There are so many UX experts out there it can be tricky to tell who’s the real deal and who’s just a self-proclaimed “expert” trying to sell you something.
So, we’ve put this list together to showcase some of the most renowned UX design experts from across the industry: product design, UX design, UX research, and UX writing/content design.
We’ve spotlighted a wide range of UX design experts with different backgrounds and levels of experience. But they all share two things in common—they have a wealth of UX expertise and are generous about sharing it with the wider design community.
Our list of UX experts isn’t in a particular order, and they share their knowledge across a mixture of platforms, including LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Medium, Instagram, YouTube, SubStack, and their personal websites. We’ve included links to the relevant platforms.
Let’s get started!
Top 15 UX experts and influencers
1. Erika Hall
A legend of the UX design world, Erika Hall is the author of Just Enough Research and Conversational Design, and co-founder of Mule Design, one of the most prestigious studios in the world. She helps clients ask tough questions and collaborate to find the answers.
As a writer and speaker, she focuses on subject areas that challenge conventional design wisdom and prompt designers to examine the consequences of their work in new ways. If that piques your interest, follow her on LinkedIn, medium, and X, formerly Twitter.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, user research, design leadership
Website: https://www.muledesign.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikahall
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/mulegirl
Medium: https://medium.com/@mulegirl
2. Sarah Winters
Sarah Winters is the founder of Content Design London, the person who coined the phrase “content design”, and the author of Content Design. So you could say she’s a huge influence in the UX space and world of content design. While Head of Content Design at the UK’s Government Digital Service, she oversaw the overhaul of over 3,000 local government websites into www.gov.uk.
Today, it’s held up as a shining example of a government website with exceptional UX design, content design, and accessibility and has influenced many other government websites globally.
Area(s) of expertise: Content design, UX writing, accessibility, design leadership
Website: contentdesign.london
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahrichardscontentstrategist
3. David Hamill
David Hamill is a UX researcher with over 20 years of experience who offers “on-demand help for companies seeking to improve their UX maturity and product direction”.
He regularly shares insights from both his research and his experience as a practitioner in a wide range of organizations. If you’re interested in learning about user research and the realities of the industry, he’s definitely worth following or connecting with.
Area(s) of expertise: User research, product development, design leadership
Website: https://www.upux.biz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhamill
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/dav_hamill
4. Jesse James Garrett
As the author of The Element of User Experience and a renowned executive design leadership coach, Jesse James Garrett is a major player in the design world.
Prior to creating his design and UX consultancy, Adaptive Path — which was acquired by Capital One, where he became Senior Director of Digital Design, in 2014 — Garrett worked as an information architect.
His semi-regular LinkedIn posts touch on a wide range of design-related subjects and are definitely worth reading.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership
Website: https://jessejamesgarrett.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessejamesgarrett/
Medium: https://medium.com/@jjg
5. Aladrian Goods
We’re so proud to say Aladrian Goods is a CareerFoundry graduate and former tutor, but even better than that she’s gone on to become a true leader in the design community.
She’s risen through the ranks at Intuit to become a Design Manager in Content and a major influence in the industry.
Area of expertise: Content design, product design, UX design, design leadership
Website: http://www.aladriangoods.design/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aladriangoods
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/drogoods
6. Tom Scott
Tom differs from the others on this list as he’s not actually a design practitioner, so he probably can’t be considered one of the true “UX experts”. Instead, he’s the founder of a design recruitment agency called Verified, through which he aims to place “the top 1% of design leaders”.
But he is worth following on LinkedIn for his regular posts that look at the UX industry from a bird’s eye view, often shaped by his conversations with C-suite executives.
Area(s) of expertise: UX recruitment
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomscottt
7. Adam Silver
An interaction designer with coding experience, Adam Silver has been in the web and UX design space since 2005 and is the author of Form Design Patterns published by Smashing Magazine. His resume boasts notable gigs at the BBC, Tesco, the Financial Times, Sage, and the UK Government.
He regularly shares posts with his 9k LinkedIn followers on service design, interaction design, and accessibility. His LinkedIn profile displays his mantra, (and one that a good number of design subscribe to): “Fancy design gets awards. Boring design works.”
Area(s) of expertise: Product design, UX design, service design, accessibility
Website: https://adamsilver.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsilverhq
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/adamsilverhq
Medium: https://medium.com/@adamsilverhq
8. Sarah Doody
Sarah Doody has been in UX since 2004 and, according to her website, leverages “power of storytelling and research to help teams reduce the risk of re-work and instead, build the right products and features the first time around.”
She’s also the founder and CEO of Career Strategy Lab, a UX career incubator, and its little sister, the Career Strategy Podcast. A sharp thinker generously shares advice with the design community, she’s worth following for—you guessed it—UX career advice and job interview tips.
