DEFINITONS

Why do we need real empathy towards users in the design and build process?

To understand problems from the users POV - Cognitive empathy

Information Design (Methodology #4)

#3. IA Design (Information Architecture Design) Goal Information architects make sure the product's content is logically structured and organized. Responsibilities Information architects tend to be organized individuals. They need to make vast, complex information/content easy for users to navigate through. Basically, if the user is at sea, IA designers would be the compass. That means being able to predict what a user might search for. IA designers often do this by doing an audit of an application. They will break down all the content on a website first, group similar information, create categories and subcategories, make hierarchies of information, and design menus. Organization and logic are key here. Common Tools Omnigraffle, Axure, Keynote, Visio Sample Job Description From Amazon Web Services: The ideal candidate will have a track record of driving enterprise-level information architecture, communicating content strategy to senior-level executives, managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities, and successfully resolving issues. You will possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills and an ability to translate ambiguity and incomplete information into insights and bias for action. You will have a customer-obsessed and collaborative approach, a strong desire to learn and be curious, and a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get things done. Job Responsibilities Lead discussions with stakeholders to identify the priorities in content, structure, and usability that will enable organizational imperatives for the field. Lead or contribute to the development of the following core deliverables: requirements matrix, content inventory, content audit, content analysis, content matrix, content flow, content types, content model, content scorecards, and taxonomy. Define requirements to solve complex layout or structural problems, and design navigational structures for multiple content types. Align IA strategies with the business direction and initiatives, ensuring that the structure supports priorities. Help institute a content governance model, including requirements for content onboarding, retention rules, metadata used, content approval, and publishing process. Across all roles and geographies, measure, track, and analyze results to provide data-driven recommendations for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of content. Collaborate with stakeholders across the content ecosystem to extend and optimize the field enablement portal and its content model to support customer and business requirements. Contribute to the corporate-level AWS vision for content strategy and knowledge management by helping to inform technical strategy in areas such as structured, topic-based authoring, Darwin Information Type Architecture (DITA), component content management systems, and programmatic quality control. Evangelize the principles of information architecture, minimalism, multimedia, and user-centered design, bringing an outside-in perspective from the content domain for best practices, current technologies, and industry trends.

UX DESIGN

#4. UX Design (User Experience Design) Goal UX designers try to make the best experience possible for users that interact with their products. Responsibilities If you think the goal definition above is broad, you would be correct. A UX designer tends to be a combination of UI design, interaction design, and information architecture design. A good UX designer has a good understanding of research, design, and (a bit of) coding. UX designers usually start with setting goals for the product and initially defining who the users are. They then look at what competitors are (or aren't) doing, talk to users, and analyze existing data that could explain common user behaviors. Much like interaction designers, they will create user flows and journey maps. Much like information architects, they will create site maps that show the hierarchy of information of the website. After wireframing to create a skeleton version of the application, UX designers will create mockups, much like UI designers. These mockups are then turned into prototypes that are tested with users to make sure the product creates a good user experience (these tests are normally called usability tests). Then, the cycle of all the above starts all over again with the new information they've received. This iterating method is called agile. If you want to learn more about UX design, we wrote another article here that goes into more detail. Common Tools Sketch, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Axure Sample Job Description From Google: As a UX Designer, you will own and lead feature development. You will be able to navigate ambiguity and contribute to early product definition. You are also able to create elegant design solutions within a fast moving, agile environment. You are also able to combine strengths across disciplines to create a compelling and effective point of view. You will bring a mix of great visual aesthetic with an ability to understand how to make a complex product feel simple and intuitive. You should have an inspiring portfolio, great design sense, a love for complex problems and the ability to clearly articulate how a product should work both in software and in the physical world. Preferred Qualifications Experience collaborating closely with a variety of other UX disciplines (research, copy, audio, prototyping). Experience and knowledge designing for machine learning, specifically machine perception. Experience designing software experiences relating and interacting with physical products. Ability to thrive and deliver results in an ambiguous environment and distill complex processes into simple, clear user interactions. Excellent leadership when collaborating with Design, Engineering, Product, and Marketing.

