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3 Click Rule
A website design guideline stating that users should find information within 3 clicks or less, aiming for efficient navigation and content retrieval.
5 Second Test
The 5-Second Test assesses the initial impression and clarity of a design or webpage by exposing participants for a brief period, evaluating recall and first impressions.
60-30-10 Rule
A design principle that guides color distribution, suggesting proportions of 60%, 30%, and 10% for dominant, secondary, and accent colors, respectively.
80/20 Rule
Suggests that a smaller subset of factors or efforts often has a significant impact on the overall user experience, guiding prioritization and improvements.
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A/B Testing
Data-driven method to optimize web design, content, and marketing by comparing two or more variants to improve user experience, conversions, and engagement.
Accessibility
Designing websites or products that are inclusive and usable by all, including people with disabilities, through elements such as proper color contrast, keyboard accessibility, and alternative text for images.
Adaptive Design
A UX design approach that creates tailored versions of a digital product for specific devices or screen sizes, optimizing layout, content, and functionality.
Aesthetic Usability Effect
The aesthetic-usability effect suggests that users are more likely to perceive a design as usable if they find it visually appealing.
Aesthetics
The visual appeal and emotional response elicited by the design of a product or service.
Affect Heuristic
The affect heuristic is a mental shortcut where people make judgments and decisions based on their emotional reactions to a situation, rather than relying on a more rational analysis.
Affordance
Refers to the inherent qualities or properties of an object or environment that suggest or enable its use or interaction by users, based on its design or functionality.
Agile UX
An iterative and collaborative approach to user experience design that integrates UX principles and practices into Agile development methodologies for efficient and user-centric product development.
Aha Moment
The 'aha! moment' is a sudden and profound insight or realization, often associated with problem-solving or creativity.
Analytics
The collection and analysis of data to gain insights, inform decisions, and optimize user experience and business outcomes.
Anchoring
A cognitive bias where people rely heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions, even if it's unrelated or arbitrary.
Anti-Persona
An anti-persona is a fictional representation of individuals or user groups who are not part of the target audience, helping to exclude them from design or marketing efforts.
Attentional Bias
Attentional bias is the tendency to pay more attention to specific stimuli or information, often influenced by personal experiences or emotional factors.
Attitudinal Research
Measures and analyzes people's opinions, beliefs, and emotions. It informs decision-making and strategy development.
Authority Bias
Authority bias is a cognitive bias where people tend to follow or believe in the advice or directives of perceived authority figures.
Availability Heuristic
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut where people rely on readily available or easily recalled information to make judgments or decisions, often resulting in cognitive biases.
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Baileys Human Performance Model (HPM)
A systematic approach to understanding and improving human performance in complex tasks through analysis, training, and feedback
Bandwagon Effect
The bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias where people tend to adopt certain behaviors or beliefs because they perceive that many others are doing the same.
Banner Blindness
Users ignore or overlook banner ads due to habituation or perceived lack of relevance. Can impact digital advertising effectiveness.
Behavioural Economics
Study of how psychology and economics intersect to understand how human behavior affects economic decisions, exploring cognitive, emotional, and social factors and biases in decision-making.
Behavioural Research
Study of human behavior, actions, and decision-making. Provides insights into user behavior, preferences, and interactions.
Benchmarking
Comparing and evaluating a product or service design against established standards or competitors
Berry Picking
Refers to a user's iterative and non-linear process of navigating through information or interfaces to find desired information.
Brand Guideline
Brand guidelines provide instructions on logo usage, color palette, typography, imagery, tone of voice, and messaging to maintain brand consistency.
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Call to Action (CTA)
A Call to Action (CTA) is a prompt, often in the form of a button or text, that encourages users to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up
Card Sorting
A UX research method where participants organize content or concepts into categories, providing insights into how users perceive and organize information for improved design decisions.
Center-Stage Effect
The center-stage effect is the tendency to remember information or objects placed in the center of one's field of vision more vividly.
Chunking
The process of grouping pieces of information into more manageable and meaningful units or 'chunks'
Clickability
Clickability refers to the characteristics of an element, such as a button or link, that indicates it can be interacted with or clicked/tapped to perform an action.
Clickstream Analytics
Clickstream analytics involves tracking and analyzing user interactions on a website or app to improve user experience, performance, and marketing strategies.
