Mental Models and User Experience Design

What are Mental Models? — updated 2026

Harness the power of understanding and predicting user behavior with mental models. Simplify systems and enhance decision-making in your designs.

Conceptual Models: The Hidden Structure Behind Your Next Great Interface

Discover the hidden structure behind every great UI. Master how to use conceptual models to design systems that users instantly understand and grow to trust.

Accommodating Both Expert Users and Novice Users in One Interface by Utilizing Multi-layer Interface in Complex Function Products

Rapid development of electronic technology promotes the complex function of a product. Users have to adapt themselves to interface with diverse mental model setting. To improve usability, both resolutions of consistent interface and wizard interface were frequently applied to help novice. However, both of them require as much time for those who are familiar with the system, i.e. expert users. Shneiderman (2000) remarked that Universal Usability requires that software systems accommodate a diverse set of users. Multi-Layer interface might be a solution for complex user interface and satisfy both novice and expert users. The idea of multi-layer interface has been applied to hardware and software interface design. Cases were discussed in which the improved Multi-Layer Interface was analyzed and conclusions made.

How AI Tools Differ from Human Tools

Why the mental models we've built for human interfaces don't work for AI, & how Anthropic's latest guidelines are reshaping tool design for better performance & efficiency.

Our interfaces have lost their senses

We programmed them by punching cards, plugging in wires, and flipping switches. Programmers walked among banks of switches and cables, physically choreographing their logic. Being on a computer used to be a full-body experience.

Webdesign as architecture

An attempt at modelling digital design as a form of psychological architecture, taking the form of a single HTML document.

Design Frictions for Mindful Interactions: The Case for Microboundaries

Design frictions, a term found in popular media articles about user experience design, refer to points of difficulty occurring during interaction with technology. Such articles often argue that these frictions should be removed from interaction flows in order to reduce the risk of user frustration and disengagement. In this paper we argue that, in many scenarios, designing friction into interactions through the introduction of microboundaries, can, in fact, have positive effects. Design frictions can disrupt "mindless" automatic interactions, prompting moments of reflection and more "mindful" interaction. The potential advantages of intentionally introduced frictions are numerous: from reducing the likelihood of errors in data-entry tasks, to supporting health-behaviour change.

Cognitive Load | Laws of UX

The amount of mental resources needed to understand and interact with an interface.

Structural Analogies of User Interfaces with Belidor

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.

When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

20 user-research methods: where they fit in the design process, whether they are attitudinal or behavioral, qualitative or quantitative, and their context of use.

Social Modeling as Architecture, Not Deficit:

Why Neurotypical Expectations Are an Inappropriate Ask

Why Cognition bought Poke: AI personality is becoming a competitive advantage | TechCrunch

The acquisition brings Poke’s conversational style and interaction model to Cognition’s coding agent Devin, reflecting a growing belief that how AI assistants interact with users is as important as the models powering them.

Screen As Room: An Architectural Perspective on User Interfaces — Christoph Locher · Interaction Designer

With the use of video games as social spaces being observed for several years and the increased focus put on virtual social spaces due to the scarceness of physical social spaces in the last months, the concept of “spatial interfaces” is once again at the center of discussions. I want to add an alternative perspective to this, looking at the properties of physical spaces as metaphors, rather than models, for interfaces and exploring seven of them in more detail.

Screen As Room: An Architectural Perspective on User Interfaces — Christoph Locher · Interaction Designer

With the use of video games as social spaces being observed for several years and the increased focus put on virtual social spaces due to the scarceness of physical social spaces in the last months, the concept of “spatial interfaces” is once again at the center of discussions. I want to add an alternative perspective to this, looking at the properties of physical spaces as metaphors, rather than models, for interfaces and exploring seven of them in more detail.