A/B Testing

(also known as "multivariate testing," "live testing," or "bucket testing"): a method of scientifically testing different designs on a site by randomly assigning groups of users to interact with each of the different designs and measuring the effect of these assignments on user behavior.

What is Scrum

- A type of Agile workflow What is the purpose of the daily scrum meeting - It's a good chance to touch base in the morning and set direction for the day to come Why are scrum meetings beneficial to clients - Clients are part of the scrum meetings .- Therefore, Scrum check-ins keep clients informed about (and happy with) how progress is being made - and also keep designers adapting to change in real time.

Why do we need design for usability?

- Systems often fail to take the needs of real users into account - Human perception and psychology are deceptively complex - We need real empathy towards users in the design and build process - Usability testing is important but it isn't a design tool

What is the goal of each sprint

- To deliver "shippable increments".- This terms applies broadly to many industries and is, in theory, difficult to achieve. - It's effectively a "slice of the product" something that has an increment of product functionality.

Information Architecture

- structure, content, information categorization, navigation - good IA helps users find information and accomplish their tasks with ease

What are the key features of user-centered design? List 3

1) Direct engagement with users - observations, research, and evaluation 2) Investigation and understanding of context of use 3) Main focus of UCD is suitability of solution for real users

What do we need to do to design for usability? List 3

1) Make all team members aware of the basics of designing for users 2) Improve awareness of user-focused design tools and techniques 3) Better integrate interaction design within the project cycle These 3 action points are the focus for the main sections of this course

What is the summary of steps to take in User-centered Design?

1) Multi-disciplinary teams (improved empathy, better problem-solving) 2) Research into the needs of users and contexts of use. 3) Producing Prototypes 4) Timescales to allow feedback and design changes

Why is multi-disciplinary teams an important part of the UCD process? List 3.

1) Provides a variety of POVs with a less narrow focus 2) Improved Empathy 3) Better Problem-Solving

What is the process for User-centered design? List 4

1) Research Contexts of Use 2) Specify User Requirements 3) Produce Design Solutions 4) Evaluate Against Requirements << Usability Testing Do the ^ until you meet the requirements.

What makes up a good user experience?

1) Utility (has value) 2) Usability (easy to use) 3) Desirability (look and feel is pleasing) 4) Positive brand experience

What are the 4 steps within a sprint

1. Discover 2. Design 3. Develop 4. Test

Usability Testing (Process #4)

After research and design has reached a certain threshold, a designer should get their designs tested as soon as possible. Testing happens in a variety of forms: ● Focus groups ● A/B Testing ● Eyetracking ● Hotspot analytics ● Metric testing ● And much more Usability testing isn't the end; rather, it's an important milestone that helps the next iteration of the project.

Concept Testing

A UX researcher shares an approximation of a product that captures the key essence (the Value Proposition) of a new concept in order to determine if it meets the needs of the target audience. This can be done one-on-one or with larger numbers of participants, and either in person or online.

Personas

A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design. It's a brief sketch of each type of user--> focus on the major needs and expectations of the most important user groups Based on user research data and should describe real people

What is the waterfall method?

A traditional approach to product development that is carried out sequentially and is more rigid (and less effective) What is a weakness of the waterfall method -It's rigidity. If a project design changes, the process stops and the developers must rewrite the plan and the project

Agile

A type of philosophy, and workflow methodology What is the Agile method centered on? Iterative, incremental cycles What is the biggest benefit of using Agile - It is flexible. - If requirements regularly change, or if the customer doesn't have a clear end goal in mind, agile web development can be a huge boon. As a result, designers can easily adapt and incorporate new ideas What is the advantage of using agile over waterfall - The final product is released faster to market, it is more collaborative and it requires incremental investments In agile, what is a product backlog? - A product backlog has all the features that will be in the final product. - These features are based on user needs and translate to some benefit. What is the scrum method https://quizlet.com/254349609/agile-flash-cards/

Information Architecture (Process #2)

After the data has been collected and analyzed thoroughly (both qualitative and quantitative) the designer often gets to work on how this product's system will come together. IA is all about structure, hierarchy, and navigation. How will a user move through the system? How does each piece of the system connect? And, how do you represent the information you wish to display? Knowing how all the parts fit in the puzzle is the goal, and it is deeply reliant on thorough user research and data gathering.