Closed Card Sort
Closed card sorting involves participants categorizing content or items into pre-defined categories, helping researchers understand user mental models and improve information organization on websites or applications.
Closure
Closure in UX design utilizes incomplete visual elements to engage users' natural tendency to mentally complete patterns, aiding in efficient information processing and visual organization.
Cognitive Biases
Mental shortcuts or tendencies that influence decision-making and perception, often leading to subjective judgments and irrational behavior.
Cognitive Load
The mental effort required for users to understand and use a product or service.
Color Theory
Color theory explores the interaction, perception, and emotional impact of colors, guiding their selection and use in design, art, and psychology.
Concept Testing
Concept testing is a research method to evaluate new product or idea feasibility by gathering feedback from target users, aiding early refinement and risk reduction.
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to favor information that confirms preexisting beliefs, potentially limiting objective decision-making and critical thinking.
Confirmatory Research
A type of research methodology that seeks to test specific hypotheses or predetermined research questions using structured data collection and statistical analysis for validation or rejection.
Consistency
The uniformity and coherence of design elements and interactions within a product or service.
Content Audit
A systematic review of all digital content to evaluate performance, quality, and relevance, and make data-driven decisions for content optimization and improvement.
Content Inventory
Comprehensive list of all digital content assets, such as articles, images, videos, and media, for evaluation, optimization, and management purposes.
Content Strategy
The planning, creation, and management of content within a product or service.
Context of Use
The physical, social, and environmental factors that influence how users interact with a product or service.
Context Patterns
A design approach that considers the surrounding circumstances and user environment to create relevant and tailored user experiences.
Contextual Design
Designing products or services that are tailored to the specific context of use and meet users' needs in that context.
Contextual Help
Providing relevant assistance or guidance based on users' context and needs.
Contextual Inquiry
Conducting research by observing users in their natural environment to understand their needs and behaviors.
Continuation
Creating flow through elements to guide the viewer's eye smoothly. Enhances visual harmony and coherence.
Contrast
Contrast involves highlighting differences or disparities between elements, making them more noticeable and impactful.
Controlled Vocabulary
A structured and organized list of predefined terms used to categorize, tag, or classify content, improving consistency and accuracy in information retrieval and user experience.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Optimizing the design and content of a product or service to increase the percentage of users who complete a desired action or goal.
Creeping Featurism
The gradual accumulation of excessive and often unnecessary features in a product, leading to complexity, decreased usability, and potential user dissatisfaction.
Curiosity Gap
The curiosity gap is the idea that creating a gap in people's knowledge or information can pique their curiosity and drive engagement.
Curse of Knowledge
The curse of knowledge is the difficulty in imagining or understanding what it's like not to know something that you already know, leading to communication challenges.
Customer Experience (CX)
Encompasses all interactions and perceptions a customer has with a brand, product, or service, impacting satisfaction, loyalty, and overall business success.
Customer Personas
Representations of target customers that help in understanding their characteristics, needs, and behaviors.
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Dark Patterns
Design features that manipulate users into specific actions, often prioritizing the company/business needs over the user's
Decoy Effect
The decoy effect occurs when the presence of a less attractive option influences people to choose a particular choice among multiple options.
Default Bias
Default bias is the inclination to stick with the default option when making choices or decisions.
Defaults
Predetermined settings or options that are automatically applied to a user interface, providing a baseline experience until users make specific choices or modifications according to their preferences.
Delighters
Delighters, in the context of user experience design, are unexpected or small design features that bring joy and satisfaction to users.
Design Patterns
Reusable solutions to common design problems, providing established ways for consistent, efficient, and user-friendly designs.
Design Principles
Design principles are fundamental guidelines that inform decision-making in design, providing a framework for creating effective and user-centered solutions while achieving specific design goals.
Design Psychology
Applies psychological principles to create user-centered designs that optimize engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes.
Design System
A design system is a comprehensive set of guidelines, components, patterns, and standards that define the visual and functional elements of a product or brand. It provides a centralized resource for designers, developers, and stakeholders, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability in design and development efforts.
Design Thinking
A human-centered approach to problem solving and innovation that emphasizes empathy, experimentation, and iterative design to create meaningful and effective solutions.
