drops sharply, ofte

How design leaders use OKRs to win user research budget

How to get your team to stop seeing user research as an expenseContinue reading on UX Collective »

Designing decisions: Behavioral psychology that moves users

Visual foundations are an art that must be mastered, but stable cognitive patterns, the ones widely used in design, marketing, and behavioral science, are a law that we need to follow.Image was generated by Nano Banana (Google Gemini)For us as designers, this means diving deeper into psychology and user cognition. For our users, applying these principles and laws translates into simpler, more intuitive interactions and a smoother overall experience.What may seem like ordinary observations or bes

Biophilic design is the wellness revolution happening all around us

Inside the movement rethinking the design of our cities, spaces and systems through the wonder of natureThe aerial view back towards Victoria Station (Credit: Ricardo Frantz, via Unsplash)As I step off the train at London’s Victoria Station and make my way through the concourse, I can’t help but feel part of something.Maybe I’ve been exclusively working from home for too long. Maybe it’s the separation from the human energy of urban centres. Or maybe it’s simply excitement for where I’m heading 

Unfit for uncertainty: Rethinking decision-making for missions

How outdated decision logics are undermining Labour’s ambitions for a mission-driven government.Image credit: Virpi OinonenGiven Labour won the last general election on the promise of national renewal and a mission-driven state with a “relentless focus on long-term ends” after years of crisis management — frustration is understandable. After the Budget this week, it feels as if political ambition has met the practical reality of sustaining long-term political direction inside institutions design

We are entering the era of thought-shaped software

We are in a transitional period: from the era of software shaped like household objects to the era of software shaped like thought.We have a big choice to make: we’re about to jump into a new era of technology — meaning different values, expectations and powers — and we need to choose what it looks like.*1 The transition itself is unavoidable, but the details are up to us. Today we must chose between a. a future where our software environment has a thought-shaped interface on top of all the old

Masonry: Things You Won’t Need A Library For Anymore

About 15 years ago, I was working at a company where we built apps for travel agents, airport workers, and airline companies. We also built our own in-house framework for UI components and single-page app capabilities.We had components for everything: fields, buttons, tabs, ranges, datatables, menus, datepickers, selects, and multiselects. We even had a div component. Our div component was great by the way, it allowed us to do rounded corners on all browsers, which, believe it or not, wasn't an

Show HN: Free Z-Image – A Fast, High-Quality AI Image Generator for Creators

I built Z-Image, a free, fast, and creator-focused AI image generator designed for artists, game developers, designers, and anyone who needs high-quality visuals without the usual friction or cost.Try it here (free): https://aiocmaker.com/z-imageWhy I built itMost AI image tools fall into two categories:Great quality but expensive, slow, or require subscriptions.Free tools but low quality, restrictive, or overloaded.As a builder working in the game/anime space, I needed a gen

Facebook has made it impossible to delete Pages – dark patterns everywhere

I'm honestly shocked at how bad the current Facebook interface has become. I’m trying to delete a Page I own, and the platform basically makes it impossible. The options have moved or disappeared, the Page Settings menu leads to the wrong profile, Business Suite doesn’t show the Page, and the “Access and Control” section doesn’t list it at all.Facebook keeps bouncing me between: – personal profile settings – business portfolio settings – Meta Business Suite – classic Page UINone of them giv

A color suggestion study in accessible perceptual uniformity

Too close for comfort with Grok.Continue reading on UX Collective »

The Evolution of Web Development: From Static Pages to AI-Driven Experiences

From static pages to personalized, AI-driven experiences, web development isn’t just evolving — it’s transforming into a human-AI collaboration. Ready or not, the web is about to get a lot smarter.

Design critiques, mandated screen addiction, locksmith stickers, accessibility lessons

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.“A critique is not a governance mechanism, nor is it a group brainstorming session. It’s a necessary collision. It’s the intentional application of adversarial thought to something that isn’t finished yet. Its sole purpose is to pressure-test the underlying assumptions. Ultimately, critiques are about injecting constructive doubt into a designer’s premature certainty before they build too much or go too far.”Critique: on elevating craf

The UX behind screen time guilt

How digital wellness tools offload responsibility on users instead of fixing the core problemsillustration by authorDigital wellness is a strange concept when you think about it. Our phones track how much we use them, present this data as evidence of failure, and then leave us alone with our guilt never really addressing why we reached for them in the first place or offering constructive suggestions for improvement.A brief history of digital wellness toolsDigital wellness tools emerged around 20

How to use Sensation and Perception when we design

Although the terms sensation and perception are often used interchangeably, they have quite specific meanings. Sensations are the raw data from our senses, while perception is how the brain interprets them. If we understand how perception works, and how it can sometimes fool us, we can make better design decisions.This sounds pretty straightforward but often isn’t because of complicating factors in the real world, like interactions between our various sensory systems, haptic interfaces, and our

Pixels of the Week – November 30, 2025

👉🏻 Curated weekly UX Research, Design & Tech resources: anxiety toolkit, design beyond the echo chamber, accessibility for ecommerce, holes in the web and AI bias, alt text character limit myth, 3 bodys problem simulator, a fun ninja cat portfolio, reddit images explorer, neumorphism-style color palette generator, untranslatable words, 3 tools to caption videos, closing open objects and ARIA states.

A Sparkle Of December Magic (2025 Wallpapers Edition)

As the year winds down, many of us are busy wrapping up projects, meeting deadlines, or getting ready for the holiday season. Why not take a moment amid the end-of-year hustle to set the mood for December with some wintery desktop wallpapers? They might just bring a sparkle of inspiration to your workspace in these busy weeks.To provide you with unique and inspiring wallpaper designs each month anew, we started our monthly wallpapers series more than 14 years ago. It’s the perfect opportunity bo

Data Analysis: Techniques, Tools, and Processes

Data analysis is one of those terms that “is what it sounds like,” although there’s more to it than may meet the eye. In any case, it’s a valuable skill for making better decisions—a skill that you can bring to bear on both your professional and personal life, from personal budgeting to analyzing customer experiences. Data analysis is more than a stepping stone to your career advancement, and no matter if you’re looking to upskill at work or kickstart a career in data analytics, the fascinating

What is a Sitemap in UX Design?

A UX sitemap is a visual tool that’s a handy aid for you as a user experience (UX) designer. It doesn’t just organize a website's content and structure—in how it displays how web pages connect and relate—but identifies gaps and prioritizes content, too. From that, it’s a great aid to nurture a good, solid, cohesive design, so users navigate websites easily with a clear, logical flow. Read on and we’ll explore how to create sitemaps, tools, and best practices—a prime chance to get your content se

The product designer’s Lens

Four tools that product designers use that have nothing to do with FigmaContinue reading on UX Collective »

The hidden design problem behind every Black Friday deal

How retailers evolved from preventing stampedes to fighting bots, and why fairness at scale is harder than it looksContinue reading on UX Collective »