The arrangement of visual elements in a way that signifies their importance, guiding users' attention to the most critical parts of a design. Essential for creating effective and intuitive user interfaces that enhance usability and user experience.
A cognitive bias where people overestimate the probability of success for difficult tasks and underestimate it for easy tasks. Useful for designers to understand user confidence and design
A structured evaluation process where a product's design, functionality, and user experience are assessed, often by peers or experts. Essential for identifying areas for improvement and fostering a culture of continuous enhancement.
A model predicting the speed-accuracy trade-off in pointing tasks when using devices like a mouse, important for user interface design. Useful for designing user interfaces that are efficient and easy to navigate.
The perception of objects as unchanging despite changes in sensory input, such as changes in lighting, distance, or angle. Important for understanding user perception and designing stable visual experiences.
A dark pattern where users are unknowingly signed up for a recurring subscription. Awareness of this tactic is important to ensure transparent subscription services and prevent deceptive charges.
A usability inspection method where experts review a user interface against a set of heuristics to identify usability issues. Crucial for identifying usability problems early in the design process.
A dark pattern where the user is guilt-tripped into opting into something by using language designed to shame them if they decline. Designers must avoid this manipulative tactic and respect user decisions without using guilt or shame.
The psychological phenomenon where people prefer options that are not too extreme, but just right. Crucial for designing products and experiences that cater to the majority preference.
A behavior change method that encourages the adoption of small, easy-to-do habits that can lead to larger, sustainable behavior changes. Important for designing systems that support gradual and sustainable behavior change.
A dark pattern where availability is falsely limited to pressure users into making a purchase. Awareness of this deceptive practice is important to provide honest information about product availability.
The study of cultural norms, values, and practices and their influence on human behavior. Useful for designing products that are culturally sensitive and relevant.
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.
A Japanese term meaning "the real place," used in Lean management to describe the place where value is created. Important for understanding the actual processes and identifying areas for improvement.
The concept that humans have a finite capacity for attention, influencing how they perceive and interact with information. Crucial for designing user experiences that are not overwhelming and facilitate focus.
A cognitive bias where one negative trait of a person or thing influences the perception of other traits. Important for designing experiences that counteract or mitigate negative biases in user perception.
A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their own abilities, qualities, or performance relative to others. Important for understanding user self-perception and designing systems that account for inflated self-assessments.
A cognitive bias where people prefer a smaller set of higher-quality options over a larger set with lower overall quality. Useful for designing product offerings and experiences that emphasize quality over quantity for users.
A writing and design principle that suggests that things grouped in threes are more satisfying, effective, and memorable for audiences. Important for creating impactful and memorable content and designs.
A principle stating that a system should be liberal in what it accepts and conservative in what it sends, meaning it should handle user input flexibly while providing clear, consistent output, similar to the principle of fault tolerance. Essential for designing robust and user-friendly interfaces that accommodate a wide range of user inputs and behaviors while maintaining reliability and clarity in responses.
A dark pattern where questions are worded in a way that tricks the user into giving an answer they didn't intend. Recognizing the harm of this practice is important to maintain clarity and honesty in user interactions.
A cognitive bias where people judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions). Important for understanding user decision-making and designing systems that mitigate this bias.
A dark pattern where the user is tricked into publicly sharing more information about themselves than they intended. Designers must avoid this deceptive practice and ensure clear, consensual data sharing to respect user privacy.
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 reading pattern where users scan a page in horizontal stripes, focusing on headings and subheadings. Important for structuring content in a way that facilitates quick scanning and information retrieval.
The tendency to perceive a greater quantity as a better value, regardless of the actual utility. Important for understanding consumer behavior and designing effective marketing strategies.
The tendency for images to be more easily remembered than words, highlighting the power of visual communication. Crucial for designing effective visual content that enhances memory retention and user engagement.
A Gestalt principle where the mind completes incomplete figures to form a whole, aiding in the perception of shapes and objects. Crucial for designing visual elements that are easily understood by users.
A cognitive bias where people underestimate the influence of emotional states on their own and others' behavior. Crucial for designers to account for varying user emotional states in experience design.
The practice of setting defaults in decision environments to influence outcomes, often used in behavioral economics and design. Crucial for creating user experiences that encourage beneficial behaviors through preselected options.
A psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. Crucial for designing user experiences that leverage familiarity to increase user comfort and satisfaction.
The tendency to give more weight to negative experiences or information than positive ones. Crucial for understanding user behavior and designing systems that balance positive and negative feedback.
A cognitive phenomenon where people are more likely to pursue goals or change behavior following a temporal landmark (e.g., new year, birthday). Useful for designing interventions and features that leverage these moments to encourage positive behavior.
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a methodology that uses visual modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, and validation activities throughout the development lifecycle. Essential for managing complex systems, improving communication among stakeholders, and enhancing the overall quality and efficiency of systems engineering processes.
A framework for designing habit-forming products that includes four phases: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. Crucial for creating engaging and sticky user experiences.
The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities or specific needs. Crucial for creating inclusive products that can be used by everyone, including those with disabilities.
The process of evaluating a product by testing it with real users to gather feedback and identify usability issues. Essential for validating design decisions and ensuring the product meets user needs.
A visual or auditory cue that indicates how to interact with an element in the user interface. Crucial for enhancing usability by clearly communicating the purpose and function of UI elements.
The context and set of conditions surrounding a problem that needs to be solved. Essential for understanding the full scope of a problem and identifying potential solutions.
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.
A dark pattern where the cancellation process is intentionally complicated to discourage users from canceling. Designers must avoid complicating cancellations and respect user decisions with a straightforward process.
The process of designing intuitive navigation systems within a digital product that help users easily understand their current location, navigate to desired destinations, and efficiently complete tasks. Crucial for enhancing user experience, reducing cognitive load, and ensuring users can achieve their goals seamlessly.
The application of behavioral science principles to improve the design and usability of digital products, focusing on user behavior and interactions. Important for creating user experiences that are intuitive and engaging by leveraging behavioral insights.
The number of pixels per inch (PPI) on a display, affecting the sharpness and clarity of visual elements. Crucial for optimizing visual content for different devices.
A dark pattern where additional costs are only revealed at the last step of the checkout process. It's essential to avoid this tactic and promote transparent pricing to build user trust.
A principle that states the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices available. Crucial for designing user interfaces that minimize cognitive load and enhance decision-making efficiency.
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.
A research method in which participants interact with a series of potential product concepts in quick succession, providing rapid feedback on multiple ideas. Useful for quickly gathering user feedback on various concepts and iterating based on their preferences.
The visual images, symbols, or modes of representation collectively associated with a subject, often used in design to communicate ideas quickly and effectively. Important for creating cohesive and meaningful visual systems.
A cognitive bias where people seek out more information than is needed to make a decision, often leading to analysis paralysis. Crucial for designing decision-making processes that avoid information overload for users.
A type of sensory memory that briefly holds visual information for a fraction of a second. Useful for understanding how users process visual information and designing interfaces accordingly.
The tendency to avoid information that one perceives as potentially negative or anxiety-inducing. Important for designing experiences that encourage information-seeking behavior.
The process by which attention is guided by internal goals and external stimuli, affecting how information is processed and remembered. Useful for designing user interfaces that direct user attention effectively.
The observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. Useful for designing experiences that maintain user engagement and satisfaction over time.
Messenger, Incentives, Norms, Defaults, Salience, Priming, Affect, Commitment, and Ego (MINDSPACE) is a framework used to understand and influence behavior. Crucial for designing interventions that effectively influence user behavior.
A cognitive process where ideas are brought together to find a single, best solution to a problem. Important for problem-solving and decision-making in design processes.
Also known as Magical Number 7 +/- 2, a theory in cognitive psychology that states the average number of objects an individual can hold in working memory is about seven. Crucial for designing user interfaces that align with human cognitive limitations.
A psychological principle where people place higher value on objects or opportunities that are perceived to be limited or rare. Important for understanding consumer behavior and designing marketing strategies that leverage perceived scarcity.
A usability testing method where participants verbalize their thoughts while interacting with a product. Essential for understanding user thought processes and identifying usability issues.
A set of principles describing how the human mind organizes visual information into meaningful wholes. Crucial for designing intuitive digital interfaces and cohesive user experiences that align with natural human perception patterns.