Desirability Study
A desirability study assesses the emotional appeal and attractiveness of a product or design concept to users, helping to gauge their preferences and emotional responses.
Diary Study
A research method where participants record experiences in a personal diary. Provides qualitative data for UX research, capturing real-world behaviors and insights in users' own words.
Discoverability
Discoverability is the ease with which users can find and access content or features within a product or system.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where individuals with low competence tend to overestimate their abilities, while those with higher competence may underestimate themselves.
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Emotional Design
The intentional design of emotional experiences for users through the use of visuals, interactions, and content.
Empathy
Understanding and considering the needs, emotions, and perspectives of users.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings and perspectives of others, leading to a deeper connection and understanding.
Empathy Map
Visual tool for capturing user thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and needs. Aids in building empathy and informing user-centered design.
Error Prevention and Recovery
Designing systems and interfaces to minimize errors and provide ways to recover from them.
Ethnographic Study
Observational research in natural settings to understand culture, behavior, and experiences. Immersive study of human behavior in real-world contexts.
Expectation Bias
Expectation bias occurs when prior beliefs or expectations influence one's perception and interpretation of new information or experiences.
Experience Ecosystem
The interconnected system of user experiences across touchpoints, channels, and interactions, aiming to create a cohesive and meaningful journey for users.
Experience Map
Visualizes user touchpoints, emotions, and interactions to understand the holistic user journey, identify pain points, and improve the overall user experience
Exploratory Research
An open-ended and flexible approach to gain insights, generate ideas, and form initial hypotheses about a topic.
External Triggers
External triggers are environmental or situational cues that influence or initiate specific behaviors or responses in individuals.
Eye-tracking
Use of specialized equipment to measure and analyze users' eye movements and gaze patterns for understanding visual perception and interaction with designs
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False Choice
False choice presents limited options that may not align with user preferences, potentially leading to manipulation, mistrust, and a negative user experience.
Familiarity Bias
Familiarity bias is a cognitive bias where people prefer or trust things that are familiar to them.
Feedback
Providing users with informative and timely feedback on their actions and the state of the system.
Feedforward
Feedforward is a form of feedback that provides guidance or information in advance of an action, helping individuals make informed decisions.
Field Study
A field study is research conducted in a real-world setting, observing and collecting data from participants to gain context-specific insights into behaviors, or culture.
First-Click Test
A first-click test assesses the usability of a website or app by analyzing users' initial clicks when given specific tasks, helping identify navigation and design improvements.
Fitts Law
Larger targets closer to starting point are faster to select. Used in interface design to optimize pointing performance for usability and efficiency.
Flat Design
A minimalist style characterized by simplicity, two-dimensional elements, bold colors, and a focus on functionality and usability
Flow State
Flow state is a mental state of complete absorption and focus in an activity, often associated with high productivity and enjoyment.
Flowchart
Visualize user flows, decision points, and scenarios, aiding in analyzing and improving the user experience of digital products.
Focus Groups
Qualitative research methods using small groups and a skilled moderator to gather insights and opinions on a topic of interest, providing valuable feedback for decision-making and product improvement.
Form Design
Involves creating user-friendly, visually clear, and efficient forms for capturing information, considering usability, visual hierarchy, and data collection.
Formative methods
Formative methods are early-stage research techniques that inform product development by gathering user insights and feedback, guiding improvements, and addressing user needs and challenges.
Framing
Framing refers to how information is presented or framed, which can influence people's decisions and perceptions.
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Gamification
Applying game design elements and principles in non-gaming contexts to motivate and engage users.
Gestalt Principles
Principles that describe how humans perceive and organize visual information.
Goal Gradient Effect
The goal gradient effect suggests that people tend to accelerate their efforts as they get closer to achieving a goal.
Golden Ratio
The golden ratio is a design principle that uses specific mathematical proportions to create visually balanced and pleasing compositions
Grid
A framework of horizontal and vertical lines that organizes and aligns elements, promoting consistency and visual harmony in layouts.
Group Attractiveness Effect
The group attractiveness effect occurs when individuals perceive a person as more attractive when they are seen in a group compared to when seen alone.
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Halo Effect
The halo effect is a cognitive bias where one positive trait or aspect of a person or thing influences the perception of their overall character or quality.
