Method
Go-along
Accompany someone as they do something in their own setting, like shopping, and ask questions along the way.
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Explore the atlasConcept
Affordance
What an object lets you do, and whether you can tell at a glance.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Method
Causal layered analysis (CLA)
Looking at a problem in four layers, from what the news says to the myths that sustain it.
Method
Benchmarking
Comparing how others solve the same thing, to learn from their successes and mistakes.
Method
Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Measures a product's environmental impact over its whole life, to know where to act when designing.
Method
Hierarchical task analysis (HTA)
Breaks a task down into goals and subgoals, with the plan that says in what order they're done.
Method
Morphological analysis
Breaking a problem into parts, listing options for each and combining them to find ideas.
Method
Design by analogy
Look at how a similar problem is solved in another field and transfer the idea.
Concept
Anchoring
The first number we see shapes the ones that come after.
Behavioral economics › Price and money
Specialty
Design anthropology
Joins anthropological research and design to intervene and co-create, not just observe.
Anthropology
Artifact
Opportunity solution tree
A tree-shaped map that links the outcome you want with people’s needs, ideas and tests.
Specialty
Information architecture
Organizes, labels and connects content so people find what they are looking for.
UX design
Method
Accessibility audit
Reviewing a site or app against accessibility guidelines to find what excludes someone.
Concept
Loss aversion
Losing something hurts more than gaining it pleases.
Behavioral economics › The self and losses
Method
Backcasting
Imagining the future you want and walking back to today to see which steps lead there.
Method
Brainwriting (6-3-5 method)
Writing ideas in silence and passing the sheet on so someone else can build on them.
Concept
Cognitive load
The mental effort a task demands from a memory that can only hold a few things at once.
Cognitive psychology
Method
Charrette
An intensive multi-day workshop where design teams and affected people propose and review together.
Concept
Cybersickness
The dizziness, nausea or discomfort caused by some headset or moving-image experiences.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Method
Mystery shopping
Someone poses as a customer to experience and evaluate the service as it is actually delivered.
Approach
Co-design
Designing together with the people who will live with the result, with tools so they can create too.
Specialty
Ubiquitous computing design
Designs technology spread across everyday objects and spaces, connected and almost invisible.
Interaction design
Model
Futures cone
From today, possible, plausible, probable and preferable futures open up.
Futures studies
Concept
Mental accounting
We treat money differently depending on where it comes from or what we set it aside for.
Behavioral economics › Price and money
Process
Contextual Design
A complete process that goes from observing people at work to designing and testing the product.
Concept
Reality–virtuality continuum
A line from the real world to the fully virtual; mixed reality is everything in between.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Concept
Sunk cost effect
We stick with something just because we have already paid for it.
Behavioral economics › Price and money
Concept
Qualitative and quantitative research
One explains why things happen; the other, how much and to how many. They complement each other.
Design research
Method
Four Actions Framework
Rethinking an offering by asking what to eliminate, reduce, raise and create.
Model
Four orders of design
Signs, things, actions and systems: four places from which to approach the same problem.
Strategic design
Model
Desirability, feasibility, viability
Three criteria for judging an idea: people want it, it can be built and it can be sustained.
Strategic design
Approach
Design thinking
Tackling open problems the way design does: understanding people, ideating and prototyping.
Specialty
DesignOps
Organizes people, processes and tools so a large design team works well.
Design management
Method
Causal loop diagram
A map of arrows that shows how some things push others until they form circles.
Model
Ten Types of Innovation
Innovation isn’t just the product: ten types, from the profit model to brand and engagement.
Business design
Specialty
Art direction
Defines and looks after a project’s visual style and coordinates the people who produce it.
Graphic design
Model
Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction
Eighteen guidelines for designing AI products, ordered by the moment of use.
AI design
Specialty
Accessible design
Designs so that people with disabilities can perceive, use and understand a product.
Inclusive design
Specialty
Algorithmic design
Uses algorithms as a design tool to explore forms that are hard to imagine by hand.
Computational design
Specialty
Audiovisual design
Designs image-and-sound pieces for screens, deciding how the two combine to communicate.