Agile vs. Lean

Agile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9QbYZh1YXY Agile is a project management methodology often used in software development. The Agile development process enables teams to adaptively plan, test, develop, and continuously improve products. Because teams work in incremental, iterative work cadences, known as sprints, Agile encourages rapid and flexible response to change. "Agile is the ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment" (Agile Alliance) Agile Sprints The famous Sprint. Companies all over have molded this formula to their own tastes, but it currently stands as the status quo in today's industry. Learn it, understand it, then make it your own. Agile UX - Agile UX adds UX design and research methods to the agile methodology. The most important driver for Agile UX is the close cooperation between developers, UX designers and UX researchers during the entire process of product development. Ideally, every sprint entails a design and/or research goal. By planning, testing, optimizing and re-testing elements throughout the project, the UX team is able to roll out a final product that has already been validated by their target users.

Human Centered Design (Methodology #2)

As a natural successor to Human Computer Interaction, Human Centered Design (HCD) is a framework that is centered around human experiences and solving human needs with creative solutioning. "Human-centred design is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, usability knowledge, and techniques." You'll find that this methodology is often tied to the concept of "empathy", which is the core of this human-focused perspective. In addition, human-centered design hopes to build upon the foundation of design thinking's scientific background, and applying it to how we think, perceive, and build products today.

What makes products better?

Because products are collections of tools that make tasks easier for people to perform, "making a product better" distills to "making it easier to use, control, and extract value from." Every product that improves its UX reduces the cognitive and emotional strain it places on people using it. That's it, it's that simple. Behind every redesign of an existing product are questions that, when answered, align customer and business goals.

Practices for Developing Personas

Conduct Research: Find out who are your users and why they are using the system? Translate User Research: Look for themes/characteristics that are specific, relevant, and universal to the system and its users. Refine: Combine and prioritize the rough personas. Separate them into categories, you should have 3-5 personas. Make them realistic: Develop the appropriate descriptions of each personas background, motivations, and expectations.

Processes:

Processes: - Their primary goal is to align the user experience with the goals of the stakeholders and users - a task that takes careful balance, which is why the position is so coveted. - UX Designers use a multitude of methods to achieve this goal, and every project may require approaching these steps from different angles. - User Research - Information Architecture - User Interface Design - Usability Testing https://masterdesignblog.com/what-does-ux-design-stand-for-heres-your-complete-guide/

User Experience should be...

Desirable: image, identity, brand and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation Credible: users must trust and believe what you tell them Accessible: content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Dimension

Dimension The distinction here is an important one, and goes well beyond the narrow view of qualitative as "open ended" as in an open-ended survey question. Rather, studies that are qualitative in nature generate data about behaviors or attitudes based on observing them directly, whereas in quantitative studies, the data about the behavior or attitudes in question are gathered indirectly, through a measurement or an instrument such as a survey

