UX Design Flashcards
...
Above the fold
The content on a web page that doesn’t require scrolling to experience.
Accessibility
The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities.
Advertising agencies
Teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns.
Affinity diagram
A method of synthesizing that organizes data into groups with common themes or relationships.
Affinity
A feeling of like-mindedness or compatibility toward something or someone.
Aggregated empathy maps
Represent a visualization of everything designers know about an entire segment or group of similar users.
Alternative text (alt text)
Text that helps translate something visual, such as an image or graph, into a description that can be read by screen readers.
Apprenticeships
Long-term positions providing paid, on-the-job training to help you develop real skills.
Assets
Everything from the text and images to the design specifications, like font style, color, size, and spacing.
Assistive technology
Any products, equipment, or systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities.
Asymmetrical layout
Having purposeful imbalance between different sides of a page.
Back-end developer
Someone who writes code for the website’s architecture and data storage or retrieval, based on the sitemap and functionality.
Basic grid
Intersecting lines that divide pages into small squares, which allows you to easily lay out elements in a design.
Bias
Favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information.
Big picture storyboard
A series of visually rendered panels that focus on the user’s experience.
Borders
A method of containment that uses continuous lines that often form shapes, like squares or rectangles, to break up sections of a page.
Box layout
A web page layout that consists of boxes or squares of various sizes and proportions.
Brand Identity
The visual appearance and voice of a company.
Call-to-action (CTA)
A visual prompt that tells the user to take action.
Cards
Rectangle parts of a design that contain content and actions about a single subject, which are often used in mobile app design.
Carousels
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.
Case study
Summarized presentation of a design project that typically includes the project’s goal and objectives, your role in the project, the process your team followed, and the outcome of the project.
Close-up storyboard
A series of visually rendered panels that focus on the product.
Color modification
Features that increase the contrast of colors on a screen, like high-contrast mode or dark mode.
Common region
The principle that elements located within the same area are perceived to be grouped together.
Competitive audit
An overview of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Confirmation Bias
Occurs when you start looking for evidence to prove a hypothesis you have.
Containment
The use of visual barriers to keep elements of a design neat and organized.
Conversion rate
Measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action.
Corporation
A company with thousands of employees working on lots of different projects.
Curb cut effect
A phenomenon that describes how products and policies designed for people with disabilities often end up helping everyone.
Curb cut
The slope of the sidewalk that creates a ramp with adjoining street.
Customizable text
A feature that allows users to change how text is displayed in order to read the text more easily.
Data recording
Document your study and results in a way that’s consistent with UX research standards.
Data retention
How long you hold on to research data.
Data storage
Ensure data is held in a way that’s safe from hacking and physical damage.
Database model
A website structure that mixes a database, or an organized collection of information, with search functionality.
De-identification
Removing any identifying information from a users’ data that is collected during a research study.
Deceptive patterns
UX methods that trick users into doing or buying something they wouldn’t otherwise have done or bought.
Dedicated mobile app
Built to live on the mobile device and is accessed through an icon on the phone’s home screen.
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.
Design Agency
A one-stop shop for the look of brands, products, and services.
Design critique session
A planned period of time where UX designers present their work to team members and listen to feedback.
Design Research
Answers the question: How should we build it?
Design Sprint
A time-bound process, with five phases typically spread over five full 8-hour days.
Design system
A series of reusable visual elements and guidelines that allow teams to design and develop a product following predetermined standards.
Design thinking
A UX design framework that focuses on the user throughout all five phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Digital Literacy
A user’s level of ability related to using digital information and technologies.
Direct competitors
Companies that have offerings similar to your product and focus on the same audience.
Dividers
A method of containment that uses single lines to separate sections of a page.
Domain
Address of your website.
Dopamine
A natural chemical in the brain that’s released when something pleasurable happens, which makes us feel good or intrigued.
Drop-off rates
The number of users who abandon the experience.
Edge case
What happens when things go wrong that are beyond the user’s control.
Elements
Building blocks for creating a design.
Empathize
The phase of design thinking that involves getting to know your user through research.
Empathy map
An easily understood chart that explains everything designers have learned about a type of user.
Empathy
The ability to understand someone else’s feelings or thoughts in a situation.
Emphasis
A way of attracting attention to text, a button, or another object in a design.
Entry-level job
Roles that do not require prior experience in the field.
Equality
Providing the same amount of opportunity and support.
Equity-focused design
Designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or ignored when building products.
F-shape layout
A website layout that assumes that users will likely browse content on the page following an F-shaped pattern.
Facilitator
The person who runs the design critique and guides the process.
False consensus bias
The assumption that others will think the same way as you do.
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.
Feedback loops
The outcome a user gets at the end of a process.
Feedback
Asking for or receiving ideas about what is or isn’t working in a product design.
Fidelity
How closely a design matches the look and feel of the final product.
Fill
A method of containment that assigns colors to borders and shapes.
Focal point
A specific and distinct area that sticks out on a web page or mobile screen design, to guide the users’ attention.
