UX Design Flashcards
Design Thinking Steps
Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test
Foundational Research
Done before you start designing anything. The goal is to figure out the user needs and what problem you are trying to solve.
Design Research
Done as you are designing. It helps inform your designs and reduce risk.
Post-Launch Research
Done after the design in complete and your product has launched.
Usability Study
All users are given the same tasks and try to complete them as observers watch, listen, and take notes. The goal is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data, and determine participants satisfaction with the product.
User Interviews
User interviews are one on one sessions between a user and a designer. The goal is to get to know the users experience and how they currently solve their problems. It can be done in the early stages of design thinking before a prototype is present.
User Surveys
A set of questions that evaluate a users preferences, opinions, and attitudes about a product.
Contextual Inquiry
Designer observes a users behavior in their own environment doing their own tasks.
Open Card Sort
In an open card sort the users are given a randomly shuffled deck of cards and asked to organize them how they deem sensible. Then they are asked to explain their reasoning.
Closed Card Sort
In a closed card sort, participants place cards from a deck into pre-existing groups and their word associations are documented by researchers.
Empathy Map
A chart with four squares (say, think, feel, do) that breaks down user interviews into more digestible pieces of information.
Personas
Personas represent a group of users that you have learned about through your research. Look for the most common themes in your data and personify those themes into one or multiple personas.
User Story
A fictional one sentence story told from a personas point of view. “As a (role), I want (feature/action), because (reason).”
User Journey Map
A chart that demonstrates how a user would go through using a product in real life. Includes their goal, the actions they take to reach it, and their feelings along the way.
Storyboard
A visual representation of how a user would react and interact with a product.
Scenarios
User scenarios are detailed descriptions of a user – typically a persona – that describe realistic situations relevant to the design of a solution. By painting a “rich picture” of a set of events, teams can appreciate user interactions in context, helping them to understand the practical needs and behaviors of users.
Problem Statement
Sometimes called a POV statement. Provides a clear description of the user need that should be addressed. (user name) is a/an (user characteristics) who needs (user need) because (insight)
Goal Statement
This considers how your design will alleviate user pain points
“Our (product) will let users (action) which will affect (describe who the action will effect) by (describe how it will positively affect users). We will measure effectiveness by (describe how you will measure effectiveness).”
Competitive Audit
An overview of your competitors strengths, weaknesses, and user feedback.
Direct Competitor
Competitor with a similar offering and audience
Indirect Competitor
Competitor with a similar offering but different audience
How Might We
A design exercise that generates different questions starting with “how might we”. These questions are meant to help with brainstorming and ideating on the right solutions.
Crazy Eights
Draw eight possible solutions in eight minutes
User Flow
A visual outline drawn by a designer representing the path taken by the user to complete a goal. Can also be called the happy path.
Information Architecture
A process of organizing information. It is made up of three pieces: Organization, Hierarchy, and Sequence
Organization
The organization is how different pieces of information connect in a product.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy is often called the “tree structure” and is where a larger category is placed at the top and specific categories related to the overall category are placed underneath. Peer information is placed side by side (or on the same level as each other)
Sequence
The sequence enables users to move through an app via certain orders or steps
Object Principle
(Principle of IA) - You should view your content as “living” and as something that changes and grows over time
Choice Principle
(Principle of IA) - People think they want to have many choices, but they actually need fewer choices that are well-organized
Disclosure Principle
(Principle of IA) - Information should not be unexpected or unnecessary.
Exemplar Principle
(Principle of IA) - Humans put things into categories and group different concepts together
Front Door Principle
(Principle of IA) - People will usually arrive at a homepage from another website.
Multiple Classification Principle
(Principle of IA) - People have different ways of searching for information.
Focused Navigation Principle
(Principle of IA) - There must be a strategy and logic behind the way navigation menus are designed
Growth Principle
(Principle of IA) - The amount of content in a design will grow over time
Site Map
A list or diagram that communicates the hierarchy of pages on a website
Gestalt Principles
Describes how humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images when we perceive objects.
Similarity
(A Gestalt Principle) - means that elements that look alike (in shape, size, or color, for instance) are perceived to have the same function
Proximity
(A Gestalt Principle) - means that elements that are close together appear to be more related than things that are spaced farther apart
Common Region
(A Gestalt Principle) - means that elements located within the same closed area are perceived to be grouped together
Dark Patterns
Also called deceptive patterns or dark UX. They trick users into unintentionally completing an action online
Forced Continuity
(Dark Pattern) The practice of charging a user for a membership without a warning or a reminder.
Sneak Into Basket
(Dark Pattern) When a user has to remove an item from their cart they did not add, which is an extra step that could be easily missed
Hidden Cost
(Dark Pattern) Hidden or unexpected charges in the user’s cart that are not revealed until the end of the checkout process.
Confirmshaming
(Dark Pattern) When users are made to feel guilty when they opt out of something
(ex. “No I don’t like saving money”)
Urgency
(Dark Pattern) Attempting to convince users to purchase an item before they run out of time and miss today’s “amazing” price.
Scarcity
(Dark Pattern) When a website makes users very aware of the limited number of items in stock.
Edge Cases
Situations that a user experiences with a product that the designers didn’t prepare for. The situation or obstacle that arises is beyond the user’s control to fix.
Type Classification
A general system to describe the styles of type (serif, sans serif, script)
Typeface
The overall style of a letter. Distinguished by stroke weight, shape, type of serif, and line lengths (times new roman, calibri, arial, etc)
Font
The size, thickness, and emphasis of letters (thin, light, regular, medium, bold, etc)