Motion design
Approach
Evidence-based design
Making design decisions based on the best available research, and measuring their effects afterward.
Approach
User-centered design
Designing systems around the tasks and abilities of the people who use them, testing early and often.
Approach
Human-centered design
Designing from the needs, context and participation of the people who will use something.
Specialty
Circular design
Designs so that products and materials stay in use instead of ending up in the trash.
Sustainable design
Specialty
Civic design
Designs the touchpoints between citizens and democracy: voting, paperwork, getting informed.
Design for policy
Specialty
Color, material and finish (CMF) design
Chooses a product's color, material and finish so it looks, feels and lasts as intended.
Industrial design
Discipline
Computational design
Designs with computational processes: rules, data and simulations that generate and evaluate forms.
Discipline
Conversational design
Designs conversations with systems, such as voice assistants and chatbots, so they feel natural.
Specialty
Critical design
Objects that question how we live with technology, instead of selling it.
Design futures
Specialty
Mobile app design
Designs apps for the phone: small screens, fingers, and use in a hurry and on the move.
UI design
Specialty
Search design
Designs how people find what they are looking for in a product, from the search box to the results.
UX design
Discipline
Content design
Decides what content people need and in what form, based on what they need to do.
Specialty
Service environment design
Designs the spaces where a service is delivered, because they affect customers and employees.
Service design
Specialty
Retail design
Designs stores and sales spaces to guide people, show the product and create an atmosphere.
Spatial design
Discipline
Experience design
Designs what a person goes through and remembers when using something, starting with the reason to use it.
Discipline
Exhibition design
Tells a story in space with objects, texts, images and a path through them.
Specialty
Lighting design
Designs the light of a space so it can be seen, moved through easily and has the intended atmosphere.
Interior design
Discipline
Information design
Organizes and presents information so it is understood and used well: charts, signs, instructions.
Discipline
Interaction design
Designs how a product responds to what the person does: actions, feedback and behavior.
Discipline
UI design
Designs what the person sees and touches on a screen: controls, text, hierarchy and states.
Discipline
Interior design
Designs interior spaces so they work, are pleasant to live in and convey what they should.
Discipline
Game design
Designs the rules and challenges of a game so that playing it creates the intended experience.
Specialty
Furniture design
Designs furniture that supports the body, organizes space and can be made viably.
Industrial design
Discipline
Fashion design
Designs garments and accessories: from fabric and shape to the collection that reaches people.
Discipline
Business design
Applies design to how an organization creates value, delivers it and makes money from it.
Discipline
Packaging design
Designs a product’s packaging, which protects it, makes it stand out in the store and is used at home.
Discipline
Design for policy
Applies design to creating and improving public policy, based on citizens' experience.
Specialty
Type design
Draws the letters of a typeface family so they work together when reading.
Graphic design
Specialty
Title design
Designs the credit sequences of films and series, which set the tone and introduce the story.
Motion design
Discipline
Transition design
Designs to drive long-term societal change toward more sustainable futures.
Specialty
Transportation design
Designs the form, interior and use of cars, buses, trains, bicycles and other vehicles.
Industrial design
Specialty
Costume design
Designs what characters wear in theater, film, TV, opera and dance to show who they are.
Fashion design
Specialty
Wearable design
Designs devices worn on the body, such as watches or bands, for a body that moves.
Product design
Discipline
Editorial design
Designs books, magazines and newspapers, in print and on screen, so they read well.
Theory
Emotional design
What we feel when we see and use an object changes how we judge it, how much we use it and whether we keep it.
Product design
Specialty
Scenography
Designs the space of a performance, with its set, light, costumes and objects, with the audience in mind.
Spatial design
Discipline
Spatial design
Designs how people experience and move through a space, indoors or outdoors.
Specialty
Speculative design
Designs objects from possible futures to ask questions, not to sell them.
Design futures
Specialty
Generative design
Writes rules that generate many variants of a form, instead of drawing just one.
Computational design
Discipline
Graphic design
Arranges images, type and space to communicate a message to a specific audience.
Discipline
Environmental graphic design
Designs the graphic communication of a place: signs, lettering, graphics and themed décor.
