Functionalism
A design approach that prioritizes the practical purpose and usability of digital products over purely aesthetic considerations. Important for creating efficient, user-centered designs that effectively fulfill their intended functions.
350 topics found for:
“design complexity”
Design Maturity
The level of sophistication and integration of design practices within an organization's processes and culture. Essential for assessing and improving the effectiveness of design in driving business value and innovation.
Generative Design
An iterative design process that uses algorithms and computational tools to generate a wide range of design solutions based on defined constraints and goals. Crucial for exploring innovative and optimized design solutions.
Complexity Theory
The study of complex systems and how interactions within these systems give rise to collective behaviors. Useful for understanding and managing the complexity in design processes and systems.
Form Follows Function
A design principle that states the design of a product or interface should primarily serve its intended purpose or functionality. Important for creating digital designs that are both practical and user-friendly.
Affordance
The perceived and actual properties of an object that determine how it could be used. Essential for designers to create intuitive and usable interfaces.
Design Theory
The study of the principles and practices that inform and guide the design process. Essential for understanding the foundational concepts that underpin effective design.
Design Principles
Fundamental guidelines that inform and shape the design process, ensuring consistency, usability, and effectiveness in product creation. Essential for creating coherent, user-centered designs that align with organizational goals and user needs.
Atomic Design
A methodology for creating design systems by breaking down interfaces into their basic components (atoms, molecules, organisms, templates, and pages). Essential for creating scalable and maintainable design systems.
Design Ethics
The principles and guidelines that govern the moral and ethical aspects of design, ensuring that designs are socially responsible and beneficial. Crucial for creating designs that are ethical, inclusive, and socially responsible.
Critical Design
An approach to design that challenges assumptions and provokes thought by creating speculative or provocative artifacts. Crucial for stimulating critical thinking and innovation in design.
Participatory Design
An approach to design that actively involves all stakeholders (e.g., employees, partners, customers) in the design process. Crucial for creating designs that truly meet user needs and expectations.
Tesler’s Law
The principle stating that there is a limit to the amount of complexity that users can handle, and if designers don't manage complexity, users will. Crucial for designing user-friendly systems that manage complexity effectively.
UCD
User-Centered Design (UCD) is an iterative design approach that focuses on understanding users' needs, preferences, and limitations throughout the design process. Crucial for creating products that are intuitive, efficient, and satisfying for the intended users.
Prägnanz
A Gestalt principle stating that people will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form(s) possible. Important for understanding visual perception and designing intuitive user interfaces.
Pattern Library
A collection of design patterns that provides solutions to common design problems. Useful for standardizing design solutions and promoting best practices across projects.
Emergence
A key aspect of Gestalt psychology where complex patterns arise out of relatively simple interactions. Crucial for understanding how users perceive complex designs and patterns.
Principles Over Processes
A design philosophy that emphasizes core design principles over rigid adherence to standardized processes. Essential for maintaining creativity and innovation in large-scale, process-driven environments.
Minimalism
A design approach that emphasizes simplicity, using only the necessary elements to create a clean and uncluttered look. Essential for creating intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.
Wall Walk
An activity during a design audit where printed screens representing customer journeys are reviewed collaboratively with stakeholders to assess design quality and identify areas for improvement. Essential for ensuring design consistency, gathering feedback, and making informed decisions on design enhancements.
Rule of Odds
A design principle that suggests using an odd number of elements in a composition to create visual interest and balance. Crucial for creating aesthetically pleasing designs.
Double Diamond
A design process model that outlines four phases: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver, promoting both divergent and convergent thinking. Crucial for structuring the design process and fostering both creativity and precision.
Paper Prototyping
A method of creating and testing user interfaces using hand-drawn sketches and mockups on paper. Essential for early-stage design validation and gathering user feedback.
Obstruction
A dark pattern where a process is made more difficult than it needs to be to discourage certain behavior. Recognizing the harm of this practice is important to design straightforward user processes.
Phenomenology
The study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. Important for designing user experiences that are intuitive and empathetic.
Modularity
The degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often used in the context of software or hardware design. Important for enhancing flexibility, reusability, and ease of maintenance in design.
Flexibility-Usability Tradeoff
A principle stating that as the flexibility of a system increases, its usability often decreases, and vice versa. Crucial for balancing versatility and ease of use in design.
POLA
Principle of Least Astonishment (POLA) is a design guideline stating that interfaces should behave in a way that users expect to avoid confusion. Crucial for enhancing user experience and reducing the learning curve in digital products.
Progressive Disclosure
A design technique that involves showing only essential information initially, revealing additional details as needed to prevent information overload. Crucial for creating user-friendly interfaces that enhance usability and reduce cognitive load.
Iconic Representation
The use of icons or graphical symbols to represent objects, actions, or concepts, enhancing usability and visual communication. Crucial for creating intuitive and accessible user interfaces.
Feature Bloat
The excessive addition of features in a product, often leading to complexity and reduced usability. Crucial for maintaining simplicity and usability in product design.
