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.
The tendency to avoid information that one perceives as potentially negative or anxiety-inducing. Important for designing experiences that encourage information-seeking behavior.
The deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making, due to mental exhaustion. Important for designing interfaces that minimize cognitive load and simplify decision 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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
The effort required for users to complete a task or interaction within a system. Essential for optimizing usability and minimizing user effort.
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 behavioral economics concept where people categorize and treat money differently depending on its source or intended use. Crucial for understanding financial behavior and designing systems that align with users' mental accounting practices.
The path taken by a user to complete a task on a website or application, including all the steps and interactions along the way. Essential for designing intuitive and efficient user experiences.
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.
The principle that ensures user interface elements maintain their size and proportion across different screen densities. Essential for creating a consistent user experience across various devices.
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.
The tendency for the first items presented in a sequence to be remembered better than those in the middle. Crucial for designing information presentation and improving memory retention.
The structural design of information environments, organizing and labeling content to support usability and findability. Essential for creating intuitive and navigable digital products.
A cognitive bias where individuals tend to focus on positive information or events more than negative ones, especially as they age. Useful for understanding user preferences and designing experiences that emphasize positive outcomes.
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.
A step-by-step guide that helps users complete a complex task by breaking it down into manageable steps. Crucial for improving usability and ensuring users can successfully complete multi-step processes.
Common reading patterns users follow when scanning web content, such as the F-pattern, where users read across the top and then scan down the left side. Important for designing layouts that align with natural reading behaviors, improving content engagement and usability.
The risk that the product will not be financially or strategically sustainable for the business, potentially leading to a lack of support or profitability. Essential for ensuring that the product aligns with business goals and can be maintained and supported long-term.
A cognitive bias where people wrongly believe they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others' introspections as unreliable. Important for designing experiences that account for discrepancies between user self-perception and actual behavior.
A cognitive bias where people's decisions are influenced by how information is presented rather than just the information itself. Crucial for designers to minimize bias in how information is presented to users.
Small, functional animations or responses in a user interface that enhance user experience and feedback. Crucial for enhancing user experience through attention to detail and providing immediate feedback.
The process of creating representations of how users will interact with a system, including the flow of interactions and the overall experience. Crucial for planning and optimizing user interactions and experience.
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.
A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their ability to control impulsive behavior, leading to overexposure to temptations. Important for designing systems that help users manage self-control and avoid overexposure to temptations.
Research conducted to assess the effectiveness, usability, and impact of a design or product. Essential for validating design decisions and improving user experiences.
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.
A reading pattern where users quickly scan for specific markers or keywords within the content. Important for optimizing content for quick search and retrieval.
UI patterns that excessively demand user attention, often interrupting the user experience. Important for identifying and avoiding practices that can frustrate or annoy users.
The study of how individuals make choices among alternatives and the principles that guide these choices. Important for designing decision-making processes and interfaces that help users make informed choices.
Numeronym for the word "Multilingualization" (M + 17 letters + N), enabling a product or system to support multiple languages, allowing users to switch between languages as needed. Crucial for ensuring smooth adaptation to various languages.
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.
The ease with which users can quickly find and understand information on a webpage or document, often enhanced by design elements like headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs. Crucial for improving user experience and ensuring that content is accessible and easy to navigate.
A design pattern that combines human and machine intelligence to enhance decision-making and problem-solving. Important for leveraging AI to support and amplify human capabilities.
A writing style where the most important information is presented at the beginning, followed by supporting details in order of decreasing importance. Crucial for creating clear and effective information hierarchies in content design.
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.
Small bits of text in user interfaces, such as instructions, labels, and error messages, that help guide users through interactions. Essential for enhancing user experience and providing clear guidance.
The tendency to favor people who are similar to oneself in terms of background, beliefs, or interests. Important for recognizing and mitigating bias in user research and team dynamics.
The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment. Essential for making informed and rational design decisions.
Data that provides information about other data, such as its content, format, and structure. Essential for organizing, managing, and retrieving digital assets and information efficiently in product design and development.
A technology and research method that measures where and how long a person looks at various areas on a screen or interface. Crucial for understanding user attention and improving interface 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.
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.
The risk that users will find the product difficult or confusing to use, preventing them from effectively utilizing its features. Crucial for making sure the product is user-friendly and intuitive, enhancing the user experience and adoption.
The series of actions or operations involved in the acquisition, interpretation, storage, and retrieval of information. Crucial for understanding how users handle information and designing systems that align with cognitive processes.
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.
Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy (LATCH) is a framework for categorizing information. Useful for creating clear and intuitive information structures in digital products.
A principle that suggests the simplest explanation is often the correct one, favoring solutions that make the fewest assumptions. Crucial for problem-solving and designing straightforward, efficient solutions.
A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign, where visitors land after clicking on a link. Crucial for converting visitors into leads or customers.
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 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.