A/B Testing
Comparing two versions of a web page to figure out the better performing variation. These are useful for understanding user engagement and satisfaction of online features like a new feature or product. Also called split testing.
Accessibility
Usually refers to the characteristic that products, services, and facilities can be independently used by people with a variety of disabilities. There are four main guiding principles of accessibility upon which has been built — known by the acronym POUR for perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
Accordion
A user interface component that allows the user to hide or reveal content. (Named after the musical instrument that similarly stretches and folds) More on the etymology of UI components
Affordance
The design aspect of an object which suggest how the object should be used; a visual clue to its function and use. For instance when you see a door handle, you assume its function is to open a door.
Agile
A flexible project management method with a speedy, iterative approach to product development. The Agile Manifesto consists of 4 key values: (1) Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. (2) Working software over comprehensive documentation. (3) Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. (4) Responding to change over following a plan.
Bootstrap
A CSS framework used in web design to create responsive designs for multiple screen sizes. A front-end framework, Bootstrap enables development to become faster and more streamlined.
Breadcrumb navigation
A trail of text links that shows users the path to the page that they are currently on.
Call to action
A term used for elements in a web page that solicit an action from the user.
Carousel
Sometimes referred to as the "slider" or "slides", a carousel refers to a rotating a group of images that can house text, static images or video content.
Cognitive load
A mental effort that takes a user to process information reasoning and decision making.
C.R.U.D
create, read, update, delete - form the fundamental operations that can be performed on data within a table.
Dark patterns
A user experience that has been crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying overpriced insurance upon payment or being unable to unsubscribe from a service
Data-driven design
Type of design where you make design decisions based on a collection of both quantitative and qualitative data.
Design system
A collection of reusable components with clearly defined standards for use. These components combine pattern libraries, colors, and fonts with standardized design principles to help companies achieve consistent visual design at scale. Learn more
Design Thinking
To develop an iterative mindset to enable quick decision-making. It enables us to find the right users and context, define the right insights and implement the right solutions
Desk research
A UX research method that consists of reviewing what others have done in similar situations. This is also called landscape analysis or competitive analysis
Double diamond
A framework that describes a typical end-to-end design process—consisting of 4 key phases (Discovery, Definition, Development, Delivery). The shape represents the alternating divergent and convergent parts of the process. More on the history
Figma
A browser-based web design tool that lets teams of users collaborate on projects to build interactive user interface prototypes.
Hamburger Menus
a minimalist button consisting of three horizontal lines. Commonly located in the upper left or right corner of a screen, this button toggles between displaying the menu options and hiding them behind a simple three-line symbol
Heuristic evaluation
A way to test the usability of a digital productt or prototype. Unlike user-testing, where the product or prototype is evaluated by users, in a heuristic evaluation the site is evaluated by usability experts
How might we
An essential Design Sprint methodology, these are small but mighty questions that allow us to reframe our insights into opportunity areas and innovate on problems found during user research.
Human-Centered Design (HCD)
a design approach that puts the users first, resulting in useful and usable products and services.
Information architecture
The discipline of making information findable and understandable. It includes searching, browsing, categorizing and presenting relevant and contextual information to help people understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for online and in the real world.
Jobs-to-be-done
An approach to developing products based on understanding both the customer’s specific goal, or “job,” and the thought processes that would lead that customer to use a product to complete the job.
Landing page
Webpage that is displayed when a potential customer clicks an advertisement or a search engine result link.
Lean UX
A collaborative, user-centric approach to design that focuses on minimizing wasted time, money and resources during the design cycle
Low Fidelity
A simple diagram of an early-stage design concept. UX design teams use them to quickly test an idea, identify gaps and pitfalls, and discard product designs that don't resonate with users. Speed of creation and simplicity of design are two integral properties of low fidelity design.
Mental model
A model of what users know (or think they know) about a system
Miro
An online workspace for collaboration that is visually reminiscent to whiteboards we have in meeting rooms.
Mockup
A high-fidelity render of your product's design that showcases how the finished product will look.
Persona
An archetype of a user that helps designers and developers empathize by understanding their users' business and personal contexts
Rapid Prototype
A simple product mock-up used to test and validate your design before building it. Rapid prototyping supports agile development
Scrum
An agile project management framework that helps teams structure and manage their work through a set of values, principles, and practices. It prescribes for teams to break work into goals to be completed within time-boxed iterations, called sprints.
Sprint
A time-constrained, five-phase process that uses design thinking with the aim of reducing the risk when bringing a new product, service or a feature to the market. The process aims to help teams to clearly define goals, validate assumptions and decide on a product roadmap before starting development
Service Design Blueprint
A diagram that visualizes the relationships between different service components
Skeuomorphic
Interface objects that mimic their real-world counterparts in how they appear and/or how the user can interact with them.
System Design
A set of related objects that have purpose and behavior. Systems thinking entails the understanding that the relationships in a system, more than the objects, determine behavior of the system.
T-shaped designer
A metaphor for an individual's strengths, with the vertical stem of ‘T’ representing expertise, discipline and knowledge of a particular field, and the horizontal line representing cross-discipline competencies.
Usability testing
Avaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes.
User flow
Diagram that captures the complete path a user takes when using a product to complete a task
Wireframes
A 2D illustration of a user interface that specifically focuses on space allocation and information architecture, functionalities available and intended behaviors.
Wizard of Oz prototype
A type of prototyping method used in UX design where the user interacts with a system that they believe to be autonomous, but is, in reality, being controlled or manipulated by a person behind the scenes.