Glossary for Design Techniques

  • Baseline Study
    A baseline study is an analysis of the current situation to identify the starting points for a programme or project. It looks at what information must be considered and analyzed to establish a baseline or starting point, the benchmark against which future progress can be assessed or comparisons made. learn more
  • Secondary Research
    Secondary research, also known as desk research, is a research method that involves compiling existing data sourced from a variety of channels. This includes internal sources (e.g.in-house research) or, more commonly, external sources (such as government statistics, organizational bodies, and the internet).

    • Literature review
      A literature review is the writing process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing the literature found as a result of a literature search. It may be used as background or context for a primary research project. There are several reasons to review the literature: Identify the developments in the field of study.
    • Comparative research
      Like competitive research, but examines other products and services your target user may be very familiar with, to inform design.
  • User Stories
    A way to document needed functionality without suggesting what design it will take. Comes from Agile/Xtreme programming and used widely in tech companies. learn more
    User Story Examples in Product Development | Definition and Template
  • Personas
    A persona, in user-centered design and marketing is a fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way. Marketers may use personas together with market segmentation, where the qualitative personas are constructed to be representative of specific segments
    Understanding Buyer Personas and Why They're Important
    example via https://www.revlocal.com/resources/library/blog/understanding-buyer-personas-and-why-theyre-important
    Learn more

    • Behavioral Persona: an approach to personas that has no demographics, only psychographics and behavior. Created to avoid stereotyping, but some products may need demographics in order to avoid stereotyping, i.e. adding a woman, a person of color or a differently-abled persona to raise awareness of special considerations.
  • Scenarios
    User scenarios are stories which designers create to show how users might act to achieve a goal in a system or environment. Designers make scenarios to understand users’ motivations, needs, barriers and more in the context of how they would use a design, and to help ideate, iterate and usability-test optimal solutions.
    Short example from nng.com
    Detailed Debbie is going on a business trip. She needs to book a hotel room that’s affordable and has good reviews. Debbie browses the site to find a hotel for her upcoming trip. She looks closely at the various hotels to find one that meets her needs. She considers price and user ratings heavily as she shops. Debbie selects a hotel and books a room.

  • Storyboards
    storyboard is a graphic organizer that plans a narrative.
    What is a Storyboard? Concept and how to make a Storyboard | toolshero

  • Alignment diagrams
    Alignment diagrams are a family of diagrams that show the customer/user’s experience and how they map to a company’s offerings and touchpoints.

     
    Alignment diagrams have two parts: a description of an experience and a description of an organization’s offerings, with the interaction between the two.

    Alignment diagrams include: service blueprints, customer journey maps, experience maps, and mental model diagrams.

    • Journey Map
      A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. In its most basic form, journey mapping starts by compiling a series of user actions into a timeline. … Both reference a visualization of a person using your product or service. Learn more
      Introducing alignment diagrams – O'Reilly
    • Experience map
      An experience map is a visualization of an entire end-to-end experience that a “generic” person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. This experience is agnostic of a specific business or product. It’s used for understanding a general human behavior (as opposed to a customer journey map, which is more specific and focused on related to a specific business).via NNG
      Experience Map UX Mapping Cheat Sheet NN/g
  • Intervention Study
    The distinguishing feature of an intervention study is that the investigators assign subjects to a treatment (or “exposure”) in order to establish actively treated groups of subjects and a comparison group.
    Incs247b it refers to when we introduce a new habit to interrupt old habits.
  • Wireflows
    Love child of wireframes and task flows, they are probably the most common type of diagramming done by tech teams collaborating.
    “Definition: Wireflows are a design-specification format that combines wireframe-style page layout designs with a simplified flowchart-like way of representing interactions. … The use of screen designs, rather than abstract flowchart symbols, keeps focus on the product with which users will be interacting.” learn more
    Wireframes Magazine » sketch
    via wireframes magazine
    Wireflows: A UX Deliverable for Workflows and Apps
    via NNG
  • Process Diagrams and Concept Models
    Diagrams made to support ideation and collaboration.

    • Bubble Mapping
      A tool taken from architecture to decide what the important areas of a application will be. This is less common in UX design, but can be very useful so we’ve included it.
      Bubble Diagram In Architecture | illustrarchA Visual Vocabulary for Concept Models | by Christina Wodtke | Medium
      learn more here and here
    • Path Diagram
      From Rational Rose, a brainstorming technique documented in Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web. It applies to any sort of software effort.
      sitepath.png
    • User Story Map
      From Scrum and Agile a way to determine a software’s functionality based on user needs.

      learn more
  • Assumption Mapping
    From Lean Startup practices, a way to identify risks that need to be tested. learn more
    An Introduction to Assumptions Mapping with David J. Bland: Webinar Recap |  MURAL Blog
  • Mood Board
    A collage designed to capture the brand personality and product mood.
    This Weeks Moodboard & Color Story — Sarah Gross Design
    learn more
  • Style Tile
    Why a style tile is an essential part of the design process at Level Level
    learn more
  • Mock-ups
    Non-functional images of what the finished product should look like. Often demands “pixel-perfect” design.
    45 free mobile app mockup templates - download now! - Justinmind
    learn more
    how to do this in figma