Introduction to Volume 21, Issue 3

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Our May 2026 essay is “The Explosion of AI-Powered Research Tools Is Reshaping UX Practice,” by Jeff Sokolov. In the essay, Dr. Sokolov discusses how AI tools shift UX researchers from being hands-on investigators to workflow orchestrators, create a tension between increased speed and scale and risk fragmented insights across disconnected tools, and play a growing role in surfacing patterns and themes early in synthesis.

This issue also includes two research papers.

The first paper is “Developing User-Centered Mindsets: A Structured Methodology,” by Martin Wilson, Sharon McDonald, and Alastair Irons. The authors present a structured six-step methodology for creating and validating mindsets from qualitative data, developed in the context of cybersecurity for micro and small businesses.

The second paper is “Deceptive Patterns: UX and Web Designers’ Perspectives,” by Johanna Silvennoinen, Laura Havinen, Rebekah Rousi, Markus Ahola, and Jari Varsaluoma. They conducted mixed methods research on how variation in aesthetics and beauty affects digital experiences, finding strong positive effects. They report the results of a survey of 34 design professionals on conceptualizations of, familiarity with, and reasons to implement—or not to implement—deceptive design patterns.

Published in: in Volume 21, Issue 3,

The Authors

  • James R. (Jim) Lewis, Ph.D

    Dr. Lewis is a Distinguished User Experience Researcher at MeasuringU. He has published influential papers on the assessment of perceived usability and sample size estimation for usability studies and has product experience in the design and evaluation of user interfaces (graphical, spoken, mobile), including having been the lead interaction designer for the product widely regarded as the first smart phone, the Simon. He is on over 90 US patents and has over 100 publications. His five books include Practical Speech User Interface Design and, with Jeff Sauro, Quantifying the User Experience and Surveying the User Experience. In 2021, he was inducted into the Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Florida.

  • Photo of Bill AbertBill Albert, PhD

    Dr. Albert is Founder and Principal of Greenlight Idea Lab, the only global agency exclusively focused on concept and product validation. Prior to Greenlight Idea Lab, Bill was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Customer Experience at Mach49, a growth incubator for global businesses, and Executive Director of the User Experience Center and Adjunct Professor in Human Factors in Information Design at Bentley University. He has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and has presented his work in user experience at more than 50 national and international conferences. He co-wrote (with Tom Tullis) the first book on UX metrics, Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting UX Metrics (third edition published in 2022), spawning the quantitative movement in UX. He received his PhD from Boston University. He completed a post-doc at Nissan Cambridge Basic Research with a focus on cognitive demands in the use of navigation systems.