Application Architecture
The high-level structure of a software application, defining its components and their interactions. Essential for designing robust, scalable, and maintainable digital products.
Design Leadership
The practice of guiding and inspiring teams to create effective, user-centered design solutions that align with business goals. Crucial for fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence in design practices within organizations.
Design Tokens
A system of design variables used to maintain consistency in a design system, such as colors, fonts, and spacing. Crucial for ensuring uniformity and scalability in design across different platforms and products.
Design Language
A cohesive system of visual and interaction design principles and guidelines that ensure consistency and coherence across a product or brand's interfaces and experiences. Essential for creating a unified and recognizable user experience, ensuring consistency, usability, and brand identity across all platforms and touchpoints.
Sensory Design
The practice of creating products and environments that engage multiple senses, enhancing user experience and emotional connection. Crucial for designing immersive and impactful user experiences that go beyond visual appeal.
Information Design
The practice of presenting information in a way that is clear, accessible, and useful to the user. Essential for creating effective and user-friendly interfaces and communications.
Complex Subsystem Team
A team structure within an organization focused on managing and integrating complex subsystems. Important for ensuring seamless integration and functionality of complex projects.
RWD
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. Essential for creating flexible, adaptive web experiences that maintain functionality and aesthetics across different platforms and devices.
Uniform Connectedness
A Gestalt principle stating that elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection. Essential for creating designs that effectively group related elements.
The User Is Drunk
A usability testing approach where designers assume that users are easily confused and distracted, focusing on simplicity and clarity in design. Crucial for ensuring that interfaces are intuitive and easy to use under various conditions.
Hick’s Law
A principle that states the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices available. Crucial for designing user interfaces that minimize cognitive load and enhance decision-making efficiency.
Product Architecture
The structural design of a product, defining its components, their relationships, and how they interact to fulfill the product's purpose. Important for ensuring that a product is well-organized, scalable, and maintainable.
Infographic
A visual representation of information or data designed to make complex information easily understandable at a glance. Important for communicating insights and data effectively to stakeholders and users in digital product design.
Continuity
A Gestalt principle that describes the tendency of the human visual system to perceive lines or patterns that follow a smooth, continuous path rather than a disjointed or abrupt one. Essential for creating designs that guide the user's eye smoothly and logically.
Systems Theory
An interdisciplinary study of systems, examining the complex interactions and relationships between components within a whole. Crucial for understanding and designing complex, interconnected systems.
Sequential Navigation
A navigation design pattern where users follow a specific order of steps or stages to complete a task, often used in forms, surveys, and instructional guides. Essential for guiding users through processes in a clear and structured manner, improving usability.
Creative Confidence
The belief in one's ability to create change through creativity, often leading to more innovative and effective problem-solving. Essential for fostering a mindset of innovation and creativity in design.
Theming
The process of applying a consistent style, motif, or brand identity across a piece of work, design, or user experience to create coherence and enhance the overall aesthetic. Essential for ensuring visual consistency, reinforcing brand identity, and providing users with a unified and engaging experience.
Scaling Fallacy
A cognitive bias where people underestimate the complexity and challenges involved in scaling systems, processes, or businesses. Important for understanding the difficulties of scaling and designing systems that address these challenges.
Nielsen’s Heuristics
A set of ten general principles for user interface design created by Jakob Nielsen to improve usability. Essential for evaluating and improving user interface designs.
Common Region
A Gestalt principle where elements that are located within the same closed region are perceived as being grouped together. Essential for creating designs that are easily understood and visually organized.
UX
User Experience (UX) refers to the overall experience of a person using a product, system, or service, encompassing all aspects of the end-user's interaction. Crucial for creating products that are not only functional but also enjoyable, efficient, and satisfying to use.
Graceful Degradation
A design principle that ensures a system continues to function at a reduced level rather than completely failing when some part of it goes wrong. Crucial for enhancing system reliability and user experience in adverse conditions.
Analogous Inspiration
The practice of drawing inspiration from sources outside of one's field to generate creative ideas. Useful for fostering creativity and innovation in design and product development.
Card Sorting
A user research technique where participants organize information into categories to inform information architecture and design. Essential for creating intuitive information architectures and improving user experience.
Information Ecology
The study of the relationships between people, practices, values, and technologies within an information environment. Helps in understanding and designing systems that are sustainable and adaptive to human and environmental changes.
Secondary Reinforcer
A stimulus that gains reinforcing properties through association with a primary reinforcer, such as money or tokens, which are associated with basic needs. Essential for understanding complex behavior reinforcement strategies and designing effective reward systems.
Principle of Scale
A design principle that involves using relative size to indicate the importance of elements, creating visual hierarchy and focus. Crucial for guiding user attention and creating effective visual communication.
Decision Architecture
The design of environments in which people make decisions, influencing their choices and behaviors. Important for creating user experiences that guide decision-making processes effectively.