Specialty
Haptic design
Designs what you feel through touch when using a device, mostly vibrations, to inform without looking.
Interaction design
Discipline
Inclusive design
Designs so that as many people as possible can use something, starting from those left out.
Discipline
Industrial design
Designs mass-produced objects: how they work, how they are used and how they look.
Discipline
Multisensory design
Designs for all the senses at once, not just sight: what is seen, heard, touched and smelled.
Discipline
Organizational design
Designs how an organization works inside: structure, processes, incentives and people.
Discipline
AI design
Designs how we use, understand and correct products powered by artificial intelligence.
Specialty
Design for children
Designs products and services used by children and teenagers, with their age in mind and often with them.
Inclusive design
Specialty
Design-driven innovation
Innovates by changing what a product means, not just its technology or its features.
Strategic design
Discipline
Design for health
Applies the design of products, services, spaces and communication to caring for health.
Approach
Participatory design
Designing with the people affected as full partners, not just as informants.
Specialty
Regenerative design
Goes beyond reducing harm: it aims for designs that help restore living systems.
Sustainable design
Concept
Responsive design
One website that adapts to any screen size, from phone to computer.
UI design
Approach
Value sensitive design
Taking into account the values of everyone affected throughout the design of a technology.
Discipline
Systemic design
Brings together systems thinking and design to intervene in complex social problems.
Discipline
Sustainable design
Designs with the environmental and social impact of what is produced in mind, from start to finish.
Specialty
Textile design
Designs fabrics and prints: their structure, feel, color and how they are made.
Fashion design
Model
Universal design
Seven principles for designing products and spaces almost anyone can use, without adapting them.
Inclusive design
Specialty
Web design
Designs websites that are understood at first glance and work on any screen.
UI design
Specialty
Sustainable web design
Designs websites and digital services that use less energy, without losing usefulness or accessibility.
Sustainable design
Specialty
XR design (extended reality)
Designs virtual, augmented and mixed reality experiences, where the interface fills the space around you.
Interaction design
Concept
Progressive disclosure
Show the essentials first and keep advanced options for when someone asks for them.
UX design
Process
Double Diamond
Open up and narrow down twice: first to find the right problem, then the solution.
Specialty
Ecodesign
Reduces a product’s environmental impact at every stage of its life, starting when it’s designed.
Sustainable design
Field
Behavioral economics
Studies how we really decide, with biases and shortcuts, rather than as the rational model predicts.
Concept
Bandwagon effect
We do something more readily when we see that many others already do it.
Behavioral economics › Social influence
Concept
Compromise effect
Faced with three options, we tend to choose the middle one.
Behavioral economics › Choosing among options
Concept
False consensus effect
We believe most people think and choose as we do, more than is really the case.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Mere-exposure effect
What we see several times ends up appealing to us more, even if we don’t know why.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Endowment effect
We value what is already ours more.
Behavioral economics › The self and losses
Concept
Aesthetic-usability effect
What looks beautiful to us also seems easier to use, even when it isn't.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Concept
IKEA effect
We value what we helped build more highly.
Behavioral economics › The self and losses
Concept
Fresh start effect
Dates that mark a beginning encourage us to start new habits.
Behavioral economics › Time and willpower
Concept
Decoy effect
An option nobody wants makes another one look better.
Behavioral economics › Choosing among options
Concept
Von Restorff effect
What stands out among similar items is remembered better.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Framing effect
The same information, told as a gain or as a loss, changes the decision.
Behavioral economics › Choosing among options
Method
In-depth interview
A long, open conversation with one person to understand their experiences and motives.
Field
Ergonomics and human factors
Studies how people fit with what they use: the body, the mind and how work is organized.
Model
Design ladder
Four steps to see how much an organization uses design: from not at all to strategy.
Design management
Method
Horizon scanning
Continuously looking for signals of change outside your field to anticipate what may come.
Specialty
Content strategy
Plans what content to create, how to publish it and who maintains it over time.
Content design
Specialty
UX strategy
Aligns the experience of a digital product with business goals before designing screens.
UX design
Field
Design studies
Studies design itself: what it is, how designers think and what kind of knowledge they produce.
