Besides practice, one of the best ways to improve your UX knowledge and abilities is by learning from talented minds. Medium is a great place to find some of those minds – the UX and product design categories on the site are overflowing with useful and interesting articles by smart people.
Below we’ve listed, in no particular order, 10 of our favorite UX and product writers on Medium. These 10 have been chosen especially for the thoughtfulness and originality of their work, and represent many different facets of UX.
Here they are – we hope you’ll find lots to learn from the people on this list!
1. Julie Zhuo
Twitter: @joulee
Julie Zhuo is VP of product design at Facebook, as well as a master of the short-form thinkpiece. Her Medium catalog mainly consists of concise 3- to 5-minute reads answering questions sent in by readers, and typically addresses topics about the product cycle, working on a product team, and daily life as a designer.
One of our favorite articles by Zhuo is a moving, personal ode to design, simply titled, “Why design.”
Our picks:
2. Jared Spool
Twitter: @jmspool
The founder of UX research/training/consulting firm UIE, Jared Spool is a prominent voice in UX, and his Medium is full of thoughtful and incisive pieces about user experience design, strategies, and principles.
His article “Beyond the UX tipping point” breaks down what it looks like when a company has truly embraced UX as an integral part of their character and vision, using as an example one of the legends of user experience: Disney.
Our picks:
Shh! Don’t tell them there’s no magic in design thinking
3. John Saito
Twitter: @saitojohn
It’s no surprise that John Saito is a joy to read, given his role as a UX writer at Dropbox. Saito writes all about the words that are used in design, and the intricacies of picking the right ones, as well as broader design-related topics.
“Making up metaphors,” about the way metaphors are used to add meaning in design, is a fantastic piece that sits at the intersection of UX writing, iconography, and product design.
Our picks:
Is this my interface or yours?
4. Linnea Strid
Twitter: @babolili
UX designer Linnea Strid has some big ideas about design, and how to be better at it – and fortunately, she has a Medium, too.
From design principles and design systems to designing for different devices and designing for different users (like “assholes” who will abuse your platform), Strid’s writing is full of designer wisdom.
Our picks:
Product design & the asshole contingency
The loudest voice isn’t the most valuable
5. Irene Au
Twitter: @ireneau
Irene Au’s large body of work on Medium is a reflection of her years of experience at the top of the game. The former head of design at Google and Yahoo frequently draws on her yoga background to illustrate or elucidate larger points about design as a concept and as a practice.
On her Medium, Au writes for UXers and upper management alike, sharing insights on how each can relate to and maximize their relationship with the other.
Our picks:
Tales from the trenches: Lessons learned from Netscape, Yahoo!, and Google
6. Fabricio Texeira
Twitter: @fabriciot
Fabricio Texeira is the design director for digital agency Work & Co, and also runs the “UX Collective” community on Medium. He’s a prolific writer, and his posts frequently offer tips and resources for UX designers, reflections on the work of the designer, and ideas about new tech and what it means for UX.
Texeira also posts weekly roundups of the best UX stories and links, which are a great way to keep abreast of what people are talking about in the industry.
Our picks:
Hey, can you ‘do the UX’ for us?
You don’t need to know everything about UX
7. Christina Wodtke
Twitter: @cwodtke
Christine Wodtke is another prolific writer, and a product person’s product person. Her own Medium bio describes her focus as “designing business, and the business of design,” which is a better description than anything we could say here.
Lots of her articles address product management topics, with a smattering of UX/design thoughts, and observations about design culture in the context of internet culture.
Our picks:
A unified theory for designing just about anything
9 big ideas from game design you should know
8. Jonathan White
Twitter: @jonathanzwhite
Jonathan White, developer and designer, writes about both fields – as well as their points of intersection. In addition to how-to articles, White takes the things he learns from his work, his hobbies, and his side projects and turns them into insightful gems of advice for readers.
Our picks:
Craftsmanship, design, and code
Developing your eye for design
9. Juan Ramirez
Twitter: @whoisjuan
Juan Ramirez, a UX designer at Amazon, has a knack for finding the perfect example and the just-right analogy. This talent is used to great effect in his “Designed” series, which explores some ideals of user experience design and how they come into conflict with technical constraints and business realities.
Our picks:
Designed degradations: UX patterns for hostile environments
Designed inconveniences: UX patterns that can’t be taught
10. Guy Ligertwood
Twitter: @guyligertwood
Guy Ligertwood became a UX designer at age 40, and like all of us, he’s still learning. His writing is all about sharing what he’s learned from switching careers with others who are just getting started in UX.
Not only does Ligertwood jot down his own thoughts on life as a designer, but he regularly brings together other UXers from around the world to contribute their perspectives and experiences.
Our picks:
5 things that make a great UX designer
13 uncomfortable habits that will make you a better UX designer
There are many more great content creators out there who we couldn’t fit into this post, but hopefully you’ve found some new writers and thinkers to follow from this list! Let us know your own favorite UX and product writers in the comments.
