Building the Product

What are the core UX principles every founder should know?

A starting point

Make it obvious, not clever: match the user's mental model, show system status, prevent errors, and keep things consistent, Nielsen's 10 heuristics cover the essentials. Users satisfice; they scan and click the first reasonable thing, they don't read. Your job is to reduce the thinking a user has to do to zero.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked

Read

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it The single most-cited usability framework in the field, from the definitive UX research authority. A checklist you can hold your product up against this afternoon.

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

From Nielsen Norman Group by Jakob Nielsen ~15 min read

  • Visibility of system status, always tell users what's happening.
  • Match the real world, use the user's language and mental models.
  • Prevent errors, and make consistency and standards the default.
Open nngroup.com →
📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

Why we picked it The foundational text on human-centered design that every product person should read once. It rewires how you see every product, including your own.

The Design of Everyday Things

From jnd.org / Basic Books by Don Norman ~350 pages

  • Make affordances and signifiers obvious, users shouldn't guess.
  • Give clear, immediate feedback for every action.
  • Design out errors rather than blaming users ('human error' is usually design error).
Open jnd.org →
📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

Why we picked it The most accessible, practical intro to usability ever written, you can read it in a weekend and immediately fix your product. The definition of 'make it obvious, not clever.'

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited

From sensible.com by Steve Krug ~200 pages

  • Self-evident design is the goal, kill anything that adds thinking.
  • Users satisfice: they scan and click the first reasonable option.
  • Cheap, frequent usability testing beats large formal studies.
Open sensible.com →

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