2022 is nearing an end, and boy has it been a roller coaster 🎢
With the year starting with the Will Smith slap, continuing with Elon Musk taking over Twitter and the World Cup, and ending with the Greta Thunberg-Andrew Tate Twitter controversy, there has been much to look back on.
For the UserGuiding Blog, it has been a thrilling year as well!
We had our ups, and downs, but the number one constant never really changed: good content 🤩
We published over 360 blog articles, all of which I will personally vouch for to be top-notch and worth the read.
Believe me, I am a picky reader.
So, now let’s take a look at our most-read articles, my personal picks of the year, and some honorary mentions.
Our Top 5 Most-Read Blog Articles
This year, we had many hits among our blog articles, and 5 of them were absolute reader favorites.
Hey, that’s you!
Here are some that you might remember reading:
1- #1 Guide to Onboarding UX/UI Patterns – everything you need to know
Our number one article of 2022 on the list is, of course, an onboarding UX article coming from our UX officer on duty, yours truly.
Onboarding UX patterns are possibly the most important topics to discuss for any product looking to create a product onboarding and is willing to make an effort to actually make the onboarding process good.
Because your onboarding could be a hit or a miss according to the onboarding UX patterns you use.
Don’t blindly dive into it; know your patterns!
2- 12 Best UX Design Books Every Designer Should Read in 2022
Our second blog post on the list happens to be also about UX design, but this time, it is more educational 🤓
In the article, I put together my selection of the very best UX design books for beginners, advanced UX designers, and for UX writers.
Now, I am a UX enthusiast myself.
And I can proudly say that it just might be the only guide you need into UX design books!
3- 7 Interactive Website Examples – Key to More Interactions and Engagement
Everybody loves a good interactive website.
It’s simply good UX, and in a world full of static, boring websites, a little bit of interactivity is all it takes to liven up the user experience as well as introduce more user engagement.
That’s why Suay Çakırca took the time to go over a bunch of cool websites with high interactivity.
4- 12 (Unbelievably) Good Tooltip Examples and Best Practices
Tooltips are an essential part of any product onboarding process, and of course, one of our top articles is on tooltip best practices, written by Hilal Yıldırım 😎
When it comes to topics on product, and product design, I trust Hilal and Hilal only, so you know it’s a must-read.
In the article, she goes through how to make your tooltips engaging and shows some cool examples.
Let me tell you, you need to see the Genially example 👀
5- Top 8 Business Management Books That’ll Make You a Great Leader
I go to Serhat Erdem when I wanna know something about business, so you might wanna see what books about business management he’s been checking out 🧑💻
The article features some management classics like The One Minute Leader and First, Break All the Rules as well as some books for startup management like The Lean Startup and Zero to One.
I am not giving away the rest of the list though 🤭
Now, these were our top reads this year, but we also had some underrated gems on the blog.
Top 10 Hidden Gems of the Blog 💎
Our content team has been going extra hard and we’ve written some articles bursting with value and million dollar tips 🤑
So, here’s a look at my personal favorites of 2022:
1- Product: How to Improve a Product With (actually) Working Strategies
Improving a product is hard business.
And for sure, not everyone is up for it. At least, not without the product improvement tips Suay Çakırca provides 😎
Suay touches upon 6 strategies to start working on right away.
But keep in mind: constant iteration is the key!
2- Product: 9 Examples of Great Product Marketing That’ll Inspire Your Next Strategy
Talking about product strategies, there is no way you’ll make it in SaaS without a good set of product marketing strategies.
That’s why Renk Mert did a deep-dive in some of the best product marketing strategies of big companies like Ahrefs, HubSpot and Intercom to help you understand the X factor for all the successful strategies out there.
And she absolutely did not disappoint 🫡
3- UX Design: 5 Examples of Great User Interface (UI) Design in 2022
Improving your UI design can result in 200% increase in conversion rate.
And that’s exactly what prompted Ece Cakanel to write about the top 5 examples of great user interface design in 2022.
I personally love the Gumroad example 👀
4- UX Design: Genially: An In-depth Case Study of UX and User Onboarding
Genially is one of my favorite platforms, especially when it comes to UX design and user onboarding.
So I took it upon myself to go and do a full-on UX and onboarding design breakdown of the platform.
Spoiler alert: if you are a fan of high interactivity, good onboarding with always available product tours and good pieces of empty state copy, you’re gonna love it.
5- Growth: 11 Email Marketing KPIs and Metrics to Track Your Campaign’s Performance
Email marketing is an art form of its own.
And if you know what to look for in terms of performance, you are bound to succeed.
That’s why our email marketing extraordinaire Ayşenur Zaza wrote an article on the top 11 email marketing KPIs and metrics you need to start tracking in 2022 (and in 2023).
I say, it’s one good guideline especially for beginners 🤓
6- Growth: Top 35 Inbound Marketing Tools for Marketers in 2022 (Categorized)
When I attempted reading this piece by Hilal Yıldırım for the first time, I couldn’t finish it.
She had gathered 35 different tools, designed specifically for different use cases, and for different target audiences, all to ease inbound marketing a little.
It simply had too much to offer, and I needed a pen an some paper.
Take it from me, this one’s really ought to get you to start taking notes, so be prepared.
7- User Onboarding: The Complete Guide to Progressive Onboarding in UX – tips, examples, tools
Progressive onboarding is a must for all companies and tools taking onboarding seriously.
And so, I decided to create a guide on how it is different from traditional onboarding, why you should switch, some of the best examples, and a guide to start with it.
I might be a bit biased, but I’d say you need to give it a read 🫣
8- User Onboarding: Website Onboarding – Key Guidelines and Examples
Onboarding on a website can be as crucial as onboarding on in-app.
And Serhat Erdem is very much aware of that.
He created an entire website onboarding guide featuring definitions, examples, and best practices to start out with it.
9- Wellness: 31 Home Office Essentials for the Remote Worker
Business life isn’t all about tracking metrics and coming up with the best strategies, we need to relax and be comfortable in our working environment.
Ceren Kurban‘s article is a good place to start out with some comfiness in your business life.
I personally am at 9/35; gotta work on my wellness 🫣
10- Wellness: 50 Best Items for a Digital Nomad (Digital Nomad Packing List)
A big chunk of remote workers are digital nomads in 2022.
And when talking about wellness, it is impossible to bring up equipment for remote working, including nomad working.
Hilal Yıldırım’s article goes through a huge list of equipments for the smart digital nomad.
Check the full list, pack up, and let’s go 🎒
BONUS – Alternatives: Appcues vs. UserGuiding 2022 Comparison – Which tool is the one you need?
We published a big list of product alternatives this year, as well as specific comparisons.
But one of them stood out the most in terms of value and read-through rate.
Hilal Yıldırım‘s Appcues vs. UserGuiding article is a must-read for anyone looking to switch from Appcues to a more manageable, better alternative for onboarding.
What to Expect in 2023
Having surpassed our article number from last year, there is no stopping us from publishing even more articles in 2023!
But as I said above, for the UserGuiding Blog, one thing is the constant: good content 🚀
And that, folks, is the one thing you can surely expect from us in 2023.
We thank you for keeping up with the UserGuiding Blog in 2022 and hope to see you stick around for 2023 💕
