Terms & Definitions Flashcards
1
Q
Above the fold
A
The content on a web page that doesn’t require scrolling to experience
2
Q
Accessibility
A
The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities
3
Q
Advertising agencies
A
Teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns
4
Q
Affinity
A
A feeling of like-mindedness or compatibility toward something or someone
5
Q
Affinity diagram
A
A method of synthesizing that organizes data into groups with common themes or relationships
6
Q
Aggregated empathy maps
A
Represent a visualization of everything designers know about an entire segment or group of similar users
7
Q
Alternative text (alt text)
A
Text that helps translate something visual, such as an image or graph, into a description that can be read by screen readers
8
Q
Apprenticeships
A
Long-term positions providing paid, on-the-job training to help you develop real skills
9
Q
Assets
A
Everything from the text and images to the design specifications, like font style, color, size, and spacing
10
Q
Assistive technology
A
Any products, equipment, or systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities
11
Q
Asymmetrical layout
A
Having purposeful imbalance between different sides of a page
12
Q
Back-end developer
A
Someone who writes code for the website’s architecture and data storage or retrieval, based on the sitemap and functionality
13
Q
A
14
Q
Basic grid
A
Intersecting lines that divide pages into small squares, which allows you to easily lay out elements in a design
15
Q
Bias
A
Favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information
16
Q
Big picture storyboard
A
Big picture storyboard
17
Q
Brand Identity
A
The visual appearance and voice of a company
18
Q
Borders
A
A method of containment that uses continuous lines that often form shapes, like squares or rectangles, to break up sections of a page
19
Q
Box layout
A
A web page layout that consists of boxes or squares of various sizes and proportions
20
Q
Budget estimate
A
Details the expenses and profit margins that add up to an appropriate cost for services
21
Q
Call-to-action (CTA)
A
A visual prompt that tells the user to take action
22
Q
Cards
A
Rectangle parts of a design that contain content and actions about a single subject, which are often used in mobile app design
23
Q
Carousels
A
Scrolling feeds of images or cards on a UI that can be sifted through with a click or that automatically loop while you’re on the page
24
Q
Case study
A
Leads the user through your design process from the beginning to the end
25
Case studies
Summarized presentation of a design project that typically includes
● Project goal and objectives
● Your role on the project
● Process your team followed
● Outcome of the project
26
Close-up storyboard
A series of visually rendered panels that focus on the product
27
Color modification
Features that increase the contrast of colors on a screen, like high-contrast mode or dark mode
28
Common region
The Gestalt Principle that describes how elements located within the same area are perceived to be grouped together
29
Competitive audit
An overview of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
30
Complementary
Taking into account how the product design on each device can make the overall user experience better
31
Confirmation Bias
Occurs when you start looking for evidence to prove a hypothesis you have
32
Consistency
Having a uniform design, so users can expect the design to feel familiar across devices and products
33
Containment
The use of visual barriers to keep elements of a design neat and organized; the four methods of containment are dividers, borders, fill, and shadow
34
Context
Designing for the needs of a specific device and the way in which the user will use that device in any given situation
35
Continuity
Providing users with a smooth and uninterrupted experience as they move between devices
36
Conversion rate
Measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action
37
Corporation
A company with thousands of employees working on lots of different projects
38
Curb cut
The slope of the sidewalk that creates a ramp with adjoining street
39
Curb cut effect
A phenomenon that describes how products and policies designed for people with disabilities often end up helping everyone
40
Customizable text
A feature that allows users to change how text is displayed in order to read the text more easily
41
Database model
A website structure that mixes a database, or an organized collection of information, with search functionality
42
Deceptive patterns
UX methods that trick users into doing or buying something they wouldn’t otherwise have done or bought
43
Dedicated mobile app
Built to live on the mobile device and is accessed through an icon on the phone's home screen
44
Define
The phase of design thinking that involves leveraging the insights gained during the empathize phase to identify the problem you’ll solve with your design
45
Design agency
Provides a one-stop shop for the look of brands, products, and services
46
Design critique session
A planned period of time where UX designers present their work to team members and listen to feedback
47
Design research
Answers the question: How should we build it?