Font
The size, thickness, and emphasis of characters of text.
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.
Framework
Creates the basic structure that focuses and supports the problem you’re trying to solve.
Freelancers
UX designers who work for themselves and market their services to businesses to find customers.
Friendliness bias
The tendency of people to agree with those they like in order to maintain a non-confrontational conversation.
Front-end developer
Someone who writes code for all the user-facing interface, based on the UX designer’s specifications.
Generalist
A UX designer with a broad number of responsibilities.
Gestalt Principle
How humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images when we perceive objects.
Gesture
Any method of interaction a user has with information on their device using touch.
Goal statement
One or two sentences that describe a product and its benefits for the user.
Graphic designers
Create visuals that tell a story or message.
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.
Hamburger menus
A nickname for the type of navigation menu that is represented by an icon with three lines.
Happy path
A user story with a pleasant ending.
Heading
Titles or subtitles that stand out at the beginning of a paragraph, article, section, or another area of a website.
Hierarchical model
A top-down approach to structure that starts with broader categories of information (parent) and narrows into more detailed information (child).
Hierarchy
A visual design principle that orders elements on a page and highlights them by their importance.
High-fidelity (hi-fi)
A design that closely matches the look and feel of the final product.
High-fidelity prototypes
Polished designs that exhibit functionality and closely match the look and feel of the final product.
Hypothesis statement
Our best educated guess on what we think the solution to a design problem might be.
Icon
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.
Iconography
A system of graphic images or symbols associated with a subject or an idea.
Ideate
The phase of design thinking that involves brainstorming all potential solutions to the user’s problem.
Ideation
The process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to judge or evaluate them.
Implicit bias
The collection of attitudes and stereotypes you associate with people without your conscious knowledge.
Inclusive design
Making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender.
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.
Information architecture (IA)
Organizes content to help users understand where they are in a product and where the information they want is.
Initial focus
How you attract a user’s attention to help them accomplish a task.
Insight
An observation that helps you understand the user or their needs from a new perspective.
Interaction designers
Focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions.
Interactivity
Makes the prototype function.
Internship
A short-term role with limited responsibility.
Interviews
A research method used to collect in-depth information on people’s opinions, thoughts, experiences, and feelings.
Iterate
Revise the original design to create a new and improved version.
Iteration
Doing something again, by building on previous versions and making tweaks.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Critical measures of progress toward an end goal.
Key terms
Important words in a job posting that tell you the specifics about the role.
Landmarks
Features used to break up a lot of text on a web page and help improve the use of assistive technology.
Layout grid
A series of columns and alleys that allow you to organize elements in a design.
Layout
The structure that supports how visual components on a page are arranged.
Layouts
Ways to arrange elements on a page.
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.
Low fidelity
A design that has a lower amount of complexity and is less refined or polished.
Low-fidelity (lo-fi)
A simple, interactive model that provides a basic idea of what the product would look like and how it would function.
Low-fidelity prototypes
Simple interactive structures that provide a basic idea of how products will look and behave.
Matrix model
A website structure that allows users to determine their own path, since content is linked in several ways.
Mental models
Internal maps that allow humans to predict how something will work.
Methodology
The steps to take to conduct research, collect data, and analyze data.
Mockup
A static, high-fidelity design that’s used as a representation of a final product.
Motion designers
Think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product.
Motion
A way to animate static design elements to focus the user’s attention and tell stories.
Multi-column layout
A web page layout that uses two or more columns for content.
Navigation
The way users get from page to page on a website.
Negative (white) space
The gaps between elements in a design.
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.
Notetaker
The person who captures all of the ideas and feedback from the reviewers during a design critique.
Pain points
UX issues that frustrate the user and block the user from getting what they need.
Peer reviews
Assignments that enable learners to provide feedback on each other’s assignment submissions.
Persona
A fictional user whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users.
Personal brand
The way in which your personality, unique skills, and values as a designer intersect with your public persona.
Personally Identifiable information (PII)
Specific details that could be used to identify a user.
Personas
Fictional users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users.
Platform
The medium that users experience your product on.
Portfolio
A collection of work you’ve created that shows your skills in a certain area.
Post-launch research
Helps designers understand if the product worked as expected.
Presentation
A group of slides, where each slide has new information to share and promote insights.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Specific details that could be used to identify a user.
Post-launch research
Answers the question: Did we succeed?
Helps designers understand if the product worked as expected.
Presenter
The designer who is sharing their work with others in the design critique session.
Primacy bias
Remembering the first user more than others.
Primary research
Research you conduct yourself.
Problem statement
A clear description of the user’s need that should be addressed.
Product designer
Someone who is responsible for figuring out how the whole product comes together.
Product goal statement
One or two sentences that describe a product and its benefits for the user.
Product
A good, service, or feature.
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 the engineering team.
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.
Project stakeholders
People who are involved in the project or who will be impacted by its results.
Proportion
The balance or harmony between elements that are scaled.
