Diary Study

A technique for understanding people’s experience of a product or service. Participants are asked to keep daily records of their experience using the product, and these records are taken into consideration when designing the design.

More terms you might want to know

Agile Design

A process that involves assigning people to work on different parts of the design and making sure that they focus on one area at a time. This method is an excellent way to release products more quickly and with higher quality.

The most common types of agile methods are Scrum, Kanban, XP and Agile Modeling. It can often be difficult for companies to make the switch because it requires significant changes in how product development occurs.

Contrast

Contrast in design can be accomplished by placing two opposite colours adjacent to one another, creating a focal point within the design that dominates the composition.

Lean UX

A philosophy that companies should take a user-centred approach to design, making sure they focus on the customer's needs and not on their company's needs. UX designers need to figure out what users want before building something and not after. They must also ask themselves if including "features" will provide any value to the product or service.

Zeigarnik Effect

A psychological phenomenon that states that people tend to remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

Calligraphy

The art of decorative writing practised by many different people in many different cultures. Calligraphy is sometimes used to add a personal touch to wedding invitations, special event invitations, and other projects.

DPI

The print resolution of a printer. It's a measure of how many dots per inch can be printed on paper. Higher DPI means more detail and smoother transitions between colours.

Fitts' Law

A prediction model used in human-computer interaction. It states that the time required to move to a target area rapidly increases as the distance to the target increases. The law was proposed by Paul Fitts, an American psychologist, in 1954 as a mathematical model of movement with limited cognitive capacity.

Fitts hypothesized that one would quickly select its first apparent target when reaching for an object before considering alternatives — a phenomenon called "target fixation." This tendency would increase progressively with increased distance between the subject and object until it eventually became exponential (i.e., too far away).

System Font

A type of font that comes pre-installed in an operating system.

Hue

A colour that appears to be pure and lacks any lightness (or tone) or saturation.

Brand Identity

The perception that people have of a business and its reliability, authenticity, and attractiveness. It's also the set of impressions an individual has when they think about a brand.

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