48
Design Sprint
A time-bound process, with five phases typically spread over five full 8-hour days. The goal of design sprints is to answer critical business questions through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users
49
Design system
A series of reusable visual elements and guidelines that allow teams to design and develop a product following predetermined standards
50
Design thinking
A UX design framework that focuses on the user throughout all five phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test
51
Digital literacy
A user's level of ability related to using digital information and technologies
52
Direct competitors
Companies that have offerings similar to your product and focus on the same audience
53
Dividers
A method of containment that uses single lines to separate sections of a page
54
Domain
Address of your website
55
Dopamine
A natural chemical in the brain that’s released when something pleasurable happens, which makes us feel good or intrigued
56
Edge case
What happens when things go wrong that are beyond the user’s control
57
Elements
Building blocks for creating a design
58
Elevator pitch: A short, memorable description that explains a concept in an easy-to-understand way
59
Empathize: The phase of design thinking that involves getting to know your user through research
60
Empathy: The ability to understand someone else’s feelings or thoughts in a situation
61
Empathy map: An easily understood chart that explains everything designers have learned about a type of user
62
Emphasis: A way of attracting attention to text, a button, or another object in a design
63
Entry-level job: Roles that do not require prior experience in the field
64
Equality: Providing the same amount of opportunity and support
65
F-shape layout: A website layout that assumes that users will likely browse content on the page following an F-shaped pattern
66
Equity-focused design: Designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or ignored when building products
67
Facilitator: Runs the critique session and guide the process
68
False consensus bias: The assumption that others will think the same way as you do
69
Featured image layout: A website layout that places the user’s focus on a single image or video that often takes up the entire page above-the-fold
70
Feedback: Asking for or receiving ideas about what is or isn't working
71
Feedback loops: The outcome a user gets at the end of a process
72
Fidelity: How closely a design matches the look and feel of the final product
73
Fill: A method of containment that assigns colors to borders and shapes
74
First interview: Introductory call with a recruiter or hiring manager to determine whether a candidate meets the minimum set of requirements for the role
75
Focal point: A specific and distinct area that sticks out on a web page or mobile screen design, to guide the users’ attention
76
Font: The size, thickness, and emphasis of characters of text
77
Foundational research: Helps designers understand why or if they should build the product and to better understand the user problem they are trying to solve
78
Framework: Creates the basic structure that focuses and supports the problem you’re trying to solve
79
Freelancers: UX designers who work for themselves and market their services to businesses to find customers
80
Friendliness bias: The tendency of people to agree with those they like in order to maintain a non-confrontational conversation
81
Front-end developer: Someone who writes code for all the user-facing interface, based on the UX designer’s specifications
82
Generalist: A UX designer with a broad number of responsibilities
83
Gestalt Principles: Describe how humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images when we perceive objects
84
Gesture: Any method of interaction a user has with information on their device using touch
85
Goal statement: One or two sentences that describe a product and its benefits for the user
86
Graceful degradation (top-down designing): A method of designing from the largest screen, with a lot of features and interactions, to smaller screens, where features and interactions are scaled back
87
Graphic designers: Create visuals that tell a story or message
88
Grid of cards layout: A website layout that features a series of cards, which are often square or rectangles, that provide previews of more detailed content
89
Hamburger menus: A nickname for the type of navigation menu that is represented by an icon with three lines. When you click on the icon, it unfolds by sliding in from the side or taking over the whole page, revealing a menu of options to navigate through pages
90
Happy path: A user story with a pleasant ending
91
Heading: Titles or subtitles that stand out at the beginning of a paragraph, article, section, or another area of a website
92
Hierarchy: A visual design principle that orders elements on a page and highlights them by their importance
93
Hierarchical model: A top-down approach to structure that starts with broader categories of information (parent) and narrows into more detailed information (child)
94
High-fidelity (hi-fi): A design that closely matches the look and feel of the final product and is more refined or polished; called “hi-fi” for short
95
High-fidelity prototypes: Polished designs that exhibit functionality and closely match the look and feel of the final product
96
Hypothesis statement: Our best educated guess on what we think the solution to a design problem might be
97
Iconography: A system of graphic images or symbols associated with a subject or an idea
98
Ideate: The phase of design thinking that involves brainstorming all potential solutions to the user’s problem
99
Ideation: The process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to judge or evaluate them
100
Implicit bias: The collection of attitudes and stereotypes associated with people, without one’s conscious knowledge
101
Impostor syndrome: The belief that you're unskilled, inferior to others, or bad at your job, despite your successes
102
Inclusive design: Making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender
103
Indirect competitors: Have a similar set of offerings but focus on a different audience, or have a different set of offerings and focus on the same audience
104
Information architecture (IA): Organizes content to help users understand where they are in a product and where the information they want is
105
Initial focus: How you attract a user's attention to help them accomplish a task
106
Insight: An observation about people that helps you understand the user or their needs from a new perspective
107
Interaction designers: Focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions
108
Interactivity: Makes the prototype function
109
Internship: A short-term role with limited responsibility
110
Interviews: A research method used to collect in-depth information on people’s opinions, thoughts, experiences, and feelings