Prototype
An early model of a product that demonstrates its functionality and can be used for testing.
Proximity
A Gestalt Principle that describes how elements that are close together appear to be more related than elements that are spaced farther apart.
Qualitative research
Focuses observations on why and how things happen.
Quantitative research
Focuses on data that can be gathered by counting or measuring.
Recency bias
Most easily remembering the last thing you heard.
Representative sample
A subset of the target population that seeks to accurately reflect the characteristics of the larger group.
Research report
A document with fewer visuals containing the same information as a presentation to share and promote insights.
Research study
A step-by-step examination of a group of users and their needs, which adds realistic context to the design process.
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.
Responsive web design
A design approach that allows a website to change automatically depending on the size of the device.
Retrospective
A collaborative critique of the team’s design sprint.
Reviewer
Someone who gives feedback about the design and offers clear actions to take during a design critique session.
Scalable
Describes a system that’s able to maintain performance levels when workload increases.
Scale
Concept that’s used to explain the size relationship between a given element and the other elements in the design.
Screen reader
Software that reads aloud any on-screen text, interactive elements, or alternative text.
Screener survey
A detailed list of questions that helps researchers determine if potential participants meet the requirements of the research study.
Secondary research
Research that uses information someone else has put together.
Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information
Data that if lost, compromised, or stolen, could cause your users financial harm, embarrassment, or discrimination.
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.
Shadows
A method of containment that creates dimension in combination with borders or fill.
Similarity
A Gestalt Principle that describes how elements that look alike are perceived to have the same function.
Single column layout
A web page layout that has only one column for content.
Sitemap
A diagram of a website or application that shows how pages are prioritized, linked, and labeled.
Social desirability bias
The tendency for people to answer questions in a way that will be viewed favorably by others.
Specialist
A designer who dives deep into one particular type of user experience, like interaction design, visual design, or motion design.
Speech to text
Software that allows users to compose text by speaking into their device.
Spreadsheet note-taking
A simple and easy method to keep your notes organized using a spreadsheet.
Sprint Brief
A document that you share with all your attendees to help them prepare for the sprint.
Startup
A new business that wants to develop a unique product or service and disrupt the market.
Storyboard
A series of panels or frames that visually describes and explores a user’s experience with a product.
Sunk cost fallacy
The idea that the deeper we get into a project we’ve invested in, the harder it is to change course.
Surveys
An activity where many people are asked the same questions in order to understand what most people think about a product.
Switch device
An assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse.
System Usability Scale (SUS)
A questionnaire to measure the usability of designs.
T-shaped designer
A designer who specializes in one kind of user experience and has a breadth of knowledge in other areas.
Test
The phase of design thinking that involves facilitating and observing user tests with your design prototypes.
The human factor
Describes the range of variables humans bring to their product interactions.
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.
Time on task
The amount of time it takes for a user to complete a task.
Traversal order
The navigation flow for a user on an app or a website.
Type classification
A general system to describe styles of type, like serif and sans serif.
Typeface
The overall style of the characters.
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.
Typography
The technique of arranging letters and text to make the language readable, clear, and visually appealing.
Unity
Measures how well elements of your design work together to communicate an idea.
Universal design
The process of creating one product for users with the widest range of abilities and in the widest range of situations.
Usability study
A technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users.
User error rates
Indicate the parts of a design that cause users to make errors.
User experience
How a person, the user, feels about interacting with, or experiencing, a product.
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.
User group
A set of people who have similar interests, goals, or concerns.
User interface (UI) designer
Someone who is concerned with how a digital product’s interface looks and functions.
User journey
The series of experiences a user has as they achieve a specific goal.
User story
A fictional one-sentence story told from the persona’s point of view that inspires and informs design decisions.
User-centered design
Puts the user front-and-center.
User
Any person who uses a product.
UX designers
Focus on how users interact with a product.
UX engineers
Translate the design’s intent into a functioning experience.
UX program managers
Ensure clear and timely communication so that the process of building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish.
UX research
Understand users and learn about their backgrounds, demographics, motivations, pain points, emotions, and life goals.
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.
UX writers
Create the language that appears throughout a digital product, like websites or mobile apps.
Value proposition
The reason why a consumer should use a product or service.
Variety
Differentiating the elements in your design to add visual interest.
Visual balance
The sense that a design is equally weighted on both sides of its emphasized center.
Visual design
How a product or technology appears to users.
Visual designer
Someone who focuses on how the product or technology looks.
Visual weight
A measure of the force that an element exerts to attract the eye.
Voice control
Allows users to navigate and interact with the buttons and screens on their devices using only their voice.
Vulnerable populations
Groups of people who have limited ability to provide their consent or have special privacy concerns.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
A set of rules that explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
WebAIM
Web Accessibility in Mind.
Wireframe
An outline or a sketch of a product or a screen.
Z-shape layout
A website layout that assumes that users will skim information starting left to right, then move diagonally to the left, before scanning to the right again, in the shape of a Z.
