Directed Cognition
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.
697 topics found for:
“user experience design”
Signifier
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.
Mental Accounting
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.
Diary Study
A research method where participants record their activities, experiences, and thoughts over a period of time, providing insights into their behaviors and needs. Important for gaining in-depth, longitudinal insights into user experiences.
Flexibility-Usability Tradeoff
A principle stating that as the flexibility of a system increases, its usability often decreases, and vice versa. Crucial for balancing versatility and ease of use in design.
Salience Bias
A cognitive bias where people focus on the most noticeable or prominent information while ignoring less conspicuous details. Important for understanding user decision-making and ensuring balanced presentation of information.
Haptic Feedback
The use of touch sensations to communicate information to users, often through vibrations or other tactile responses in devices. Essential for enhancing user interaction and providing sensory feedback.
IA Research Study
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.
Functional Fixedness
A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. Important for designers to foster creative problem-solving and innovation.
Principle of Scale
A design principle that involves using relative size to indicate the importance of elements, creating visual hierarchy and focus. Crucial for guiding user attention and creating effective visual communication.
Information Scent
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.
Cognitive Ease
The tendency for people to prefer things that are easy to think about and understand. Important for designing user interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use.
POUR
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.
Storytelling
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.
Motivation Theory
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.
Density Independence
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.
Continuous Reinforcement
A schedule of reinforcement where a desired behavior is reinforced every time it occurs, promoting quick learning and behavior maintenance. Important for designing systems that encourage consistent user behavior.
Fogg Behavior Model
A model that explains behavior change through the interaction of three elements: motivation, ability, and triggers. Crucial for designing interventions and experiences that effectively change user behavior.
Information Bias
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.
Choice Architecture
The practice of organizing the context in which people make decisions to influence the outcomes, often used to nudge users towards certain behaviors. Crucial for designing user experiences that guide decision-making and improve outcomes.
A/B Testing
A method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app to see which performs better in terms of user engagement or conversions. Crucial for designers and product managers to test variations and optimize user experience and performance.
Micro-Incentive
Small rewards or incentives given to users to encourage specific behaviors or actions. Important for motivating user engagement and fostering desired behaviors.
Wireframing
The process of creating a simplified visual guide or blueprint for the layout and structure of a webpage or app, focusing on functionality and content placement. Crucial for planning and communicating design structure before full development.
Page Speed
The time it takes for a webpage to load and become interactive, impacting user experience and search engine rankings. Essential for improving user satisfaction and SEO performance.
Wall Walk
An activity during a design audit where printed screens representing customer journeys are reviewed collaboratively with stakeholders to assess design quality and identify areas for improvement. Essential for ensuring design consistency, gathering feedback, and making informed decisions on design enhancements.
Product Engagement Score
A metric that measures how engaged users are with a product, often based on usage frequency, feature adoption, and user feedback. Crucial for assessing user satisfaction and identifying areas for improvement in the product experience.
Breakpoint System
A structured set of breakpoints used to create responsive designs that work seamlessly across multiple devices. Important for maintaining consistency and usability in responsive design.
Common Region
A Gestalt principle where elements that are located within the same closed region are perceived as being grouped together. Essential for creating designs that are easily understood and visually organized.
Breakpoint
A specific viewport dimension at which a website's layout adjusts to provide an optimal viewing experience across different screen sizes. Crucial for responsive web design to ensure usability on various devices.
Faceted Search
A search system that allows users to narrow down search results by applying multiple filters based on different attributes or categories. Essential for improving user search experience and efficiency.
Reification
A key aspect of Gestalt psychology describing the mind's ability to fill in gaps to create a whole object from incomplete elements. Crucial for designing creative and engaging visuals that are both pleasing to the eye and cleverly satisfying to the mind.
Focus Groups
A qualitative research method where a small group of people discuss a product, service, or concept to gather diverse insights and opinions. Important for gaining in-depth understanding of user perceptions and needs.
Narrative Theory
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.
Flexible Ratio
A dynamic aspect ratio that adjusts based on the container or screen size. Important for responsive design, ensuring elements remain proportional across devices.
Introspection Illusion
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.
CTA
Call to Action (CTA) is a prompt that encourages users to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. Crucial for guiding user behavior and increasing engagement or conversions on digital platforms.
Right Rail Blindness
A specific form of banner blindness where users ignore content placed in the right-hand rail of a web page. Important for optimizing web page layouts and placing critical information where it will be seen.
Familiarity Bias
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.
Theory of Reasoned Action
A psychological theory that predicts an individual's behavior based on their intention, which is influenced by their attitudes and subjective norms. Important for understanding and predicting user behavior and designing interventions to influence actions.
Satisficing
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.
Connectedness
A Gestalt principle suggesting that elements are perceived as a single unit or group if they share an organizing visual cue like bullet points, or connecting lines. Essential for creating designs that organize and define related elements through grouping.
Contrast Effect
The enhancement or diminishment of perception, cognition, or related performance as a result of exposure to a stimulus of greater or lesser value in the same dimension. Useful for designing interfaces that leverage contrasting elements to guide user attention and behavior.
Disguised Ads
A dark pattern where advertisements are disguised as other types of content or navigation to trick users into clicking on them. Awareness of this tactic is crucial to maintain transparency and prevent misleading users with disguised content.
Keyboard Navigation
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.
Service Blueprint
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.
Conspicuity
The ability of an object to stand out and attract attention within its environment. Important for designing elements that need to be easily noticed by users.
Nudging
The act of designing and implementing subtle interventions to influence behavior in a predictable way. Crucial for guiding user behavior effectively without limiting freedom of choice.
Color Psychology
The study of how colors affect perceptions and behaviors. Important for designing experiences that evoke desired emotional responses from users.
Self Efficacy
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.
Declarative Memory
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.
Negativity Effect
The tendency for negative information to have a greater impact on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive information. Important for understanding and mitigating the impact of negative information.
BeSci
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.
Ajax
A technique for creating interactive web applications by exchanging data with the server in the background without reloading the entire page. Essential for enhancing user experience by making web applications more dynamic and responsive.
Suffix Effect
The phenomenon where people have a reduced ability to recall the last items in a list when additional, unrelated information is added at the end. Crucial for designing information presentation to optimize memory retention.
Ergonomics
The study of how people interact with their environment and products, aiming to improve comfort, efficiency, and safety. Crucial for designing user-friendly and safe products and workspaces.
Centre-Stage Effect
The tendency for people to pay more attention to items placed in the center of a visual field. Crucial for designing layouts that maximize visibility and impact of key elements.
Endowment Effect
A cognitive bias where people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them. Useful for understanding user attachment and designing persuasive experiences.
a11y
Numeronym for the word "Accessibility" (A + 11 letters + Y), designing for ease of use by all people, ensuring equal access to those with disabilities. Crucial for ensuring inclusivity and compliance with accessibility standards.
Learning Theory
The study of how people acquire knowledge, skills, and behaviors through experience, practice, and instruction. Useful for creating educational content and interactive tutorials that enhance user learning.
Multiple Classification
A method of categorizing information in more than one way to enhance findability and user experience. Crucial for improving navigation, search, and overall usability of complex information systems.