111
Iterate: Revise the original design to create a new and improved version
112
Iteration: Doing something again, by building on previous versions and making tweaks
113
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Critical measures of progress toward an end goal
114
Key terms: Important words in a job posting that tell you the specifics about the role
115
Landmarks: Features — like navigation bars, search boxes, fixed sidebars, and footers — used to break up a lot of text on a web page and help improve the use of assistive technology
116
Layout: The structure that supports how visual components on a page are arranged
117
Layout grid: A series of columns and alleys that allow you to organize elements in a design
118
Lorem ipsum: Meaningless placeholder text written in Latin that you can use to show where content will go and how a page will be laid out
119
Low fidelity (lo-fi): A design that has a lower amount of complexity and is less refined or polished; called “lo-fi” for short
120
Low-fidelity prototypes: Simple interactive structures that provide a basic idea of how products will look and behave
121
Matrix model: A website structure that allows users to determine their own path, since content is linked in several ways
122
Mental models: Internal maps that allow humans to predict how something will work
123
Methodology: The steps to take to conduct research, collect data, and analyze data
124
Mobile-first philosophy: A method of design that starts by designing the mobile version of a product and later adapts it to fit larger screens
125
Mockup: A static, high-fidelity design that’s used as a representation of a final product
126
Motion: A way to animate static design elements to focus the user’s attention and tell stories
127
Motion designers: Think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product
128
Multi-column layout: A web page layout that uses two or more columns for content
129
Navigation: The way users get from page to page on a website
130
Negative (white) space: The gaps between elements in a design
131
Networking: Interacting with other people to develop professional contacts and learn more about a job industry
132
Next Billion Users (NBU): The billion people around the world who are accessing the web for the first time
133
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): A contract that gives one party legal protection against another party stealing their ideas or revealing proprietary information before a product is launched
134
Notetaker: The person who captures all of the ideas and feedback from the reviewers during a design critique
135
Pain points: UX issues that frustrate the user and block the user from getting what they need
136
Panel interview: A group of people meet a job candidate at the same time to assess the candidate’s skills
137
Payment schedule: A list of expected payment dates, including upfront costs and contingencies
138
Peer reviews: Assignments that enable learners to provide feedback on each other’s assignment submissions
139
Persona: A fictional user whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users
140
Personal brand: The way in which your personality, unique skills, and values as a designer intersect with your public persona
141
Personal statement: A one- or two-sentence phrase that describes what you do and what you stand for
142
Personally Identifiable information (PII): Specific details that could be used to identify a user
143
Platform: The medium that users experience your product on
144
Portfolio: A collection of work you’ve created that shows your skills in a certain area
145
Post-launch research: Helps designers understand if the product worked as expected
146
Presentation: A group of slides, where each slide has new information to share and promote insights
147
Presenter: The designer who is sharing their work with others in the session
148
Primacy bias: Remembering the first user more than others
149
Primary research: Research you conduct yourself
150
Problem statement: A clear description of the user’s need that should be addressed
151
Product: A good, service, or feature
152
Product designer: Someone who is responsible for figuring out how the whole product comes together
153
Product goal statement: One or two sentences that describe a product and its benefits for the user
154
Production designers: Make sure first and final designs match in the finished project materials and that the assets are ready to be handed off to engineering team
155
Progressive enhancement (bottom-up designing): Designing from the smallest screen, with the basic capabilities of the product design, to the largest screen, where more advanced features and interactions are added
156
Project background: provides a description about the background of the study, including why the insights were needed and what impact they will have on decisions being made
157
Project stakeholders: People who are involved in the project or who will be impacted by its results
158
Proportion: The balance or harmony between elements that are scaled
159
Proposal: Outline of an approach to successfully deliver work that is scoped with a client, including timeline and budget estimates
160
Prototype: An early model of a product that demonstrates functionality
161
Proximity: The Gestalt Principle describing how elements that are close together appear to be more related than those that are spaced apart
162
Qualitative research: Focuses on observations about why and how things happen
163
Quantitative research: Focuses on data that can be gathered by counting or measuring
164
Recency bias: Most easily remembering the last thing you heard
165
Representative sample: A subset of the target population that seeks to accurately reflect the characteristics of the larger group
166
Research report: A document with fewer visuals containing the same information as a presentation to share and promote insights
167
Research study: A step-by-step examination of a group of users and their needs, which adds realistic context to the design process
168
Responsive web app: An actual website that adapts to the device the user is on and is accessed through a mobile phone's web browser
169
Responsive web design: Allows a website to change automatically depending on the size of the device
170
Retrospective: A collaborative critique of the team’s design sprint
171
Reviewier: Gives feedback about the design and offers clear actions to take
172
Scale: Concept that’s used to explain the size relationship between a given element and the other elements in the design
173
Scalable: Describes a system that’s able to maintain performance levels when workload increases
174
Scope creep: This is when the details of a project you're planning, or scoping, slowly increase until the project is much more complex than what was originally planned
175
Scope of work: A document that outlines the project that will be completed with a client