Haptic Feedback
Providing users with tactile feedback through physical sensations or vibrations in response to their interactions with a product or service.
Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne Effect is an increase in productivity or improvement in behavior that occurs when individuals know they are being observed.
Heat Map
Visually represent user interactions and attention on a design, providing insights into user behavior and areas of interest.
Heuristic Evaluation
A method where experts assess usability using established guidelines, identifying potential issues to improve the user experience.
Heuristics
Guidelines used to evaluate and improve usability. They offer quick and cost-effective insights into design issues, guiding decision-making and enhancing the user experience.
Hicks Law
States that decision-making time increases logarithmically with the number of choices, emphasizing the need for simplified options.
Hierarchy
Organizing content or functionality in a visually prioritized manner to guide users' attention.
High Fidelity Prototyping
Detailed and realistic prototypes that resemble the final product, used for advanced testing and validation in later design stages. Realistic and refined, useful for gathering feedback.
Hindsight Bias
Hindsight bias is the tendency to perceive past events as having been predictable, even when they were not.
Horizontal Prototype
A horizontal prototype is a preliminary model showcasing multiple features across a product, emphasizing breadth over depth, used for early feedback and risk assessment in development.
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Iceberg Syndrome
What users see and interact with in a digital product is just a small portion, while the majority of the design and functionality lies beneath the surface, hidden from view
Ideation
The process of generating diverse and innovative ideas through creative thinking and collaborative exploration to solve problems or address challenges.
Inclusivity
Designing products or services that are accessible and usable by a wide range of users, including those with disabilities.
Information Architecture (IA)
The organization and structure of information within a product or service.
Information Processing
The information processing model explains how humans perceive, process, store, and retrieve information in a sequential and systematic manner.
Interaction Design (IxD)
The design of how users interact with a product or service.
Internal Triggers
Internal triggers are psychological cues, often driven by emotions or thoughts, that prompt individuals to take specific actions or make certain decisions.
Interviews
Interviews are qualitative research conversations with users to gather insights, understand their needs, and inform user-centered design.
Investment Loops
Investment loops refer to cycles of commitment or engagement that can be reinforced through increased effort or investment.
Iterative Design
An approach that involves repeating cycles of design, testing, and refinement to continuously improve a product or system.
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Journey Map
A visual representation of a customer's end-to-end experience, helping identify pain points, opportunities, and improve customer-centricity.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the act of placing two or more things side by side for the purpose of comparison or contrast.
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Kano Model
Categorizes customer preferences into basic, performance, excitement, indifferent, and reverse categories to guide feature prioritization and customer satisfaction.
KPI (Key performance indicators)
Measurable values used to track and evaluate progress towards organizational goals.
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Labelling
Assigning clear and meaningful names to website or product elements, enhancing navigation, user understanding, and accessibility.
Labor Illusion
The labor illusion is the idea that products and services seem more valuable when people believe that significant effort or time was put into creating them.
Landing Page
A dedicated web page designed to convert visitors into leads or customers by focusing on a specific action or goal.
Law of Prägnanz
The law of Prägnanz, also known as the principle of simplicity or the law of good figure, states that people tend to perceive complex visual stimuli as simpler and more organized.
Lean UX
An iterative and collaborative approach that focuses on delivering value to users through rapid experimentation and continuous learning.
Liquid Design
Creates adaptable interfaces that seamlessly adjust to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring optimal user experience and readability.
Loss Aversion
The tendency to fear and avoid losses more strongly than pursuing equivalent gains, influencing decision-making and user behavior.
Low Fidelity Prototyping
Involves creating simplified, basic representations of a design to quickly test concepts and gather feedback.
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Market Research
Involves gathering and analyzing data to gain insights about target markets, customers, and competitors, guiding business decision-making
Mega Menu
A mega menu is an expansive, multi-level dropdown navigation system on websites, displaying numerous categories and content options for easier navigation and exploration.
Mental Models
Cognitive frameworks individuals use to interpret information, make predictions, and navigate the world around them.
Metadata
Metadata in UX encompasses descriptive information about digital content, improving search, categorization, and content understanding for users, aiding in navigation, discoverability, and accessibility.
Method of Loci
The method of loci is a mnemonic technique where individuals associate the information they want to remember with specific locations in a mental spatial layout.
