Joint Application Development (JAD) is a collaborative approach to gathering requirements and designing solutions in software development projects. It facilitates rapid decision-making and consensus-building by bringing together key stakeholders, including users, developers, and project managers, in structured workshop sessions.
Research aimed at exploring and identifying new opportunities, needs, and ideas to inform the design process. Essential for discovering user insights and guiding innovative design solutions.
A brainstorming technique that frames problems as opportunities for innovation, starting with the phrase "How might we...?". Essential for fostering creativity and generating solutions during the design process.
Also known as "Maslow's Hammer," a cognitive bias where people rely too heavily on a familiar tool or method, often summarized as "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.". Important for designers to recognize and avoid over-reliance on familiar methods in problem-solving and design.
The practice of designing and implementing processes, systems, or business solutions in a way that ensures their long-term viability, efficiency, and maintainability. Crucial for creating durable and efficient designs that remain practical and effective over time, ensuring the ongoing success and feasibility of digital products and operations.
A rule-of-thumb or shortcut that simplifies decision-making and problem-solving processes. Essential for designing user-friendly interfaces that facilitate quick and efficient decision-making.
A brainstorming technique where participants sketch eight ideas in eight minutes to generate a wide range of concepts quickly. Essential for fostering creativity and generating diverse ideas rapidly.
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.
The study of finding the best solution from a set of feasible solutions. Crucial for improving efficiency and performance in design and development processes.
A decision-making strategy that involves choosing an option that meets the minimum requirements rather than seeking the optimal solution, balancing effort and outcome. Important for designing user experiences that accommodate decision-making under constraints.
A cognitive process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions, often contrasted with convergent thinking. Essential for fostering creativity and innovation in problem-solving and design.
The discrepancy between what people intend to do and what they actually do. Crucial for designing interventions that bridge the gap between user intentions and actions.
The practicality of implementing a solution based on technical constraints and capabilities. Crucial for evaluating the viability of design and development projects.
Technology designed to change attitudes or behaviors of users through persuasion and social influence, but not coercion. Crucial for designing systems that effectively influence user behavior while maintaining ethical standards.
Any process or administrative barrier that unnecessarily complicates transactions and creates friction, discouraging beneficial behaviors. Important for identifying and eliminating unnecessary obstacles that hinder user experiences.
Situation-Complication-Resolution (SCR) is a communication and problem-solving framework used to structure information clearly and logically. Crucial for effectively conveying complex ideas and solutions in business and design contexts.
A set of cognitive processes that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control, crucial for planning, decision-making, and behavior regulation. Crucial for designing interfaces and experiences that support users' cognitive abilities.
A cognitive bias where people underestimate the complexity and challenges involved in scaling systems, processes, or businesses. Important for understanding the difficulties of scaling and designing systems that address these challenges.
A research technique that explores the context in which users interact with a product, service, or environment to understand their needs and behaviors. Crucial for gaining deep insights into user contexts and designing more relevant solutions.
A cognitive bias where people rely too heavily on their own perspective and experiences when making decisions. Important for designers to recognize and mitigate their own perspectives influencing design decisions.
An interdisciplinary study of systems, examining the complex interactions and relationships between components within a whole. Crucial for understanding and designing complex, interconnected systems.
Behavioral Science (BeSci) is the study of human behavior through systematic analysis and investigation. Essential for understanding and influencing user behavior in design and product development.
The study of cooking techniques, ingredients, and the cultural significance of food, providing insights into creativity and innovation in other fields. Useful for drawing parallels between culinary arts and design, fostering creativity and innovation.
A problem-solving approach that involves breaking down complex problems into their most basic, foundational elements. Crucial for developing innovative solutions by understanding and addressing core issues.
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.
Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a visual representation of the relationships between entities in a database. Essential for designing and understanding the data structure and relationships within digital products.
A creative thinking technique where the typical process is reversed to generate new ideas by considering the opposite of conventional assumptions. Useful for fostering innovation and challenging existing assumptions in problem-solving.
A cognitive bias that leads individuals to prefer things to remain the same rather than change, often resisting new options or changes. Crucial for understanding resistance to change and designing strategies to overcome it among users.