176
Screen reader: Software that reads aloud any on-screen text, interactive elements, or alternative text
177
Screener survey: A detailed list of questions that helps researchers determine if potential participants meet the requirements of the research study
178
Second round of interviews: Interviewers explore a job candidate’s experience in more depth, often in person, so that the team can understand how the candidate’s background fits the role
179
Secondary research: Research that uses information someone else has put together
180
Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information: Data that if lost, compromised, or stolen, could cause your users financial harm, embarrassment, or discrimination
181
Serial position effect: When given a list of items, people are more likely to remember the first few and the last few, while the items in the middle tend to blur
182
Shadows: A method of containment that creates dimension in combination with borders or fill
183
Similarity: The Gestalt Principle describing how elements that look similar are perceived to have the same function
184
Single column layout: A web page layout that has only one column for content
185
Sitemap: A diagram of a website or application that shows how pages are prioritized, linked, and labeled
186
Social desirability bias: The tendency for people to answer questions in a way that will be viewed favorably by others
187
Specialist: A UX designer that dives deep into one particular UX design role, like interaction, visual, or motion design
188
Speech to text: Software that allows users to compose text by speaking into their device
189
Spreadsheet note-taking: A simple and easy method to keep your notes organized using a spreadsheet
190
Sprint Brief: A document that you share with all your attendees to help them prepare for the sprint
191
Startup: A new business that wants to develop a unique product or service and disrupt the market
192
Statement of Work: A legally binding document that includes a list of detailed deliverables, their due dates, and a payment schedule
193
Storyboard: A series of panels or frames that visually describes and explores a user’s experience with a product
194
Sunk cost fallacy: The idea that the deeper we get into a project we’ve invested in, the harder it is to change course
195
Surveys: An activity where many people are asked the same questions in order to understand what most people think about a product
196
Switch device: An assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse
197
System Usability Scale (SUS): A questionnaire to measure the usability of designs
198
T-shaped designer: A designer who specializes in one kind of user experience (e.g., interaction, visual, motion) and has a breadth of knowledge in other areas
199
Test: The phase of design thinking that involves facilitating and observing user tests with your design prototypes
200
The human factor: Describes the range of variables humans bring to their product interactions
201
Tiered layer cake layout: A web page layout where individual rows, or layers, are stacked on top of one another, and within each row, there can be different numbers of columns
202
Time on task: The amount of time it takes for a user to complete a task
203
Traversal order: The navigation flow for a user on an app or a website
204
Typography: The technique of arranging letters and text to make the language readable, clear, and visually appealing
205
Typographic hierarchy: The ordering of typefaces and fonts in a layout to create divisions that show users where to focus and how to find information
206
Typeface: The overall style of the characters
207
Type classification: A general system to describe styles of type, like serif and sans serif
208
Unity: Measures how well elements of your design work together to communicate an idea
209
Universal design: The process of creating one product for users with the widest range of abilities and in the widest range of situations
210
Usability study: A research method that assesses how easy it is for participants to complete core tasks in a design
211
Use of navigation vs. search: The number of people who use a website or app’s navigation compared to the number of people who use the search functionality
212
User: Any person who uses a product
213
User-centered design: Puts the user front-and-center
214
User error rates: Indicate the parts of a design that cause users to make errors
215
User experience: How a person, the user, feels about interacting with, or experiencing, a product
216
User flow: The path taken by a typical user on an app or a website, so they can complete a task from start to finish
217
User group: A set of people who have similar interests, goals, or concerns
218
User interface (UI) designer: Someone who is concerned with how a digital product’s interface looks and functions
219
User journey: The series of experiences a user has as they interact with a product
220
User story: Fictional one-sentence story told from a persona’s point of view to inspire and inform design decisions
221
UX designers: Focus on how users interact with a product
222
UX engineers: Translate the design’s intent into a functioning experience
223
UX program managers: Ensure clear and timely communication so that the process of building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish
224
UX research: Understand users and learn about their backgrounds, demographics, motivations, pain points, emotions, and life goals
225
UX researchers: A type of researcher that conducts studies or interviews to learn about the users of a product and how people use a product
226
UX writers: Create the language that appears throughout a digital product, like websites or mobile apps
227
Value proposition: The reason why a consumer should use a product or service
228
Variety: Differentiating the elements in your design to add visual interest
229
Visual balance: The sense that a design is equally weighted on both sides of its emphasized center
230
Visual design: How a product or technology appears to users
231
Visual designer: Someone who focuses on how the product or technology looks
232
Visual weight: A measure of the force that an element exerts to attract the eye
233
Voice control: Allows users to navigate and interact with the buttons and screens on their devices using only their voice
234
Vulnerable populations: Groups of people who have limited ability to provide their consent or have special privacy concerns
235
WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
236
WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind
237
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): A set of rules that explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities
238
Whiteboard interview: Includes a practical demonstration of a job candidate’s skills in real time for interviewers
239
Wireframe: An outline or a sketch of a product or a screen
240