UX Design

Goal UX designers try to make the best experience possible for users that interact with their products. Responsibilities If you think the goal definition above is broad, you would be correct. A UX designer tends to be a combination of UI design, interaction design, and information architecture design. A good UX designer has a good understanding of research, design, and (a bit of) coding. UX designers usually start with setting goals for the product and initially defining who the users are. They then look at what competitors are (or aren't) doing, talk to users, and analyze existing data that could explain common user behaviors. Much like interaction designers, they will create user flows and journey maps. Much like information architects, they will create site maps that show the hierarchy of information of the website. After wireframing to create a skeleton version of the application, UX designers will create mockups, much like UI designers. These mockups are then turned into prototypes that are tested with users to make sure the product creates a good user experience (these tests are normally called usability tests). Then, the cycle of all the above starts all over again with the new information they've received. This iterating method is called agile. If you want to learn more about UX design, we wrote another article here that goes into more detail. Common Tools Sketch, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Axure Sample Job Description From Google: As a UX Designer, you will own and lead feature development. You will be able to navigate ambiguity and contribute to early product definition. You are also able to create elegant design solutions within a fast moving, agile environment. You are also able to combine strengths across disciplines to create a compelling and effective point of view. You will bring a mix of great visual aesthetic with an ability to understand how to make a complex product feel simple and intuitive. You should have an inspiring portfolio, great design sense, a love for complex problems and the ability to clearly articulate how a product should work both in software and in the physical world. Preferred Qualifications Experience collaborating closely with a variety of other UX disciplines (research, copy, audio, prototyping). Experience and knowledge designing for machine learning, specifically machine perception. Experience designing software experiences relating and interacting with physical products. Ability to thrive and deliver results in an ambiguous environment and distill complex processes into simple, clear user interactions. Excellent leadership when collaborating with Design, Engineering, Product, and Marketing. https://masterdesignblog.com/ui-ixd-ia-and-ux-design-what-the-is-the-difference/

Understand Your Audience

Hoff stresses the importance of recognizing the interests of both your target market and the company you're working for. "To become a good UX designer," he said, "you have to understand the business you are designing for, and you have to learn how users think and behave." Pike agrees. "Think of yourself as a bridge between the users and the company," she said. "You want to definitely accomplish what the company wants to achieve, but you want to be that advocate for the users to make sure that they have a really good experience. So the biggest thing is just making sure to keep that in mind—and don't be afraid to push back at your company."

Human Computer Interaction (Methodology #1)

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is a methodology focused around users and their interactions with computers (and vice versa). It began at the first era of the computer, when technology became increasingly used by the average citizen. The original goal was to make interfacing between humans and technology as "human" as possible - instead of feeling like a human is communicating with an inanimate object. This single thought powers most of UX Design's foundation in creating an experience that is smooth, efficient, easy, and natural for today's tech users.

Decreases usability.

Increased security, especially in computer software, ____. Decreases usability. Increases usability Has no effect on usability. Increases playability.

Interaction Design (Methodology #3)

Interaction designers, focus on digital products and interactive software design. Interaction design helps humans experience or manipulate software or interface with screen-based hardware in order to achieve specific goals — checking email, withdrawing money from an ATM, or "Liking" a webpage. Interaction design is heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the people who will use the product. Interaction design can be broken down into two parts or the same whole UI Design — User interface design UX Design — User experience design #2. IxD (Interaction Design) Goal Interaction designers make it their goal to make sure that any interactions a user has with a product are simple and smooth. Responsibilities The interfaces these designers create are logically thought out. All behaviors and actions are intentionally designed specifically so that the product is simple for the user to use. That means that the actions allowed by the product need to be intuitive and have a defined purpose. In other words, interaction designers design the flow through the application. An interaction designer might also have the duties of a UI designer because designing the flow of a user interface, or UI, usually includes designing the UI itself as well. Common Tools Axure, Sketch, InVision

UX Design Methodologies

Methodologies: - Human Computer Interaction - Human Centered Design - Interaction Design - Information Design https://masterdesignblog.com/what-does-ux-design-stand-for-heres-your-complete-guide/

Can usability be improved by conducting only usability testing?

No, you will still be creating bad designs and just filtering them out.

User Interface

The user-facing part of the tool or platform - the actual website, application, hardware or tool with which the user interacts.

Phases of Product Development

STRATEGIZE: In the beginning phase, you typically consider new ideas and opportunities for the future. Research methods in this phase can vary greatly.EXECUTE: Eventually, you will reach a "go/no-go" decision point, when you transition into a period when you are continually improving the design direction that you have chosen. Research in this phase is mainly formative and helps you reduce the risk of execution.ASSESS: At some point, the product or service will be available for use by enough users so that you can begin measuring how well you are doing. This is typically summative in nature, and might be done against the product's own historical data or against its competitors.