Area(s) of expertise: Design leadership, UX design, product design, UX careers
Website: https://www.sarahdoody.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdoody
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/sarahdoody
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahdoody/
Medium: https://sarahdoody.medium.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SarahDoody
9. Jen Romano, PhD
A hugely admired voice in the UX community, Jen Romano is an experimental psychologist, a UX specialist, and a UX research coach.
With spells at Google and Meta on her resume, she now runs her own strategy and consulting agency and holds teaching roles at UC Berkeley Extension and the University of Maryland.
You can follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn, where she shares both insights and a lot of UX research vacancies.
Area(s) of expertise: UX research, design leadership, design consultancy
Website: https://www.romanocog.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferromano
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/romanocog
10. Katie Dill
If you want a resume that looks like a guided tour around the San Francisco Bay Area, look no further than Katie Dill, who has been Head of Experience Design at Airbnb, Head of Design at Lyft, and is currently Head of Design at Stripe.
As you’d expect she’s an extremely sharp thinker and is generous about sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience with the community—you can follow her on LinkedIn and X, formerly Twitter.
Her recent appearance on Lenny’s Podcast — Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design — is a fascinating listen that’s available for free on YouTube.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-dill-79168b3/
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/lil_dill
11. Julie Zhuo
In Julie Zhuo’s bio on X, formerly Twitter, she describes herself as “obsessed with systems” and a “design and data person”.
She has a large following in the design community and an impressive track record that includes climbing the ladder from Product Designer to Design VP at Meta. A co-founder at Sundial, she’s also the author of The Making of a Manager. She’s worth following on LinkedIn or X, formerly Twitter, for nuggets of wisdom on the intersection of design, data, and business.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, data analytics, design leadership
Website: https://www.juliezhuo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-zhuo
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/joulee
Medium: https://joulee.medium.com
SubStack: https://lg.substack.com
12. Irene Au
As a former head of design at two little-known startups—Google and Yahoo—Irene Au has been a leader in the design community for many years. Her talk from 2014 Talks at Google is still super relevant today and is available to watch for free on YouTube—Cultivating Focus, Empathy, and Creativity for Better Product Design.
She currently juggles her role as an operating partner at Khosla Ventures with teaching Advanced Product Design as an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University. You can follow her on X, medium, or LinkedIn for career advice, job opportunities, and her broader thoughts on the direction of design.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership
Website: https://ireneau.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireneau
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/ireneau
Medium: https://medium.com/@ireneau
13. Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen, the co-founder along with Don Norman of the renowned Norman Nielsen Group has been in UX since the early 80s and even has a law named after him (Jakob’s Law, which states users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know).
A true pioneer of the industry, he has more recently founded UX Tigers as a way of spreading UX knowledge to the worldwide community. Follow him on LinkedIn for his takes on the design industry or Substack for longer, more nuanced reads.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, user research, accessibility, design leadership
Website: www.uxtigers.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakobnielsenphd
SubStack: https://jakobnielsenphd.substack.com/
14. Ioana Teleanu
Ioana Teleanu is a Senior Product Designer working on AI at Miro, a mentor, and the founder of UX Goodies, a hugely popular Instagram community that describes itself as “a space for designers to learn and grow with bite-sized nuggets of design deliciousness”.
She’s extremely active on IG but also worth following on LinkedIn and X, especially for those of you looking for tips on transitioning to UX and starting or growing your career.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, mentoring, AI, design leadership
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioanateleanu
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/uxgoodies
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uxgoodies
15. David Dylan Thomas
With over 20 years of experience in experience design and content strategy, David Dylan Thomas is a UX expert who specializes cognitive biases and inclusivity in design.
The author of the acclaimed Design for Cognitive Bias, he also hosts The Cognitive Bias Podcast and runs regular workshops on inclusive design and bias through his company David Dylan Thomas LLC.
He’s someone you should follow—on LinkedIn or Twitter—where he regularly shares his thoughts and free links to recordings of his insightful and engaging talks.
Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership, content strategy, inclusive design, cognitive biases
Website: https://daviddylanthomas.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddylanthomas1/
X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/movie_pundit
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviddylanthomas/
Final thoughts
There’s an almost infinite amount of content about UX design and product design out there in the digital universe.
This means that just knowing where to start reading it and who to follow of those who share it can feel like an almighty task.
Hopefully, our list of UX design experts can help with that. We think that together, they’ll give you a range of insights, analysis, and commentary on the direction of UX design, the latest industry trends, and events and job opportunities.
If you want to dive into the world of UX design, try our
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