Microcopy
Concise, context-specific text used in user interfaces to guide, inform, and provide feedback to users.
Microinteractions
Small, subtle, and delightful interactions that provide feedback and enhance the user experience.
Miller’s Law
States that the average human working memory can hold around 7 (plus or minus 2) chunks of information, influencing information processing and UX design.
Mind Map
A visual diagram that organizes ideas and information around a central topic, showing relationships and connections.
Minium Viable Product (MVP)
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a basic version of a product with essential features, created quickly to validate its concept, gather user feedback, and minimize development risk.
Mobile Design
Creating user interfaces and experiences specifically for smartphones and tablets, considering small screens, touch interactions, and mobile-specific considerations.
Mock-up
A static visual representation of a digital product, showcasing its design and layout before development.
Moderated Testing
Moderated tests in UX involve one-on-one sessions where a facilitator guides participants through tasks, observes their interactions, and collects in-depth feedback, helping identify usability issues and improvements.
Moodboard
A visual collage that captures the desired mood, style, and aesthetic of a design project, providing inspiration and visual guidance for the design process.
Multichannel UX
Ensures a consistent and seamless user experience across various channels, enhancing user engagement and maintaining brand cohesion.
Multimodal Interaction
Involves using multiple input and output modalities, enhancing user experiences by allowing flexible and natural interactions with digital systems.
Multivariate test
Multivariate testing in UX assesses how different combinations of design elements impact user behavior, helping optimize webpages or interfaces for specific objectives through data-driven insights.
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Navigation
Provides clear and intuitive pathways, enabling users to easily find information and navigate through a digital product or interface.
Negativity Bias
Negativity bias is a cognitive bias where negative information or experiences have a greater impact on one's cognition and behavior than positive ones.
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Occam's Razor
Occam's Razor is a principle stating that, all else being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
Onboarding
The process of familiarizing users with a digital product, guiding them through its features and functionalities to ensure a positive and effective user experience.
Organic Search
Organic search in UX is the process of users finding websites through unpaid search engine results, emphasizing user intent, relevance, content quality, and user-friendly design.
Organizational Schemes
Define how information is structured and categorized, helping users navigate and find content efficiently within a digital product or interface.
Orphan Pages
Web pages that lack internal links and are isolated from the website's navigation, reducing their visibility and accessibility to users.
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Page Type
Refer to specific categories of pages within a digital product, each serving a distinct purpose and containing unique content or functionality to meet user needs.
Paid Search
Paid search in UX involves users finding websites through search engine results generated by paid advertising, emphasizing relevance, user intent, and landing page optimization.
Pain Points
Represent user frustrations and challenges encountered while using a product. Addressing them leads to improved user experience and satisfaction.
Paper Prototyping
Paper prototyping is a low-cost UX design method where hand-drawn or printed sketches of digital interfaces are used for usability testing and early design feedback.
Pareto Principle
Suggests that a smaller subset of factors or efforts often has a significant impact on the overall user experience, guiding prioritization and improvements.
Participatory design
Participatory design involves users and stakeholders collaborating with designers to co-create solutions, ensuring user needs and perspectives are central to the design process.
Persuasive Design
Use of psychological tactics and engaging experiences to influence user behavior and attitudes, aiming to drive desired actions or beliefs.
Picture Superiority Effect
The picture superiority effect is the phenomenon where people tend to remember information better when it is presented in a visual or pictorial format, as opposed to text.
Priming
Priming is a psychological phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences a person's response to a subsequent stimulus.
Progressive Disclosure
Gradually reveals information or functionality, simplifying complex systems and guiding users through tasks, reducing cognitive overload.
Protocol
A predefined plan that outlines the procedures and guidelines for conducting research studies in a systematic and consistent manner.
Prototyping
Creating interactive representations of a product or service to test and validate design concepts.
Proximity
Elements near each other are perceived as related, allowing designers to visually group and organize information effectively.
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Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods are research techniques that gather non-numerical data to explore depth, context, and meaning, often used in social sciences and UX research to understand human behavior and experiences.
Quantitative Methods
Quantitative methods involve gathering and analyzing numerical data using structured techniques to draw statistically supported conclusions and make objective generalizations.