A strategic approach where multiple potential solutions are tested to identify the most promising one. Crucial for innovation and reducing risk in decision-making.
The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment. Essential for making informed and rational design decisions.
The tendency to believe that large or significant events must have large or significant causes. Important for understanding cognitive biases in decision-making and designing systems that present accurate causal relationships.
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.
Methods and techniques used to overcome mental blocks that hinder creative thinking and problem-solving. Crucial for maintaining productivity and fostering innovation in design.
Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is an AI method that solves new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems. This approach is essential for developing intelligent systems that learn from past experiences to improve problem-solving capabilities.
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 integration and application of knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines to enhance understanding and innovation. Crucial for fostering a holistic approach to problem-solving and design.
Obstacles to effective communication that arise from differences in understanding the meanings of words and symbols used by the communicators. Crucial for designing clear and effective communication systems and avoiding misunderstandings.
A tool used to organize ideas and data into groups based on their natural relationships. Essential for designers and product managers to synthesize information and generate insights.
A quick and often temporary fix applied to a software product to address an urgent issue without going through the full development cycle. Essential for maintaining the stability and functionality of digital products in the face of critical issues.
The process of self-examination and adaptation in AI systems, where models evaluate and improve their own outputs or behaviors based on feedback. Crucial for enhancing the performance and reliability of AI-driven design solutions by fostering continuous learning and improvement.
A specific organization of colors, which helps in the representation of color in both physical and digital forms. Crucial for accurate color representation and consistency across different mediums.
A philosophy that emphasizes reason and logic as the primary sources of knowledge and truth. Useful for understanding the foundations of logical thinking and decision-making in design and development.
The practice of preserving a user's data and settings between sessions in an application. Crucial for enhancing user experience by providing continuity and personalization.
A professional who designs, builds, and maintains systems for processing large-scale data sets. Essential for enabling data-driven decision-making and supporting advanced analytics in organizations.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a system that stores, organizes, and manages digital assets, such as images, videos, and documents. Essential for maintaining and leveraging digital content efficiently in product design and marketing.
The process of performing a series of seemingly unrelated and often tedious tasks that are necessary to solve a larger problem. Important for recognizing and managing the indirect tasks that contribute to achieving the main objectives in digital product design.
A product development approach where teams start with the desired customer experience and work backwards to determine what needs to be built to achieve that outcome. Essential for ensuring that product development is aligned with customer needs and expectations.
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a program developed by W3C to improve web accessibility. Essential for creating guidelines and resources to help make the web accessible to people with disabilities.
A brainstorming technique where participants draw their ideas instead of writing them down. Important for stimulating creative thinking and visual problem-solving.
A simplified, informal language used to describe the logic and steps of an algorithm or program, without syntax of actual programming languages. Useful for planning and communicating algorithms and program structures before implementation in digital product development.
The process of defining and creating algorithms to solve problems and perform tasks efficiently. Fundamental for software development and creating efficient solutions.
A research approach that starts with observations and develops broader generalizations or theories from them. Useful for discovering patterns and generating new theories from data.
A creative problem-solving technique that uses metaphors to generate ideas and solutions. Crucial for stimulating creative thinking and generating innovative ideas.
A visual representation of the user or customer journey, highlighting key interactions, emotions, and pain points. Essential for identifying opportunities to improve user or customer experiences.
Know Your Customer (KYC) is a process used by businesses to verify the identity of their clients and assess potential risks of illegal intentions for the business relationship. Essential for preventing fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing, particularly in financial services, while also ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and building trust with customers.
A brainstorming technique that involves listing all possible attributes of a product or problem to generate new ideas and solutions. Useful for generating creative solutions and improving product features.
An enhanced version of the SCAMPER technique that includes additional prompts to further stimulate creativity and innovation. Useful for expanding the scope of ideation and generating more diverse ideas.
The process of anticipating future developments to ensure that a product or system remains relevant and functional over time. Essential for designing durable and adaptable products.
A field research method where researchers observe and interview users in their natural environment to understand their tasks and challenges. Crucial for gaining authentic insights into user behavior and needs.
A cognitive bias where people attribute group behavior to the characteristics of the group members rather than the situation. Crucial for understanding team dynamics and avoiding misattribution in collaborative settings.