Field
Futures studies
Explores possible and desirable futures to decide better today, without claiming to predict.
Method
Ethnography
Spending time in people’s world to understand their daily life and culture from the inside.
Concept
Service evidence
The tangible side of an intangible service: objects and spaces that show the service exists.
Services marketing
Specialty
Customer experience design
Designs how a person experiences their relationship with a company, before, during and after buying.
Experience design
Specialty
Employee experience design
Applies design to the relationship between people and the organization they work for.
Experience design
Specialty
Fan experience
Designs what the audience of a sports event goes through, from getting into the stadium to leaving.
Experience design
Specialty
Design fiction
Shows objects from a fictional world as if they were ordinary, to make a change believable.
Design futures
Theory
Flow
The state of total concentration that appears when the challenge matches our skill.
Cognitive psychology
Discipline
Food design
Brings food and design together: what we eat, how it is served and how we experience eating.
Concept
Frontstage and backstage
What the person sees of the service, and everything that happens behind it to make it work.
Service design
Model
Four generic alternative futures
Growth, collapse, setting limits or transformation: four stories of the future.
Futures studies
Specialty
Experiential futures
Turns a future into something you can see, touch and walk through.
Design futures
Discipline
Design management
Organizes design within a company: teams, processes, budget and its link to strategy.
Concept
Goal-gradient effect
We try harder the closer we are to the goal.
Behavioral economics › Time and willpower
Method
Focus group
A moderated conversation with a small group to learn their opinions and how they influence each other.
Field
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Studies how we use computers and how to design them to fit our abilities.
Method
Generative tools
Materials for people to make something, such as a collage, and express what is hard to put into words.
Concept
Availability heuristic
We judge how likely something is by how easily it comes to mind.
Behavioral economics › Attention and memory
Model
Nielsen’s usability heuristics
Ten general rules for reviewing an interface and finding usability problems.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Field
Design history and criticism
Studies how design has changed over time and what objects say about the society that made them.
Specialty
Automotive HMI design
Designs how a car's screens and controls are used without taking attention off the road.
Interaction design
Specialty
Brand identity design
Designs a brand’s visual and verbal system: logo, colors, typography, tone and usage rules.
Brand design
Method
Contextual inquiry
Observing and asking people questions while they do their work, in their own setting.
Specialty
Service innovation
Creates new services or deeply changes existing ones, with methods from design and management.
Service design
Concept
Insight
A new interpretation about people, based on what was observed, that opens design opportunities.
Design research
Specialty
Multimodal interaction
Designs systems used through voice, gestures, touch and screen, using whichever works best at each moment.
Interaction design
Specialty
Tangible interaction
Designs interfaces in which digital information is touched and moved with physical objects.
Interaction design
Method
Analogous inspiration
Observing a place from another field that shares something with your problem, to see it with fresh eyes.
Method
Trend research
Detecting and explaining changes in society, culture and consumption before they become widespread.
Discipline
Design research
Researches with people to understand their reality before designing, and makes sense of what it finds.
Specialty
Service design research
Researches how customers, employees and other actors experience a service, in order to redesign it.
Service design
Approach
Jobs to be done
Understanding what progress a person seeks in a situation and what they “hire” a product for.
Method
Journey map
A map of a person's path through a service, with what they do, use and feel at each step.
Method
Role playing
Acting out a future situation with simple objects to come up with and test a product or service.
Approach
Design justice
Designing with the communities most affected, to share what design gives and takes more fairly.
Approach
Lean UX
Designing in short cycles of hypothesis, testing and learning, as a team and with little documentation.
Discipline
Legal design
Applies human-centered design to law, so that contracts and legal procedures can be understood.
Method
LEGO® Serious Play®
Building models with LEGO bricks to think through a question as a group and tell what they mean.
Concept
Fitts’s law
The farther away and smaller something is, the longer it takes us to point at it.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Hick’s law
The more options there are, the longer we take to choose, though each new option adds less time.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Jakob’s law
We expect a site to work like the ones we already know, because we spend more time on them.
UX design
Concept
Tesler’s law
Every task has an amount of complexity that cannot be removed, only moved.