Product Development Lifecycle

Stages are iterative and you should evaluate at every stage Stages: - User Requirements Identifying who the user is and what they are going to use the product for- also identifying things your users didn't even know they needed - Design & Implementation Designers and engineers put together rough concepts and designs using evaluation and feedback to make sure they are on track. During this stage you can identify usability problems - Evaluation Summative evaluation is empirical (objective & subjective). During this stage there is active involvement of users to evaluate designs - Launch & maintenance Product ships, and you receive post release feedback through UX evaluations and tech support

EXAMPLE- Good UX

Take a look at Google's home page, an excellent example of a consumer-friendly design and thus good UX:

User Research (Process #1)

The first step to many projects is to conduct thorough, investigative research on all aspects of a product before you actually get to designing anything. There are a myriad of research methods, including: ● Interviewing and surveying target user groups ● Observing target users ● Conducting brainstorming sessions ● Analyzing other competitors on the market ● Reading and studying design research papers on relevant topics

What is an F-pattern?

The general way in which people scan a web page. much of the fixation starts upper left, moving vertically on the left hand side, and also moves horizontally near the top and near the middle.

Stakeholders Interviews

These are conversations UX designers conducts with their key stakeholder: customers, bosses, subordinates or peers both within and outside the organization. This allows UX designer to step into the shoes of their interviewees and see your role through the eyes of these stakeholders. It also helps prioritize features and define key performance indicators (KPIs).

Ways to communicate results from research:

These methods are translation deliverables: - task flows - personas - use cases - scenarios - storyboarding - ... and many more

Attitudinal vs. Behavioral Dimension

This distinction can be summed up by contrasting "what people say" versus "what people do" (very often the two are quite different). The purpose of attitudinal research is usually to understand or measure people's stated beliefs, which is why attitudinal research is used heavily in marketing departments. While most usability studies should rely more on behavior, methods that use self-reported information can still be quite useful to designers.

User Interview

This is a common user research technique used typically to get qualitative information from existing users. It helps UX designer better understand their users (user's emotion and opinions). This technique is especially useful when the target audience is new or unknown for the team.

Heuristic Evaluation

This is a detailed analysis of a product that highlights good and bad design practices in existing product. It helps UX designers visualize the current state of the product in terms of usability, accessibility, and effectiveness of the experience. HEURISTICS PRINCIPLES 1. Predictability 2. Efficiency 3. Trustworthiness 4. Forgiveness 5. Accessibility

Customer Journey Map

This is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. It's used for understanding and addressing customer needs and pain points.In its most basic form, starts by compiling a series of user goals and actions into a timeline skeleton. Next, the skeleton is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions in in order to create a narrative. Finally, that narrative is condensed into a visualization used to communicate insights that will inform design processes.This tool combines two powerful instruments: storytelling and visualization. Storytelling and visualization are essential facets of journey mapping because they are effective mechanisms for conveying information in a way that is memorable, concise and that creates a shared vision. Fragmented understanding is chronic in organizations where KPIs are assigned and measured per individual department or group because many organizations do not ever piece together the entire experience from the user's standpoint. This shared vision is a critical aim with this tool, because without it, agreement on how to improve customer experience would never take place. It creates a holistic view of customer experience, and it's this process of bringing together and visualizing disparate data points that can engage otherwise disinterested stakeholders from across groups and spur collaborative conversation and change.

Field Studies

This is about going out and observing users "in the wild" so that behavior can be measured in the context where a product will actually be used. This technique can include ethnographic research, interviews and observations, plus contextual enquiry.

Guerrilla Testing

This is one of the simplest (and cheapest) form of user testing. Using this testing usually means going into a coffee shop or another public place to ask people there about your product or prototype. It can be conducted anywhere ex- cafe, library, train station etc, essentially anywhere where you can find a relevant audience. Field Studies

Product Strategy

This is the foundation of a product life-cycle and the execution plan for further development. It allows UX designers to zero in on specific target audiences and draw focus on the product and consumer attributes.

Usability Testing

This is the observation of users trying to carry out tasks with a product. Testing can be focused on a single process or be much more wide ranging.

Brainstorming

This is widely used by teams as a method to generate ideas and solve problems. It allows the team to visualize a broad range of design solutions before deciding which one to stick with.

