A concept describing how motivation fluctuates over time, influenced by various factors such as goals, rewards, and external circumstances. Crucial for designing systems that align with users' motivational states to maximize engagement and productivity.
Readability is a design principle that emphasizes making text easy to read and understand. Crucial for enhancing user comprehension and engagement in digital and print media.
The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. Important for designing effective visual communication and iconography.
A psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to an increased preference for it. Useful for designing marketing and user engagement strategies that increase familiarity and preference.
Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse (SCAMPER) is a creative thinking technique that encourages innovation in a product or process. Useful for generating new ideas and improving existing products or processes.
A framework that explores the structure and function of stories and how they influence human cognition and behavior. Important for creating compelling and meaningful user experiences through storytelling.
An approach to information architecture that starts with the details and builds up to a comprehensive structure. Useful for designing flexible and detailed systems that can adapt to user needs.
Minimum Viable Feature (MVF) is the smallest possible version of a feature that delivers value to users and allows for meaningful feedback collection. Crucial for rapid iteration in product development, enabling teams to validate ideas quickly and efficiently while minimizing resource investment.
Numeronym for the word "Localization" (L + 10 letters + N), adapting a product or content to meet the language, cultural, and regional preferences of a specific target market. Essential for ensuring product relevance in different regions.
A psychological effect where exposure to one stimulus influences the response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention. Crucial for designing experiences that subtly guide user behavior and decision-making.
A framework for understanding what drives individuals to act, involving theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Important for designing products and experiences that align with users' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
A detailed diagram that visualizes the processes, touchpoints, and interactions involved in delivering a service, helping to identify areas for improvement. Crucial for optimizing service delivery and ensuring a seamless user experience.
A type of long-term memory involving information that can be consciously recalled, such as facts and events. Important for understanding how users retain and recall information in design.
A cognitive bias where a person's subjective confidence in their judgments is greater than their objective accuracy. Crucial for understanding user decision-making and designing systems that account for overconfidence.
The concept in web design referring to the portion of a webpage that is visible without scrolling, with content placed above the fold being more immediately visible. Important for optimizing the placement of key content to ensure it captures user attention.
A cognitive bias where people prefer familiar things over unfamiliar ones, even if the unfamiliar options are objectively better. Useful for designing interfaces and products that leverage familiar elements to enhance user comfort.
Environmental signals that influence behavior and decision-making, such as signage, prompts, or notifications. Useful for designing environments and systems that effectively guide user behavior.
The degree to which a product's elements are consistent with external standards or other products. Important for ensuring compatibility and user familiarity across different systems.
The application of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Crucial for enhancing user engagement and motivation in various contexts.
Methods and techniques used to overcome mental blocks that hinder creative thinking and problem-solving. Crucial for maintaining productivity and fostering innovation in design.
A distinct text-only typographic treatment of a brand name used as a logo. Important for establishing a recognizable brand identity and ensuring consistent brand representation.
The practice of using narrative to communicate information, ideas, or experiences in a compelling and engaging way, often used in marketing and design. Crucial for creating engaging and memorable user experiences and effectively conveying messages.
The default scaling factor applied by a device to render content at its optimal size and resolution. Crucial for ensuring visual clarity and consistency on various devices.
A phenomenon where learning is improved when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed together. Crucial for designing educational and training programs that enhance long-term retention.
The ability to navigate through a web page or application using keyboard keys instead of a mouse. Important for enhancing accessibility and providing an alternative way to interact with content.
A cognitive bias where people tend to remember the first and last items in a series better than those in the middle, impacting recall and memory. Crucial for designing information presentation to optimize user memory and recall.
A phenomenon where the success or failure of a design or business outcome is influenced by external factors beyond the control of the decision-makers, akin to serendipity. Important for recognizing and accounting for external influences in performance evaluations to ensure fair assessments and informed decisions.
A design approach that focuses on building a robust core experience first, then adding more advanced features and capabilities for users with more capable browsers or devices. Essential for ensuring a consistent and accessible user experience across different devices and browsers.
A theory of motivation that emphasizes the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in fostering intrinsic motivation and psychological well-being. Important for understanding how to design experiences that support user motivation and well-being.
The belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task, influencing motivation and behavior. Crucial for designing systems that enhance user confidence and encourage goal achievement.