UX design
Specialty
Design leadership
Leads design teams and brings design into leadership decisions.
Design management
Method
Value Proposition Canvas
Checking whether what you offer responds to what a type of customer is trying to do, suffers and wants.
Method
Business Model Canvas
A sheet with nine blocks to see, on one page, how a project creates value and sustains itself.
Concept
Say vs. do
What people say about their behavior does not always match what they do.
Design research
Theory
Service-dominant logic
Value doesn't come inside the product: it is created by using it, together with whoever offers it.
Services marketing
Method
Wizard of Oz
Testing a system that doesn't exist yet, with a hidden person acting as the machine.
Method
Stakeholder map
Drawing who can influence a project or be affected by it, and how they relate to each other.
Method
Ecosystem map
Drawing all the actors in a service and what they exchange, to see the whole system.
Method
Empathy map
A sheet that sorts what a person says, does, thinks and feels, so the team understands them together.
Method
User story mapping
Laying out what the person will do from left to right, with what is needed below, to plan each release.
Field
Services marketing
Studies what makes services distinctive and how they are managed and delivered.
Method
Delphi method
Consulting experts over several rounds of questionnaires, showing them the group’s answers each time.
Model
HEART framework
Five kinds of metrics to measure the experience of a digital product and know whether a change improves it.
UX design
Model
Microinteractions
Small single-task moments, such as flipping a switch, designed piece by piece.
UI design
Artifact
Mockup
How a screen will look, with real colors, type, images and text, but without interaction.
Model
Gaps model of service quality
Five gaps between what customers expect from a service and what they get, and where they arise.
Services marketing
Model
Fogg Behavior Model
A behavior happens when motivation, ability and a prompt come together.
Behavioral design
Method
Kano model
Classifies a product's features by how they change the satisfaction of the people who use it.
Concept
Mental model
The idea we form of how something works, which we use to predict what will happen.
Cognitive psychology
Method
Mood board
A board of images, colors and textures that sets the tone of a project before designing it.
Specialty
Motion branding
Designs how a brand moves: animated logos and motion rules so it can be recognized on screen.
Motion design
Discipline
Motion design
Designs how what we see on screen moves: titles, brands, audiovisual pieces and interfaces.
Specialty
UI motion design
Uses motion in interfaces to make clear what changes and where each thing comes from.
Motion design
Specialty
Data storytelling
Tells a story with data, deciding how much the author guides and how much the reader explores.
Information design
Theory
Nudge and choice architecture
Changing how options are presented changes what we choose, without banning anything.
Behavioral economics › Foundational theories
Concept
Default effect
We tend to stick with whatever comes preselected.
Behavioral economics › Choosing among options
Model
User experience honeycomb
Seven facets of a good user experience, beyond whether the product is easy to use.
UX design
Concept
Deceptive patterns (dark patterns)
Designs that exploit how we decide to get you to do something you didn't want to.
UX design
Model
WCAG guidelines
The reference standard so that people with different disabilities can use a website or app.
Inclusive design
Method
Scenario planning
Imagining several plausible futures to make decisions that hold up in all of them.
Concept
Presence
The feeling of really being in a virtual place, even though you know you aren't there.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Model
Principles of influence
Six shortcuts that make us say yes without much thought, from reciprocity to scarcity.
Behavioral economics
Theory
Gestalt principles of perceptual organization
We see groups and whole shapes, not loose pieces: what is close, similar or continuous joins up.
Cognitive psychology
Model
Good services principles
Fifteen traits shared by services that work, for reviewing one from end to end.
Service design
Approach
Privacy by design
Protecting personal data from the first sketch, with the most private option already set.
Discipline
Product design
Designs whole digital products and decides with product and engineering what to build and how to measure it.
Method
Experience prototyping
Living firsthand what it would be like to use something, with a simple setup, before building it.
Concept
Diegetic prototype
A technology that doesn't exist yet, shown working inside a fiction.
Design futures
Method
Tree testing
Checks whether people can find things in a site's menu, using only the names and no design.
Specialty
Digital publishing
Designs publications made for screens: e-books, digital magazines and reading on the web.