UI Design

UI Design (User Interface Design) Goal UI designers are responsible for making the visual design of a website appealing to users while following a business' brand guidelines. Responsibilities UI designers need to follow a company's style guide to design an interface that both pleases the user but also meets the business' visual brand (i.e. they need to make it look consistent). That means knowing the sizing of buttons, the colors used to highlight elements on a page, what graphics to use, which font types and sizes are needed, how the business uses icon assets, etc. Common Tools Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator Sample Job Description From Pandora: This role supports PANDORA's strategic ambition to be industry leading in omnichannel and grow our Global eCommerce business by providing critical in-house design leadership across our digital technology stack. This role will be part of a dynamic team who are responsible for all of Pandora's websites globally. Overall Design for a variety of projects under the guidance of Global Product Management Team Create clear web and digital experiences for global, regional, and market level teams Support establishing global design methodology, processes, and tools Establish standards and templates for design artifacts including Sketch style libraries Global Standardization Represent the team and the customer point of view in meetings with other teams, like Brand Marketing and regional and market leads Ensure we follow industry best practices for eCommerce and standard deviations when it supports our customers and business Work closely with both external vendors and internal, cross-functional teams on projects that range from a few weeks to a few months in length Scope/Prioritize/Plan Scope level of effort for new feature requests and create prototypes and designs that leverage existing styles and design new styles as needed Support creating requirements and prioritize requests Partner with regional and market leads to understanding when there are unique needs of customers in each market

What Is a UX Designer?

UX design is what makes websites, apps, and other products (both digital and physical) easy to use through consumer-friendly designs; a UX designer's job is to look at the target market, understand its behavior and needs, and create a design that meets those needs. UX designers aim to find the balance between logic and emotion by creating a logical structure for the experience while establishing an emotional connection between the product and its users.

User Research Different Methods:

Usability Test Focus Groups Surverys Site-Intercept Research Competitive assesment Eye Tracking Card Sorting Expert Review

User Experience vs. Customer Experience

User experience is the part of the customer experience journey where customers interact with a product. The design of that product, as well as its usability, are what make the user experience good or bad. The goal of the UX team is to make that customer's interaction with the product as seamless as possible. Customer experience represents a person's complete experience with a company or product. It starts at the very beginning, when a customer may be evaluating two different products, and ends when/if a customer calls the company to complain about a problem. Along the way, the customer will interact with the product. That's where user experience comes in. The goal of the customer experience team is to make the customer's experience with the company or brand as seamless as possible.

user experience skills:

User research Personas and empathy maps Storyboards and user stories Information architecture and user flows Sketches and wireframing Mood boards and visual design User interaction design Prototyping and user testing

User Centered Design

User-centered design is an iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process. UCD calls for involving users throughout the design process via a variety of research and design techniques so as to create highly usable and accessible products for them. User-centered design demands that designers employ a mixture of investigative (e.g., surveys and interviews) and generative (e.g., brainstorming) methods and tools to develop an understanding of user needs.

Storyboarding

Visual representation of how the user interacts with the product--> shows key moments in action

A 5-Step Process For Conducting User Research

What is this 5 step process used for? 1.Objectives -These are the questions we are trying to answer. What do we need to know at this point in the design process? What are the knowledge gaps we need to fill? 2.Hypotheses -These are what we believe we already know. What are our team's assumptions? What do we think we understand about our users, in terms of both their behaviors and our potential solutions to their needs? 3.Methods -These address how we plan to fill the gaps in our knowledge. Based on the time and people available, what methods should we select? Once you've answered the questions above and factored them into a one-page research plan that you can present to stakeholders, you can start gathering the knowledge you need through the selected research methods: 4.Conduct -Gather data through the methods we've selected. 5.Synthesize -Answer our research questions, and prove or disprove our hypotheses. Make sense of the data we've gathered to discover what opportunities and implications exist for our design efforts.

SWOT Analysis

What is this analysis called?Various methods for assessing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that impact the user experience of a product.

