Also known as: UX designer, UI Designer, UX Design Engineer, UX Engineer, User Iterface Engineer, UI Engineer, User Experience Designer, Front End Web design Engineer, Visual Design Engineer, User Interface Developer, Front End Interface Developer.
| UI vs UX | Commonly confused with UX (User experience) design, the UI focuses on the visual representation of the interaction between user and technology. In practice, the UI will determine the overall look of the technology, supported by concepts created by the UX experts. UX involves extensive research to understand the needs and expectations of your target audience. UI focuses on the visual representation of the interaction between user and technology. UI / UX Engineers will generally take the finished design and begin turning it into code. |
| UI Designer, Graphic Interface Designer | Actuallys designs the look of the user interface. Will often take part in the UX decision process within smaller teams. These people are often referred to as Graphic Interface Designer GUI |
| Visual Interface Design | a Niche within the Graphic Design field, Visual Iterface Designers have strong visual principles, Adequate understanding of key concepts surrounding software interaction and behavior, visualization of data,content, navigation, and Interactive functions. |
| User Assistance Design | User assistance provides information to help a person to interact with software. This can include describing the user interface, but also focuses on how to help the user to best apply the software capabilities to their needs. User assistance can be considered a component of the broader category of user experience. |
| UI Developer | User Interface developer is someone whose main responsibility is taking the UI design, and making it come to life with actual code using html, css, javascript or any other code necessary to make the client side pages a reality. |
| Information Architecture | Information architecture is the discipline of defining the structure, organization, navigation, labeling, and indexing of a website. Classification decisions attempt to be based upon current best practices, but also on specific case variables such as business goals and strategy, current size of the website and future expansion plans. |
| Information design | Information design is the practice of presenting information in a way that fosters efficient and effective understanding of it. The term has come to be used specifically for graphic design for displaying information effectively, rather than just attractively or for artistic expression. Today, information design is closely related to the field of data visualization. |
| Industrial design | Similar to UX design, in that it seeks to improve the usability of a product but is a broader term that can refer to any type of product as apposed to just web interface. |
| Human Factors | (HF&E) is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, biomechanics, mechanobiology, industrial design, graphic design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry. In essence it is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body and its cognitive abilities. The two terms "human factors" and "ergonomics" are essentially synonymous. |
| Visceral Design | This design is from a subconscious and biologically pre-wired programmed level of thinking. We might automatically dislike certain things (spiders, rotten smells, etc.) and automatically like others ("attractive" people, symmetrical objects, etc). This is our initial reaction to the appearance. Typically, it involves a model or concept of information which is used and applied to activities that require explicit details of complex information systems. |
| Behavioral Design | This is how the product/application functions, the look and feel, the usability, our total experience with using the product/application. |
| Reflective Design | This is how it makes us feel after the initial impact and interacting with the product/application, where we associate products with our broader life experience and associate meaning and value to them. |
| Data Gathering | The act of gathering data about existing or potential users in order to design or improve a web system or interface. |
| Personas | Creating mock sample people. Such as Fred is 25, likes sports, is mobile intuitive, and like ease of use. These personas are usually created using data and analytics through research of website traffic.
slideshare personas |
| Ideation | Ideation in regards to User interface design involves coming up with a tremendous volume of new ideas. Some best practices are to have no criticism, draw examples, no multitasking, fixed time limit. Brainwriting - each person sketches ideas and than shares the idea with the next person who continues the concept. Swiping - taking best practice ideas from other successful people, making them better. |
| Site maps, Content inventory | In the simplest of terms, content inventory is an organized list of pages on a website. |
| Taxonomy, Taxonomies | Is a framework that revolves around good classification & labeling, Metadata, and logic. Taxonomy in regards to websites should have recognizable groupings, familiar labeling, and a good hierarchy. To successfully implement, use sales data, traffic metrics, search term analysis, clickstream analysis, competitive review. |
| Data Validation | (Guessing...) In regards to UX Data validation is to have a form, validate the information before the user submits the form in order to minimize user frustration and thus have the highest percentage of people pass through the process. Essentially good form / process validation will increase sign up percentage from start to finish. |
| User Research | Design Research techniques can be incorporated before, during, or after the design solution is established. If done before or during the design phase, these techniques are collectively known as user research; if after, they're known as user testing. User research attempts to answer questions like "who will use this design?" and "how does this concept work in the context of our users' workflow," |
| Interviewing | UX Designers will get actual verbal or written feedback from real life users. Ask them specific questions about the usability of the interface. |
| Card Sorting | Card sorting asks people to explore relationships between content and/or hierarchies in an effort to find commonalities. Card sorting is a super simple way to help people find information more quickly and easily on your website. |
| Collaborative Design | Is a similar design proces in which a group or multiple groups of people are inputting effort into the project, specifically in this case the design phase. This is often a difficult process as cross culture and politics will play a negative role in the advancement of a better design for the user. |
| Task Analysis | Wik - task analysis |
| Scenario Mapping | Like task analysis you're basically attempting to map out all the steps that a user will take to complete a task, with an initial focus on what your user will do, not necessarily how he or she will do it. uxforthemasses.com/scenario-mapping/ |
| Design Patterns | Patterns provide consistency and a way of finding the most effective "tool" for the job. With user interface design patterns, for example, picking the right UI elements (e.g. module tabs, breadcrumbs, slideshows) for certain tasks based on their effectiveness leads to better and more familiar experiences. |
| Storyboard, Storyboarding, Storytelling | storytelling and user experience have common elements — like planning, research, and content creation — that can be utilized for effectively developing an experience. Storytelling offers a way for the team to really understand what they are building and the audience that they are creating it for. smashing storytelling |
| Wireframing | A website wireframe, also known as a page schematic or screen blueprint, is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website. Google Images "Website Wireframe" |
| Visual Design | Visual Design is the act of turning a concept into a drawn or computer produced mockup of a concept. Often graphic designers are call visual design however graphic design takes additional skills and considerations. |
| Visual Design Deliverables | |
| Prototypes | Prototyping should be a rapid, iterative process. Often done in HTML, CSS, JS, It's a process for exploring ideas, failing often, and learning quickly. Prototypes are simulations of the product. |
| Interaction Model | What is an interaction model? An interaction model is a design model that binds an application together in a way that supports the conceptual models of its target users.
http://www.uxmatters.com, Interaction Model Story |
| User Flows / Diagrams | |
| Workflow Diagrams | |
| Workflow Analysis | |
| UI Specifications, Design Specifications | A functional specification (also, functional spec, specs, functional specifications document (FSD), functional requirements specification, or Program specification) in systems engineering and software development is the documentation that describes the requested behavior of an engineering system. One of the main purposes of a UI specification is to process the product requirements into a more detailed format.
The UI specification is the main source of implementation information for how the software should work. Beyond implementation, a UI specification should consider usability, localization, and demo limits.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_specification wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface_specification UI Specification Examples Nokia example .pdf Nokia example .doc |
| Multi Product UI Framework | |
| User Centered Design | |
| Content Style Guides | Consistency is critical to crafting a memorable user experience through your brand. Content style guides give writers and designers a framework in which to work when creating content and developing a design, and they also ensure that the brand and design elements align with the owner's goals. |
| Usability Testing | Various methods of testing that ultimately help a UX professional gather information about users as they are testing the device or program. |
| Mobile Usability Testing | Specific to mobile devices, different methods are used for PC and Mobile. |
| User Testing | user testing involves asking potential users of your product or service to complete a (set of) task(s) using a version—ideally a prototype-of your product or service in order to determine its utility and its usability. |
