The design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the user experience. Essential for ensuring that digital products are intuitive and easy to use.
Interaction Design (IxD) focuses on creating engaging interfaces with well-thought-out behaviors. Crucial for ensuring intuitive and effective user interactions.
A dark pattern where it's easy to get into a situation but hard to get out of it, such as signing up for a service but finding it difficult to cancel. Awareness of this tactic is crucial to design fair user experiences with straightforward entry and exit points.
A principle stating that users spend most of their time on other websites and prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Crucial for designing user-friendly and familiar interfaces.
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.
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.
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.
The consistent spacing of text and elements in a design to create a harmonious and readable layout. Crucial for improving readability and visual appeal in design.
The area within which a user can interact with an element, designed to be large enough for easy tapping. Essential for creating accessible and user-friendly touch interfaces.
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.
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.
The tendency to perceive and interpret information based on prior experiences and expectations, influencing how different users perceive design differently. Important for designing interfaces that meet user expectations, improving usability and intuitive navigation.
The ease with which visual information can be processed and understood by the viewer. Important for creating intuitive and accessible interfaces.
A predictive model of human movement that describes the time required to move to a target area, used to design user interfaces that enhance usability. Important for designing efficient and user-friendly interfaces.
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.
Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely (EAST) is a behavioral insights framework used to influence behavior. Important for designing interventions and user experiences that effectively change behavior.
A dark pattern where it's easy to subscribe but very difficult to cancel the subscription. Awareness of this tactic is important to provide straightforward and user-friendly subscription management.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study of designing interfaces and interactions between humans and computers. It ensures that digital products are user-friendly, efficient, and satisfying.
The excessive addition of features in a product, often leading to complexity and reduced usability. Crucial for maintaining simplicity and usability in product design.
A cognitive bias where people overestimate the probability of success for difficult tasks and underestimate it for easy tasks. Useful for designers to understand user confidence and design
A design approach that divides a system into smaller parts or modules that can be independently created, modified, replaced, or exchanged. Crucial for creating flexible, scalable, and maintainable systems.
A fictional representation of a user segment, created based on user research to guide design decisions and ensure the product meets the needs of its target audience. Crucial for keeping design efforts focused on user needs and preferences.
A model predicting the speed-accuracy trade-off in pointing tasks when using devices like a mouse, important for user interface design. Useful for designing user interfaces that are efficient and easy to navigate.
A behavior change method that encourages the adoption of small, easy-to-do habits that can lead to larger, sustainable behavior changes. Important for designing systems that support gradual and sustainable behavior change.
The tendency for people to prefer things that are easy to think about and understand. Important for designing user interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use.
A key aspect of Gestalt psychology in which simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale. Crucial for understanding how users perceive and recognize patterns in design.
The arrangement of visual elements in a way that signifies their importance, guiding users' attention to the most critical parts of a design. Essential for creating effective and intuitive user interfaces that enhance usability and user experience.
The concept that humans have a finite capacity for attention, influencing how they perceive and interact with information. Crucial for designing user experiences that are not overwhelming and facilitate focus.
A phenomenon where people better understand and remember information when it is presented visually. Crucial for designing effective and engaging visual content.
The tendency to forget information that can be easily found online, also known as digital amnesia. Important for understanding how access to information impacts memory and designing experiences accordingly.
The process of designing intuitive navigation systems within a digital product that help users easily understand their current location, navigate to desired destinations, and efficiently complete tasks. Crucial for enhancing user experience, reducing cognitive load, and ensuring users can achieve their goals seamlessly.
The path taken by a user to complete a task on a website or application, including all the steps and interactions along the way. Essential for designing intuitive and efficient user experiences.
Common reading patterns users follow when scanning web content, such as the F-pattern, where users read across the top and then scan down the left side. Important for designing layouts that align with natural reading behaviors, improving content engagement and usability.
Readability is a design principle that emphasizes making text easy to read and understand. Crucial for enhancing user comprehension and engagement in digital and print media.
The risk that users will find the product difficult or confusing to use, preventing them from effectively utilizing its features. Crucial for making sure the product is user-friendly and intuitive, enhancing the user experience and adoption.
The ease with which users can quickly find and understand information on a webpage or document, often enhanced by design elements like headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs. Crucial for improving user experience and ensuring that content is accessible and easy to navigate.
A type of long-term memory involving information that can be consciously recalled, such as facts and events. Important for understanding how users retain and recall information in design.
A reading pattern where users quickly scan for specific markers or keywords within the content. Important for optimizing content for quick search and retrieval.
Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style for designing networked applications based on stateless, client-server communication. Essential for building scalable and efficient web services.
The ease with which users can find new features or content within a product. Essential for enhancing user engagement and product usability.
The degree to which a product or system can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Essential for creating products that are easy to use and meet user needs effectively.
A usability technique used to evaluate the findability and labeling of topics in a website's structure by having participants find specific items in a simplified text version of the site. Crucial for improving information architecture and ensuring users can navigate a website effectively.
The organization of content in a way that prioritizes and structures information according to its importance. Crucial for ensuring that users can easily find and understand information.
A usability testing method that measures the first click users make on a webpage to determine if they can successfully navigate to their goal. Essential for evaluating and improving the navigational structure of a website.
Redundant, outdated, or unnecessary code or design elements that accumulate over time in a system. Important for identifying and removing to maintain clean, efficient, and maintainable systems and interfaces.
A usability evaluation method where evaluators walk through tasks to identify potential user difficulties. Essential for improving user interfaces and ensuring usability.
The practice of linking one page of a website to another page on the same website, improving navigation, user experience, and SEO. Essential for enhancing website structure, user engagement, and search engine optimization.
A web-based interface that allows customers to find information and perform tasks without needing assistance from a customer service representative. Essential for improving customer experience and reducing support costs.
A URL that is structured in a way that is easily readable by both users and search engines, often including keywords to improve search engine optimization. Essential for improving a website's visibility and ranking in search engine results.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction based on their likelihood to recommend a product or service to others. Crucial for gauging overall customer sentiment and predicting business growth through customer advocacy.
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how much effort customers have to put in to interact with a product or service. Crucial for identifying friction points and improving user experience in digital products.