Week 2

Accessibility

The design of products, devices, services, or environments taking into consideration the ability for all users to access, including people who experience disabilities or those who are limited by older or slower technology.

Advertising agencies

Teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns

Alternative text (alt text)

Text that helps translate something visual such as an image or graph, in a description that can be ready by screen readers.

apprenticiship

Provides on the job training to help people develop real skills

Assets

Everything from the text and images to the design specifications, like font style, color, size, and spacing

Assistive Technology

Any products, equipment, or systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities

Bias

Favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information.

Brand identity

The visual appearance and voice of a company

Call to Action (CTA)

A visual prompt that tells the user to take action, like to click a button

color modification

Features that increase the contrast of colors on a screen, like high contrast mode or dark mode

define

The phase of design thinking that involves leveraging the insights gained during the empathize phase to identify the problem you'll solve with your design

Design agency

A one stop shop for the look of brands products and services

Design thinking

The UX design framework that focuses on the user throughout all five phases: empathize, define, Ideate, prototype, and test

Digital Literacy

A users level of ability related to using digital information and technologies

Empathize

The phase of design thinking that involves getting to know your user through research

equality

providing the same amount of opportunity and support

Equity Focused Design

Designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or ignored when building products

framework

Creates the basic structure that focuses and supports the problem you're trying to solve

Freelancers

Designers who work for themselves and market their services to businesses to find customers

Generalist

A UX designer with a broad number of responsibilities

Graphic designers

Create visuals that tell a story or message

Ideate

The phase of design thinking that involves brainstorming all potential solutions to the users problem

Ideation

The process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic with no attempt to judge or evaluate them.

Inclusive design

Making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender.

Information architecture

The framework of a website or how it's organized categorized and structured

Insight

An observation that helps you understand the user or their needs from a new perspective

Interaction designers

Focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions

Iterate

Revise the original design to create a new and improved version

Iteration

Doing something again, by building on previous versions and making tweaks

Motion designers

Think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product

Platform

The medium that users experience your product on

Product

A good, service, or feature

Production Designers

Make sure first and final designs match in the finished project materials and that the assets are ready to be handed off to engineering team

prototype

An early model of a product that demonstrates functionality

Responsive web design

A design approach that allows a website to change automatically depending on the size of the device

Screen reader

Software that reads aloud any on screen text, interactive elements, or alternative text

Speech to text

Software that allows users to compose text by speaking into their device

Specialist

A designer who dives deep into one particular type of user experience, like interaction design, visual design, or motion design.

Startup

A new business that wants to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market

Switch device

An assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse

Test

The phase of design thinking that involves facilitating and observing user tests with your design prototypes

T-shaped designer

A designer who specializes in one kind of user experience (e.g., interaction, visual, motion) and has a breadth of knowledge in other areas

Universal design

The process of creating one product for users with the widest range of situations

User

Any person who uses a product

user-centered design

Puts the user front-and-center

User Experience

How a person, the user, feels about interacting with, or experiencing, a product

UX engineers

Translate the design's intent into a functioning experience

UX program mangers

Ensure clear and timely communication so that the process of building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish

UX research

Understand users and learn about their backgrounds, demographics, motivations, pain points, emotions, and life goals

UX researchers

A type of researcher that conducts studies or interviews to learn about the users of a product and how people use a product

UX writers

Create the language that appears throughout a digital product, like websites or mobile apps

Visual designers

Focus on how the product or technology looks

Voice control

allows users to navigate and interact with the buttons and screens on their devices using only their voice.

Wireframe

An outline or a sketch of a product or a screen