A theory that a person's behavior is influenced by and influences personal factors and the environment, creating a continuous loop of interaction between these elements. Important for understanding how behavior, personal factors, and environmental contexts dynamically interact to shape user experiences and outcomes.
A medium through which a product or service is delivered to a customer, including physical and digital channels. Crucial for understanding how products and services reach end users.
Interfaces that use multiple forms of interaction, such as visual, auditory, and tactile, to enhance user experience and accessibility. Essential for creating accessible and engaging user experiences across different sensory modalities.
A fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way, guiding design decisions. Essential for user-centered design, ensuring that products meet the needs of target users.
An AI-driven assistant or tool that helps users accomplish tasks more efficiently, often by providing suggestions and automating routine actions. Important for enhancing productivity and user experience through AI assistance.
Also known as Self Relevance Effect, the tendency for individuals to better remember information that is personally relevant or related to themselves. Important for designing personalized user experiences and enhancing memory retention.
The tendency to perceive and interpret information based on prior experiences and expectations, influencing how different users perceive design differently. Important for designing interfaces that meet user expectations, improving usability and intuitive navigation.
The tendency for individuals to recall information that is consistent with their current mood. Important for understanding how mood affects memory and designing experiences that account for emotional states.
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.
A methodology that promotes iterative development, collaboration, and flexibility to adapt to changing requirements. Crucial for product managers and development teams to deliver high-quality products efficiently.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study of designing interfaces and interactions between humans and computers. It ensures that digital products are user-friendly, efficient, and satisfying.
A cognitive bias where the perception of one positive trait influences the perception of other unrelated traits. Important for designers to manage and utilize this bias effectively in user experience design.
Detailed, Estimated, Emergent, and Prioritized (DEEP) is an agile project management framework for a well-maintained product backlog. Important for maintaining a clear and actionable backlog in agile methodologies.
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.
The process of comparing design metrics to historical performance, competitive standards, or industry best practices to identify areas for improvement. Crucial for measuring progress, improving practice maturity, and evaluating competitive differentiation.
The process of making small, continuous improvements to products, services, or processes over time. Important for sustaining growth and maintaining competitiveness through ongoing improvements.
A type of usability testing conducted during the design process to identify issues and improve the design iteratively. Crucial for refining designs and ensuring usability before final release.
A design principle that ensures a system continues to function at a reduced level rather than completely failing when some part of it goes wrong. Crucial for enhancing system reliability and user experience in adverse conditions.
A unique attribute, feature, or capability of a product, service, or brand that sets it apart from competitors in the market. Essential for identifying and leveraging unique selling points to create a competitive advantage, enhance brand value, and attract and retain customers in the market.
The percentage of users who take a specific action that signifies they are engaging with a product or service. Important for measuring user engagement and the effectiveness of onboarding processes.
The application of neuroscience principles to design, aiming to create more effective and engaging user experiences based on how the brain processes information. Crucial for creating designs that align with human cognitive and emotional processes.
The study of how the brain perceives and responds to art and design, exploring the neural basis for aesthetic experiences. Important for understanding the neurological underpinnings of aesthetic preferences and enhancing design impact.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C), a business model where products or services are sold directly to individual consumers. Essential for understanding consumer markets and developing direct marketing strategies.
Principle of Least Astonishment (POLA) is a design guideline stating that interfaces should behave in a way that users expect to avoid confusion. Crucial for enhancing user experience and reducing the learning curve in digital products.
A model by Don Norman outlining the cognitive steps users take when interacting with a system: goal formation, planning, specifying, performing, perceiving, interpreting, and comparing. Important for designing user-friendly and effective products by understanding and supporting user behavior at each stage.
A strategic framework that designs user experiences to guide behavior and decisions towards desired outcomes. Crucial for creating effective and ethical influence in digital interfaces.
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 research method that focuses on understanding phenomena through in-depth exploration of human behavior, opinions, and experiences, often using interviews or observations. Essential for gaining deep insights into user needs and behaviors to inform design and development.
The mental and physical effort required to complete a task, influencing user experience and performance. Crucial for designing systems that minimize cognitive and physical load, enhancing usability and efficiency.
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.
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.
The ability of a system to maintain its state and data across sessions, ensuring continuity and consistency in user experience. Crucial for designing reliable and user-friendly systems that retain data and settings across interactions.
The value or satisfaction derived from a decision, influencing the choices people make. Crucial for understanding user preferences and designing experiences that maximize satisfaction.
The quality of being uniform and coherent across different elements and touchpoints in design. Crucial for creating predictable and reliable user experiences.
The systematic investigation of competitor activities, products, and strategies to gain insights and inform decision-making. Crucial for staying competitive and improving product and service offerings.
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.
Design patterns that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring a consistent user experience. Crucial for creating designs that work well across a variety of devices.
A cognitive bias where people prefer a greater variety of options when making simultaneous choices compared to sequential choices. Important for designers to consider user preferences for variety when designing choice architectures and product offerings.
A psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person and the uniqueness of each individual, focusing on concepts such as self-actualization and personal growth. Crucial for understanding and designing experiences that cater to individual user needs and potential.
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.
A usability test to see what impression users get within the first 10 seconds of interacting with a product or page. Important for designers to quickly gauge initial user impressions and improve immediate engagement.
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.
Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of tools and protocols that allow different software applications to communicate and interact with each other. Essential for integrating different systems and enabling functionality in digital products.
The principle stating that there is a limit to the amount of complexity that users can handle, and if designers don't manage complexity, users will. Crucial for designing user-friendly systems that manage complexity effectively.
An ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes over time through incremental and breakthrough improvements. Crucial for fostering a culture of constant enhancement and adaptation.
The process of combining different systems or components in a way that ensures they work together smoothly and efficiently without disruptions. Essential for providing a cohesive user experience and ensuring the reliability of complex systems.
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.
Human-Centered Design (HCD) is an approach to problem-solving that involves the human perspective in all steps of the process. It ensures designs are user-friendly and meet actual user needs.
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. Essential for creating flexible, adaptive web experiences that maintain functionality and aesthetics across different platforms and devices.
Pre-selected options in a user interface that are chosen to benefit the majority of users. Essential for simplifying decision-making and improving user experience by reducing the need for customization.
Research focused on understanding and improving information architecture (IA), ensuring that information is logically and intuitively organized for users. Crucial for optimizing the organization and accessibility of information.
Work that is not performed in real-time, allowing team members to collaborate without needing to be online simultaneously. Crucial for increasing flexibility and productivity in remote and distributed teams.
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.
A research method that focuses on collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns, relationships, and trends, often using surveys or experiments. Essential for making data-driven decisions and validating hypotheses with statistical evidence.
Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a process for capturing customers' expectations, preferences, and aversions. Crucial for guiding product development and improving customer satisfaction.
The practice of using data analytics and metrics to make informed decisions, focusing on measurable outcomes and efficiency rather than intuition or traditional methods. Important for optimizing design processes, improving product performance, and making data-driven decisions that enhance user experience and business success.
The practice of keeping multiple web pages open in browser tabs for future reference or action. Important for understanding user behavior and designing for multi-tab usage.
The effort required for users to complete a task or interaction within a system. Essential for optimizing usability and minimizing user effort.
A deployment strategy that reduces downtime and risk by running two identical production environments, switching traffic between them. Crucial for ensuring seamless updates and minimizing disruptions in digital product deployment.
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.