UX Terms 2

Question 1

Questionnaires

Answer 1

A research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.

Question 2

Red Route

Answer 2

The frequent and critical activities that users will perform on your site. They are complete activities, not single tasks, and will probably require several pages to execute. Defining the red routes for your site means that you’ll be able to identify and eliminate any usability obstacles on the key user journeys.
(Important roads in London are known as ‘red routes’ and Transport for London do everything in their power to make sure passenger journeys on these routes are completed as smoothly and quickly as possible.)

Question 3

Research Stage

Answer 3

Often referred to as the Discovery stage. Complex projects will comprise significant user and competitor research activities, while small projects may require nothing more than some informal interviews and a survey.

Question 4

Responsive Design

Answer 4

A design approach that responds to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries.

Question 5

Scenario

Answer 5

A narrative describing “a day in the life of” one of your personas, and probably includes how your website or app fits into their lives.

Question 6

Service Design

Answer 6

The practice of designing a product according to the needs of users, so that the service is user-friendly, competitive and relevant to the users.

Question 7

Silverback App

Answer 7

Usability testing software (Mac-only)

Question 8

Sitemap

Answer 8

A complete list of all the pages available on a website.

Question 9

Strategy Stage

Answer 9

The stage during which the brand, guiding principles, and long-term vision of an organisation are articulated. The strategy underpinning a UX project will shape the goals of the project—what the organisation is hoping to achieve with the project, how its success should be measured, and what priority it should have in the grand scheme of things.

Question 10

Storyboard

Answer 10

A tool inspired by the filmmaking industry, where a visual sequence of events is used to capture a user’s interactions with a product. Depending on the audience, it may be an extremely rough sketch, purely for crystallising your own ideas.

Question 11

Survey

Answer 11

An online form designed to solicit feedback from current or potential users.

Question 12

Stakeholder Interviews

Answer 12

Conversations with the key contacts in the client organisation funding, selling, or driving the product.

Question 13

Technical Communication

Answer 13

The practice of creating easily accessible information for a specific audience.

Question 14

Usability

Answer 14

Is the ease of use and learnability of an object, such as a book, software application, website, machine, tool or any object that a human interacts with.

Question 15

Usability Engineering

Answer 15

The practice of assessing and making recommendations to improve the usability of a product.

Question 16

User-Centred Design

Answer 16

A design process during which the needs of the user is considered at all times. Designers consider how a user is likely to use the product, and they then test the validity of their assumptions in real world tests with actual users.

Question 17

User Feedback Loop

Answer 17

Ideas are put in front of users, who provide their feedback, which is used to refine the design, and then the process repeats.

Question 18

User Journey

Answer 18

The step by step journey that a user takes to reach their goal.

Question 19

User Interview

Answer 19

Used for understanding the tasks and motivations of the user group for whom you are designing, user interviews may be formally scheduled, or just informal chats.

Question 20

User Research

Answer 20

Observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies which are used to focus on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations.

Question 21

User Test

Answer 21

A user sits in front of your website or app and you have them perform tasks and think out loud while doing so.

Question 22

Visual Design

Answer 22

Also called communication design. A discipline which combines design and information development in order to develop and communicate a media message to a target audience.

Question 23

Waterfall Model of Software Development

Answer 23

A sequential design process where progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards through the phases of Conception > Initiation > Analysis > Design > Construction > Testing > Implementation > Maintenance.