User Interface Design (Process #3)

You might be wondering why User Interface Design is defined under an article all about UX Design. UI Design is a facet of the overall UX lifecycle (albeit a rather large part). Visual experience is as much a part of User Experience as the architecture behind it. Some designers may specialize mostly in research or IA, but you'll find many that dabble or are proficient in front-end design. Some even can handle everything from initial concept to developing their designs. At the least, many designers can handle wireframing. Regardless, don't worry if you're a UX Designer that doesn't special in Interface designing. You don't have to be a unicorn to be involved in a product's lifecycle - it's usually best practice to at least have multiple designers in different fields across one project, if there is budget and manpower available.

Card Sorting:

a quantitative or qualitative method that asks users to organize items into groups and assign categories to each group. This method helps create or refine the information architecture of a site by exposing users' mental models.

Interviews:

a researcher meets with participants one-on-one to discuss in depth what the participant thinks about the topic in question.

Eyetracking

an device is configured to precisely measure where participants look as they perform tasks or interact naturally with websites, applications, physical products, or environments.

Focus Groups:

groups of 3-12 participants are lead through a discussion about a set of topics, giving verbal and written feedback through discussion and exercises.

Competitive Analysis

https://masterdesignblog.com/competitive-analysis-template-how-to-make-a-competitive-analysis/

UX Techniques

https://uxmastery.com/resources/techniques/?table_filter=strategy

glossery

https://uxplanet.org/51-research-terms-you-need-to-know-as-a-ux-designer-fac0d40a59d7 https://uxplanet.org/60-tech-terms-you-need-to-know-as-a-ux-designer-a01166074ae1

Lean Methodology

https://www.springboard.com/blog/land-ux-job-using-lean-methodology/

UX GLOSSARY

https://www.uxbeginner.com/glossary/ https://uxmastery.com/resources/glossary/

What is User-Centered Design?

is an iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process. UCD calls for involving users throughout the design process via a variety of research and design techniques so as to create highly usable and accessible products for them. suitability of solution for real users UCD

Customer Feedback:

open-ended and/or close-ended information provided by a self-selected sample of users, often through a feedback link, button, form, or email.

Focus Groups Advantages

speedy collection of data, low cost, interaction flexibility

Qualitative Research

study of human behavior that focuses on context and observations informal research methods, including observation, following social media sites, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and projective techniques

Quantitative Research

study of human behavior that focuses on numerical data and statistics

What do UX designers do?

three main buckets: 1. Research: Consumer behavior is at the heart of UX design and the first step of any new project should be finding out as much as possible about the target market. Who are they? What motivates them? How can your product help them? If you don't understand who your market is and why they need your product, you can't design a good product. UX designers and UX researchers utilize several methods to study consumer behavior. The key ones are: observing how people interact with a product, conducting face-to-face interviews, creating user surveys, and using prototypes to conduct usability tests. Often times, the designer will create personas or empathy maps to summarize and illustrate their target markets. 2. Design: Once a UX designer has a firm grasp on the target market, he or she can begin the design process. The early phase of the design process typically involves sketching; the goal is to transition an initial idea into a more tangible product. Once the initial idea has been vetted, the designer will create a prototype, a simulation of the final product. The goal of a prototype is to test the flow of design and gather feedback from both internal and external parties before the final product is built. Prototypes are fluid and can be edited based on user feedback. 3. Testing: A prototype is a primitive version of the final product and crucial for soliciting feedback from the target market on what works, what doesn't, and what could be improved. This feedback can be generated by simply observing how people interact with the product or via a more in-depth conversation.

High-fidelity prototypes

● High-fidelity prototypes typically come further along in the design process and are preceeded by low-fidelity prototypes. They are better for user testing, as well as getting final sign-off on a product before it goes to production. Types of high-fidelity prototypes include interactive prototypes, digital prototypes, and coded prototyp

Low-fidelity prototypes

● Low-fidelity prototypes are typically used early on in the design process when you are trying to gather your thoughts or collaborate with other teams on what you think the product should look like. Types of low-fidelity prototypes include sketching, paper prototypes, and clickable prototypes