UX Techniques Guide

Design Thinking
An iterative methodology for producing practical and creative resolutions to problems or issues.

Usability
The ease of use and learnability of physical and digital objects.

User-centered design (UCD)
A methodology and philosophy where users and their goals are the focal point.

User Experience Design
The holistic experience of a digital or technological product or service.

User Interface Design
The design of the communication between the user and a system.

Activity-Centered Design
A specific form of user-centered design where the focus is on user activities and tasks rather than user characteristics.

Agile UX
A variation of the Agile methodology, which supports a more collaborative approach to various user experience design methods.

Bias
Bias is the tendency, inclination, or prejudice of one's outlook or opinions.

Design Ethics
Design ethics are values or aspects considered by designers during the creation of a service or product.

Hypothesis
A proposed explanation of a phenomenon.

Lean UX
Often associated with use in start-ups, this methodology is focused on the rapid evaluation of hypotheses (i.e. learning loops), while putting in the minimal amount of effort required to test these hypotheses.

Scenario-based Design (also known as Task-Centered Design)
Another form of user-centered design that relies on stories of user interaction as the source of guidance for design requirements.

Affinity Diagrams
A tool to visually organize ideas and information

Card Sorts
Having participants sort various items into groups of their own choosing.

Contextual Inquiry
Observing participants in their own environment performing their actual work.

Remote Contextual Inquiry
Remotely observing participants using their own to perform their actual work.

Diary Studies
A qualitative technique for collecting information about user behaviors, activities, and experiences over an extended period of time.

Discovery Research
Alternative research techniques when direct contact with users is not possible, or as a preparation to user research.

Empathy Maps
A simple tool to better understand people using a product or service.

Five Whys
A technique that utilizes a question-asking method to explore the causes/effects underlying a particular issue.

Interviews
A conversation where an interviewer asks a series of questions to one or more interviewees.

Job Stories
An approach to task analysis that is inspired by Jobs To Be Done.

Personas
Fictional persons, based on research, where each one represents a specific type of user.

Proto-Personas
Hypothetical persons, where each one represents a specific type of user.

Story Maps
A visual representation of a user journey to help prioritize a product backlog.

Surveys
A data collection tool to gather responses to a series of questions.

Task Analysis
Task analysis is the decomposition of how tasks are currently performed.

Thematic Analysis
The process of identifying and presenting qualitative user research themes.

User Profiles
A summary of relevant user characteristics, which can include both demographic and behavioral information.

User Research
The process of learning about the audience for your system or product.

User Research Analysis
The process of effectively analyzing user research findings.

Informal (Guerilla) User Research
A rapid and less rigorous approach to conducting user research.

Remote User Research
Conducting user research activities at a distance.

User Research Reports
How to write more effective user research reports.

User Stories
Brief narratives that describe on user interactions with a system, with a focus on the value gained from such interactions.

Content Inventories
Identifying and classifying the content in an existing product or system.

Content Prioritization
Determining the relative value of content in relation to its audience.

Designing for Touch
How to make applications and website touch optimized.

Interaction Design
The structure and behaviors of interactive products, services, and systems.

Intrinsic Web Design
A technique where individual web pages have both fluid columns and rows.

Mobile and Multi-device Web Design
How to more effectively design and build for mobile and multi-device usage.

Problem Statements
A brief description of the issue that needs to be solved by a project or group.

Responsive HTML Frameworks
HTML frameworks that support responsive web design.

Responsive Web Design
A technique where individual web pages automatically adjust to various screen sizes.

Task-flows
A visual representation that shows a key sequence of a task.

Accessibility
Accessibility is the practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction or access to websites by people with disabilities.

Chatbots
A chatbot is a service, powered by simple rules and sometimes artificial intelligence, provided in a conversational style.

Cognitive Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn.

Conceptual Model
Conceptual models involve three views of a system; the user's mental model, the designer's model, and the system image.

Platform Design Principles
A high-level of advice for general platform design decisions.

Emotional Design
Creating experiences that are emotional appealing to people.

Empty States
An empty state is the initial appearance of an application when there is no user generated information yet.

Form Design
The display and input of information within online forms.

Handling Errors
How a system prevents, or handles, users making mistakes.

Inclusive Design
The design of products and services that consider the full range of peoples ability, age, culture and language.

Information Architecture
Information architecture primarily involves the organization of a system and how navigation is supported within that system.

Machine Learning
Machine Learning is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows software to learn without being explicitly programmed.

Natural User Interfaces
A natural user interface, or NUI, is an effectively invisible interface that is used via natural and human movements.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a common group ideation technique.

Concept Maps
A diagram showing how various concepts are related.

Conceptualizing Interaction
Exploring what interaction model will be presented to the user through the use of structure, behavior, and visuals.

Design Patterns
General solutions for commonly occurring system design problems.

Design Systems
A design system is a collection of reusable components, which can be used to build any number of applications.

Problem Reframing
Re-examining the underlying goals, assumptions and perspectives that are assumed to be part of the problem.

Process Flows
An illustration of specific processes a user may undertake within a system.

Prototyping
The creation of a working model of a system or interface.

Scenarios
Descriptions of how a specific user accomplishes their goal, with regards to an existing or yet-to-be system.

Site Maps
Graphical or textual representation of the structure of a website.

Sketching
A means to explore ideas and iterate on concepts quickly and easily.

Storyboards
A sequence of images or drawings representing a specific period of time.

Wireflows
A combination of process flows and wireframes.

Wireframes
Drawings of individual screens that represent major content and navigation elements.

Color
Aspects of an object described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation.

Grids
A visible or invisible structure of intersecting lines.

Hierarchy
Differences between items shown visually.

Icons
Visual symbols representing concepts or commands.

Interface Animation
The use of animation to enhance the feedback and overall experience of a user interface.

Layout
The arrangement of individual visual objects within a composition.

Terminology
The terms used to describe various concepts and objects.

Typography
The design of typefaces, and the way type is selected and arranged.

UI Copy Writing
The use and choice of words in user interfaces.

Visual Design Principles (CRAP)
The visual design principles of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.

Visual Interface Design
The design and presentation of visual user interfaces.

Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) Method
A highly iterative and rapid usability evaluation method.

Usability Test Reports
How to write more effective usability test reports.

Usability Test Surveys
Post-session usability test surveys which have been shown to be valid and reliable.

Usability Test Tasks
Creating effective tasks for observational usability tests.

Usability Testing
An evaluation method where participants try to complete certain tasks using a specific system.

Informal (Guerilla) Usability Testing
A rapid and less rigorous approach to conducting usability testing.

Remote Usability Testing
An evaluation method where participants at a distance try to complete certain tasks using a specific system.


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UX Techniques Guide

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