Quick and Dirty Prototype
A quick and dirty prototype is a rapid, low-fidelity model used for speedy idea communication and feedback, sacrificing detail for fast concept exploration and risk mitigation.
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Reactance
Reactance is a psychological response to perceived restrictions or threats to one's freedom, leading to resistance or a desire to regain control.
Recall
Recall is the ability to retrieve information from memory without specific cues or prompts, relying on the individual's own memory retrieval.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a social principle where individuals feel obligated to return favors or kindness when it has been given to them.
Recognition
Recognition is the cognitive process of identifying or remembering something encountered before, often in response to a cue or prompt.
Refactoring
Making iterative improvements to an existing design or interface to enhance usability, clarity, consistency, and overall user experience.
Reference pricing
A strategy that uses a comparison point to influence customer perceptions and drive purchase decisions by creating a perception of value.
Remote Research
Remote research involves conducting user research and usability testing with geographically distant participants using online tools and technology, enabling flexibility and cost efficiency.
Responsive Design
Designing user experiences that adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
ROT
dentifying ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial) in UX involves auditing content, gathering user feedback, analyzing data, and aligning elements with goals, ensuring a streamlined and relevant user experience.
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Scannability
The ability for users to quickly and easily scan and comprehend content, enabling efficient information retrieval and navigation.
Scarcity
Scarcity is a psychological principle where the limited availability of a product or opportunity can increase its perceived value and desirability.
Scenario Map
Visually represents the user's journey, capturing their actions, emotions, and touchpoints to identify insights and improve the user experience.
Scent of Information
Visual and textual cues that guide users towards relevant content, enhancing their navigation experience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
the process of improving a website's visibility in search results to increase organic traffic and online presence.
Selective Attention
Selective attention is the cognitive process of focusing on specific information while ignoring other stimuli.
Self-Initiated Triggers
Self-initiated triggers are personal cues or prompts that individuals use to initiate specific actions or behaviors.
Semantic Map
a visual representation of the relationships between concepts, organizing information to aid comprehension, learning, and idea generation.
Semantic Sentiment
Semantic sentiment analysis is a nuanced approach to understanding emotions in text, considering context and language subtleties beyond simple positive/negative classification.
Sensory Appeal
Sensory appeal involves designing products or experiences to stimulate the senses, such as taste, touch, sight, smell, or sound, to enhance their overall appeal.
Serial Position Effect
The Serial Position Effect explains how the order of items in a list influences memory recall, vital for optimizing UX content and navigation.
Service Blueprint
A service blueprint is a visual tool used in service design to map the entire service process, showing customer interactions, internal processes, and touchpoints. It aids in service improvement.
Service Design
Designing the entire end-to-end experience of a service, considering all touchpoints and interactions.
Shaping
Shaping is a behavioral psychology technique where desired behaviors are gradually developed by reinforcing successive approximations to the target behavior.
Signifiers
Visual or auditory cues that guide users by indicating actions or functionality, enhancing usability and intuitiveness of interfaces and products.
Similarity
Visual or conceptual resemblance between elements, aiding organization, pattern recognition, and intuitive user experiences through consistent visual attributes.
Site Map
A visual or textual representation of a website's content structure and organization, showing the hierarchy of main categories, sub-categories, and their relationships.
Skeuomorphism
Designing user interfaces that mimic real-world objects or materials.
Social Proof
Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where people are influenced by the actions and opinions of others, often leading them to make similar choices or decisions.
Spacing Effect
The spacing effect in UX design promotes effective learning and knowledge retention by spacing out content delivery and review, enhancing long-term memory and user engagement.
Spark Effect
The spark effect is a psychological phenomenon where a single, exceptional event or idea can have a significant and lasting impact on a person's thinking or behavior.
Spotlight Effect
The spotlight effect is the tendency to believe that one is more noticeable or central in social situations than they actually are.
Static Design
refers to designs for a single screen size or device type, reducing the complexity of implementation.
Storyboard
Visual narratives that outline key scenes and actions, aiding in planning and communicating the flow and user experience of a project.
Storytelling
Using narrative elements and techniques to engage users and communicate information in a compelling way.
Summative methods
Summative methods assess a completed product or program's overall performance, effectiveness, and outcomes to determine if objectives and goals have been achieved.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
The sunk cost fallacy is the irrational tendency to continue investing in something, like a project or relationship, because of the resources already dedicated, even if it's not in one's best interest.
