This is how design professionals use Built for Mars

6 min readMar 8, 2024

Almost every day I add more UX analysis to Built for Mars.

At the time of writing, I’ve put an estimated 3,809 real hours of research—over the course of 5 years—into it.

Well, in true Progressive Disclosure style, it’s time to let you in on a secret.

There are some really subtle pro features, and a bunch of ‘hidden’ content in BFM+ that you should know about.

Progressive Disclosure from the UX glossary

Here are 6 tips to make the most of your BFM+ subscription.

1. Don’t use BFM+ like a blog

Unlike a typical blog or newsletter, these case studies have been designed in a way that they can be read years later.

The screenshots might not be the latest version of that app, but the UX lessons, issues and explanations are built on principles that rarely change.

i.e., you can dive into any of them, regardless of age, and learn something. I even routinely update them.

Here are some of the most popular of all time:

Importantly, as you work your way through these, your progression is logged.

Any time you want to find an unread study (or one you started, but didn’t finish), use the completion status filter.

Or filter by industry, collections and companies to find something new.

2. Curate your own roadmap

UX Bites aren’t just a feed of screenshots — when used correctly, they’re super valuable to a product team, and the development process.

There are really four ways that teams currently use them:

To host group whiteboard sessions for ‘roadmap planning’
To help solve specific problems (e.g., abandoned baskets)
To habitually build a list of ‘future ideas’
For fun

These all require being able to drill down into specific filters, which allow you to find some absolute gems.

Completion status (Bites you’ve never seen before).
Company
Industry
Psychology (e.g., “examples of The Decoy Effect”)
Impacts (e.g., Bites to reduce Churn)
Flows (e.g., Onboarding or Checkouts)
UI components (e.g., tooltips)

Then, if you want to drill down even further into specific Bites, you can toggle on ‘Expanded Mode’.

Woah, suddenly you’re given way more information about every UX Bite, including context about why something works, how I’d improve it, and implementation tips.

As you browse in this view, you’ll find ideas and experiments that might be suitable for your own product. It helps to connect the dots.

When you’ve found one, simply bookmark the idea, and save it to a collection.

Boom, you now have a feed of ideas to try later.

Next time you’re planning a sprint, or looking to improve a specific metric, open the collection and see if any of your ideas are viable.

e.g., “which of my ideas could be used to reduce churn”.

3. Unbeatable competitive research

Do you want to see every moment of great UX from a specific company?

Well, you can browse by companies, and view every case study, UX Bite and exercise in one place.

Here are some of the most popular companies:

You can also widen your search, and browse entire industries.

If I was building a FinTech product, for example, I’d bookmark this tab and check it routinely.

It’s literally a feed of awesome little touches that your competitors are doing, contextualised with implementation tips.

4. Actually learn UX psychology

I’m sure you’ll be aware, there are tons of places online where you can learn about UX psychology.

Even more boringly, you’ll find 99% of them have copy and pasted the same source material.

What makes BFM different, is that it combines the basic concepts with:

Real world examples (UX Bites)
Potential impacts (e.g., churn, or anxiety)
Product tips that I’ve used in the field
References to case studies

Instead of trying to win you over with a huge number of biases, I’ve stripped it down to only the ones you’ll actually use.

“It is clear that actual thought and serious research has gone into them rather than simply rattling off the standard tropes.” — Daniel.
“A unique blend of psychology insights and real-world examples” — Marc

You can also filter the glossary by impacts.

e.g., “show me any UX psychology that’ll likely effect churn”.

But how often do you actually want to sit and stare at a glossary? The answer is not very often.

That’s why everything is accessible in tooltips, exactly where it’s adding context to something else.

This lets you discover UX principles via examples, or case studies, and then dive into the deep end in a single click, without leaving the page you were on.

5. ‘Cheat’ like a pro

I get it, sometimes you’ll just want super actionable suggestions for a specific problem — not to read full-length case studies.

That’s why every month you’ll get a new BFM+ exclusive Cheatsheet.

You’ve probably already studied your obvious competitors (hopefully using the filters on UX Bites).

Cheatsheets pull the best practice from all over the world, across every industry. They combine UX Bites, Psychology and a to-do list.

i.e., perhaps the best idea to reduce SaaS churn exists in a ‘chess as a subscription’ service you’ve never heard of.

6. Learn, practice, repeat

An important aspect of actually improving (over a long period of time), is by practicing, testing yourself and learning why you were wrong.

That’s why you’ll see interactive quizzes and exercises intentionally placed across the entire site, in many sections.

For example, at the end of this case study.

These aren’t randomly assigned, or generic questions. They’re specific and designed to test what you’ve just been reading.

They’re also not an exam. You can answer as many times as you like, and your scores won’t be amalgamated into a bogus ‘certification’.

Make mistakes, try again, build streaks and move on.

Although, if you wanted to binge some exercises, you can here.

There we go, you’re now ready to roll into a ball of absolute chaos, at speeds that would probably destroy your spine, and defeat Doctor Eggman.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can save 30% with an annual plan.

Or, you can continue reading the free stuff—that isn’t changing.