Editorial design
Concept
Touchpoint
Every moment a person meets the service, through another person, an object, or a screen.
Service design
Model
Leverage points
The places in a system where a small change can produce a big effect, from shallowest to deepest.
Systemic design
Theory
Bounded rationality
We decide with limited information, time, and attention: we settle for something good enough.
Behavioral economics › Foundational theories
Method
Cognitive walkthrough
Walking through a task step by step as a newcomer would, to see where they'd get lost.
Method
Desktop walkthrough
Rehearsing a service or a space with a small model and figures that walk through each step.
Concept
Peak-end rule
We remember the most intense moment and the ending, not how long it lasted.
Behavioral economics › Attention and memory
Approach
Research through design
Researching by designing: prototypes are used to generate knowledge, not just products.
Specialty
ResearchOps
Organizes what research at scale needs: participants, tools, permissions and what was learned.
Design research
Model
Grid system
An invisible structure of columns and margins that organizes everything on a page or a screen.
Graphic design
Method
Service safari
Going out to experience services firsthand to observe what works and what does not.
Method
Six Thinking Hats
Reviewing an idea as a group, everyone from the same angle at once, switching angles in stages.
Artifact
Service blueprint
A map of the service that shows both what the person experiences and what makes it possible.
Discipline
Service design
Designs the complete experience of a service: what the person sees and what makes it possible.
Concept
Confirmation bias
We seek out and believe what confirms what we already think.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Negativity bias
Bad things weigh more and are remembered more than good things of the same intensity.
Cognitive psychology
Concept
Status quo bias
We prefer things to stay as they are.
Behavioral economics › Choosing among options
Concept
Design synthesis
Organizing, grouping, and interpreting research until patterns and opportunities emerge.
Design research
Theory
System 1 and System 2
We think in two ways: one fast and intuitive, the other slow and deliberate.
Cognitive psychology
Artifact
Design system
The set of shared components, rules, and criteria a team uses to build its interfaces.
Specialty
Product-service systems
Designs the mix of products and services that meets a need, instead of selling more things.
Sustainable design
Method
Cultural probes
A pack of open-ended tasks that people complete on their own in daily life and send back.
Method
Design speed dating
Showing many ideas as storyboards, one after another, to see which ones meet a real need.
Process
Design sprint
Five days to go from an important problem to a prototype tested with real customers.
Method
System Usability Scale (SUS)
A ten-statement questionnaire that gives a 0 to 100 score for how easy something is to use.
Concept
Calm technology
Technology that informs without demanding attention, staying in the periphery until it is needed.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Theory
Self-determination theory
What truly motivates us is what lets us choose, makes us feel capable and connects us with others.
Cognitive psychology
Theory
Prospect theory
We value gains and losses relative to a reference point.
Behavioral economics › Foundational theories
Method
Usability testing
Watching real people attempt tasks with the product to find out where they get stuck.
Method
The Thing From The Future
A card game for imagining objects from possible futures and talking about them.
Specialty
Typography
Chooses and sets type so that a text reads well and conveys the right tone.
Graphic design
Method
Three horizons
A framework for talking about change with three curves: what works today, what's coming and the transition.
Concept
Triangulation
Cross-checking several sources, methods, or perspectives to confirm what was found.
Design research
Concept
Usability
How well specific people achieve what they want with a product, without extra effort.
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Method
Extremes and mainstreams
Also talking to people at the extremes to see needs the average hides.
Discipline
UX design
Designs what it is like to use a digital product, so it is useful, easy to understand, and pleasant.
Specialty
UX research
Studies the people who use a digital product to decide what to design and check whether it works.
Design research
Specialty
UX writing
Writes the words of an interface: buttons, notices, errors, and forms.
Content design
Specialty
Data visualization
Turns data into charts that can be read accurately, choosing well how to encode each value.
Information design
Specialty
Voice UX
Designs interfaces that are used by speaking, with no screen or almost none.
Conversational design
Method
Dot voting
Each person spreads a few dots among the ideas, and the most voted ones move forward.
Specialty
Wayfinding design
Helps people orient themselves and find their way in a place.
Environmental graphic design