Survey Bias
Survey bias refers to the skewing of survey results due to the way questions are asked, the order of questions, or the sample population.
Surveys
A research method that collects data from a sample of individuals using a set of structured questions to gather information on a specific topic or issue.
Survivorship Bias
Survivorship bias occurs when only successful or surviving examples are considered, leading to skewed conclusions and decision-making.`
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Task Analysis
A user-centered approach that breaks down tasks into smaller steps, revealing user actions, goals, and challenges to improve design and usability.
Task Flow
The sequence of steps or actions that users take to complete a specific task or goal.
Taxonomy
a systematic classification system that organizes information into categories, improving navigation, searchability, and content management.
Temptation Bundling
Temptation bundling is a strategy where one pairs a task they should do with something they want to do, making it more appealing.
Tesler's Law
Tesler's Law, also known as the Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that the complexity of a system remains constant over time because any simplification in one part leads to increased complexity in another.
Think-Aloud Protocol
Think-aloud protocol involves participants verbalizing their thoughts as they interact with a product, revealing insights into their cognitive processes and aiding usability evaluation and improvement.
Tree Testing
A tree test assesses the effectiveness of a website's information structure by having participants navigate a hierarchical menu to complete specific tasks, revealing usability and findability issues.
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UI Design
Involves creating visually appealing and functional interfaces for digital products through research, wireframing, visual design, interaction design, prototyping, testing, and collaboration with developers.
UI Elements
Enable user interaction, enhance usability, guide visual hierarchy, provide feedback, and contribute to a consistent and intuitive user experience.
Unit Bias
Unit bias is the tendency for individuals to consider a single portion or serving as the appropriate amount, leading to overconsumption.
Unmoderated Testing
Unmoderated testing in UX involves users independently interacting with a product or prototype, providing feedback without direct guidance. It's important for remote, unbiased insights into user experiences.
Usability
the measure of how easily and effectively users can interact with a product or system to achieve their goals.
Usability Test
Evaluating the usability of a product or service through testing with real users.
Usage Scenario
A narrative description of how users interact with a system to accomplish specific tasks or goals.
Use Case
A description of interactions between users and a system to achieve specific goals, helping to capture requirements and guide software development.
User Experience
The overall experience a user has when interacting with a product or service.
User Experience (UX) Design
Creates digital products or services with a user-centered approach to deliver positive experiences, improve satisfaction, and drive business success through research, design, testing, and iteration.
User Flow
The sequence of steps or interactions that a user goes through while interacting with a product or service.
User Interface (UI)
The visual and interactive elements of a system that users interact with to perform tasks and access information.
User Patterns
Recurring behaviors observed in user interactions that help inform design decisions, optimize user experience, and enable personalization.
User Personas
Representations of target users that help in understanding their characteristics, needs, and behaviors.
User Research
The approach and activities to understand users' needs, behaviors, attitudes and preferences.
User Stories
Concise descriptions of user needs, written from the user's perspective, to guide product development efforts and prioritize features.
User-Centered Design
Designing products or services based on the needs, goals, and preferences of users.
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Variable Reward
Variable rewards are used in behavioral psychology and refer to unpredictable or changing rewards that can reinforce certain behaviors or habits.
Vertical Prototype
A vertical prototype focuses particularly on one feature, providing a detailed and realistic representation, facilitating in-depth testing and validation of that specific functionality.
Visual Design
The use of visual elements, such as layout, color, typography, and imagery, to create an emotionally connecting and visually appealing user experience.
Visual Hierarchy
Designing the arrangement and presentation of visual elements to guide users' attention and understanding.
Von Restorff Effect
The Von Restorff Effect, or the isolation effect, is when an item that is distinct or different from its surroundings is more likely to be remembered.
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Whitespace
Intentional empty space in a design layout that creates visual separation, improves readability, and enhances overall aesthetics. It's purposeful, planned, and essential for effective design.
Wireframe
Creating draft designs or initial sketches of the user experience to plan and communicate the design intent.
Wizard of Oz Testing
Wizard of Oz testing is a user research method where a human 'wizard' simulates system functions, allowing real users to interact with a prototype, providing insights for design improvement.