2013 has been an intense year for me, having left Clearleft in April to start my own business as an independent UX consultant. I’ve got to say, I’ve been loving every minute of it. When you’re running your own business the risk makes everything so much more interesting and exciting. Pitches are more exhilarating, debriefs are more satifying – even the admin work like running your CRM and doing your book-keeping has a certain edge to it. The downside is that I haven’t had much time to blog, something I plan to set right next year. Here’s a round up of the most popular posts from 2013:

The slippery slope.
Just as I thought people were getting fed up with articles on Dark Patterns, I got over 50,000 uniques on this article within 24 hours of posting it. If you’re interested in this subject, do get in touch. We’ve got a team of 5 people working on darkpatterns.org now – myself, Marc Miquel, Jeremy Rosenberg, Joseph Dollar-Smirnov and James Ofer, and we’re looking to grow it this year. It’s a loosely bound collective where we all throw in a few hours here and there to update the site and its content.

The drunkard’s search.
People often only look for what they are searching by looking where it is easiest. Are you making these mistakes in your own work?

Are you in a teflon-coated UX role?
This article is dedicated to all the bad UX designers out there who get away with doing very little.

Combining reflector and silverback for iOS usability testing.
This is my standard operating procedure for iOS usability testing now. Reflector works well alongside Sliverback, Screenflow and many other screen recorder apps.

Sneaking responsive in under the radar using an mdot site.
Since writing this article, I learned that this exact strategy has been used on BBC News and The Guardian. Nice to know.

Submitting a talk proposal to a UX conference this year? Read this.
A few handy tips if you’re trying to get a speaking slot at a UX conference.

Is user-centered design broken – or is it just us?
Fashions come and go, but the value of involving users in your design process will always stick around.

Deadly set: how too much focus causes mistakes.
People often don’t talk about the risk of being “too focussed” in our work. It’s actually a documented problem that human factors researchers have to account for when analysing accidents.

Thanks for being a reader in 2013. If you haven’t already, why not subscribe to new posts by email?