User observation | UX links

Philipp Brunner
December 23, 2025

Wishing you happy holidays & the very best for 2026!
Thanks for reading!

Stop asking users what they want — and start watching what they do.

People's opinions about themselves and the things they use rarely match real behaviour.

renderghost.leaflet.pub/3m75kss5jfs2z

Can you make toast messages accessible?

Toast notifications are fundamentally inaccessible and should be abandoned rather than improved. Here's why.

adamsilver.io/blog/can-you-make-toast-messages-accessible

The most undervalued skill in product: knowing when not to optimize

The most strategic product decisions don’t always optimize for revenue. They optimize for the conditions that make revenue possible; trust…

medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-most-undervalued-skill-in-product-knowing-when-not-to-optimize-9a3195b3bc28

Ideas Aren’t Getting Harder to Find—Asterisk

For half a decade we’ve been worrying that ideas are getting harder to find. In fact, they might just be harder to sell.

asteriskmag.com/issues/12-books/ideas-arent-getting-harder-to-find