The tendency for people to feel more motivated and accelerate their efforts as they get closer to achieving a goal. Important for designing systems that motivate users effectively.
The cues and hints that users follow to find information online, based on perceived relevance and usefulness. Important for designing intuitive navigation and content structures that align with user expectations.
A decision-making rule where individuals choose the option with the highest perceived value based on the first good reason that comes to mind, ignoring other information. Crucial for understanding and designing for quick decision-making processes.
The theory that users search for information in a manner similar to animals foraging for food, aiming to maximize value while minimizing effort. Important for designing efficient and user-centered information retrieval systems.
An interdisciplinary study of systems, examining the complex interactions and relationships between components within a whole. Crucial for understanding and designing complex, interconnected systems.
The process of providing incentives or rewards to encourage specific behaviors or actions. Important for motivating user behavior and increasing engagement.
A phenomenon where people are more likely to remember information when they are in the same state of consciousness as when they learned it. Important for understanding how context affects memory recall and designing experiences that facilitate better retention.
A self-regulation strategy in the form of "if-then" plans that can lead to better goal attainment and behavior change. Useful for designing interventions that promote positive user behaviors.
The visual elements of a brand, such as color, design, and logo, that communicate the brand to consumers. Crucial for creating a consistent and recognizable brand presence.
A concept in transactional analysis that describes three different aspects of the self: Parent, Adult, and Child, each influencing behavior and communication. Important for designing communication strategies and interfaces that resonate with different user states.
A psychological model that outlines the stages individuals go through to change behavior, including precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Crucial for designing interventions and experiences that support users at different stages of behavior change.
The process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to judge or evaluate them initially. Crucial for creative problem-solving and developing innovative solutions in product design and development.
A learning phenomenon where information is better retained when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed in a short period. Crucial for designing educational tools and content that optimize long-term retention.
Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style for designing networked applications based on stateless, client-server communication. Essential for building scalable and efficient web services.
Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR) are the four main principles of web accessibility. These principles are essential for creating inclusive digital experiences that can be accessed and used by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.
A cognitive approach that involves meaningful analysis of information, leading to better understanding and retention. Crucial for designing educational and informational content that promotes deep engagement and learning.
The study of complex systems and how interactions within these systems give rise to collective behaviors. Useful for understanding and managing the complexity in design processes and systems.
A cognitive bias where new evidence or knowledge is automatically rejected because it contradicts established norms or beliefs. Important for recognizing resistance to change and designing strategies to encourage openness to new ideas among designers.
Conversational User Interface (CUI) is a user interface designed to communicate with users in a conversational manner, often using natural language processing and AI. Essential for creating intuitive and engaging user experiences in digital products.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology that describes the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance and support. Crucial for designing effective educational experiences and scaffolding that promote optimal learning and skill development.
Numeronym for the word "Modularization" (M + 12 letters + N), dividing a system into separate, interchangeable modules that can be developed, tested, and maintained independently. Important for improving maintainability and scalability of systems.
The Principle of Front Doors is an information architecture guideline that acknowledges multiple entry points into a website or system. Crucial for ensuring that all entry points provide a coherent and navigable experience.
The study of the practices and possibilities of music, covering elements like rhythm, melody, harmony, and form. Essential for understanding musical structure, composition, and performance.
The process of making predictions about future trends based on current and historical data. Useful for anticipating user needs and market trends to inform design decisions.
The phenomenon where taking a test on material improves long-term retention of that material more than additional study sessions. Crucial for designing educational tools and methods that enhance learning and retention.
A holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. Essential for solving complex problems and designing systems that account for interdependencies and dynamics.
The series of stages a product goes through from initial concept to market release, including planning, design, development, testing, and launch. Essential for understanding the full lifecycle of product creation and bringing products to market efficiently.
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) is an acronym for describing the challenging conditions of the modern world. Important for understanding and navigating dynamic and unpredictable environments.
Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, and Ethical (STEEPLE) is an analysis tool that examines the factors influencing an organization. Crucial for comprehensive strategic planning and risk management in product design.
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a workflow, using standardized symbols and notations. Essential for creating clear, standardized diagrams that facilitate understanding and communication of business processes in digital product design.