User experience (UX) design for application user interfaces is a practice that holistically studies the situational contexts and needs of a target audience as a way to determine the content, form, and behavior of a user interface.
The following definitions are the areas of interest mentioned in the DSIA UX Design Practice Verticals.
Business Context Analysis
The effort to understand the primary subject domain of business activities and expose the constraints, dependencies, and the scope of an intended human-computer interaction.
Business Context Analysis : Context Map
A conceptual representation of activities within a domain; concept map; alignment diagram.
Business Context Analysis : Performance Measures
Concrete events that will define success; also referred to as “key performance indicators” (or KPIs).
Business Context Analysis : Product/Service Definitions
High-level description of features and/or primary uses for a desired solution that must be realized.
Business Context Analysis : Business Intent
A high-level articulation of what the organization would like to do for the project at hand in alignment with the mission and vision.
Business Context Analysis : Mission:
A statement that encapsulates the immediate goal and value offered by a business model and its current capabilities.
Business Context Analysis : Vision:
A statement of the organization’s aspired future value and capabilities.
Business Context Analysis : Business Model
The broadest view of the business organization that examines the functional activities of research, business planning, production, operations, communication and sales.
Usability Engineering
A field of research that studies how human behavior and situational context impact the design of effective human-computer interactions.
Usability Engineering : Synthesis
The logical interpretation of patterns of behaviors and needs gathered from research and testing that help to inform UX strategy and UX design exploration.
Usability Engineering : Primary Research
The direct gathering of qualitative and quantitative data that help to inform the design of an interactive user interface.
Usability Engineering : Testing
Techniques used to evaluate human-to-computer interaction.
Usability Engineering : Logistics
The scheduling, management, and support of a research study.
Usability Engineering : Research Design
The selection and/or creation of methods and processes for implementing primary research or a usability test.
Usability Engineering : Analytics
The planning and analysis of embedded key performance indicators (KPI) within code that offer usability insights of a user interface.
User Experience Planning
A practice that creates a strategy and plan to enable meaningful human-computer interactions and optimal engagement across digital-media channels.
User Experience Planning : UX Brief
A document that provides guidance to the business and UX design team by summarizing the targeted personas and level of interactive engagement that must be advised in order to meet the business intentions and stated measures for success.
User Experience Planning : Personas
A description of a segment of system users that share a common range of behaviors and information needs.
User Experience Planning : Engagement Definitions
The chosen depth of interactive engagement to meet a desired user experience. Consideration is primarily directed towards the communication functions of interaction design, visual and information design, and content strategy.
User Experience Planning : UXD Management
Oversight of the user experience design process from start to finish as a way to ensure efficiency and the successful completion and effectiveness of the digital solution.
User Experience Planning : Strategy
A plan that considers the broadest possible journey of the targeted audience and how the digital solution is designed to maintain continuity across multiple digital media channels.
User Experience Planning : Research
A review of the client context, competitive landscape, user research, and state of the industry as they relate to influencing the overall user experience strategy.
Content Publishing
A practice concerned with the creation and distribution of consumable communications.
Content Publishing : Content
Any form of communication or complete work that includes text, audio, graphics or video; A set of information structured with syntax for the purpose of an intended communication.
Content Publishing : Editing
Selection and preparation of content with the intent to produce accurate, consistent, and complete work.
Content Publishing : Governance
The setting of rules, processes, and policies that influence the lifecycle and management of content.
Content Publishing : Content Management
The operational controls and systems needed to enforce content governance.
Content Publishing : Content Strategy
Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of content for single projects and across disparate channels of distribution.
Content Publishing : Research/Analytics
The planning and analysis of embedded key performance indicators (KPI) within code that provide insights about content consumption, use, and effectiveness.
Information Architecture
A practice of relating information (conceptual and content constructs) to simplify how people use content in application user interface environments.
Information Architecture : Navigation
The creation of paths that efficiently guide users to their desired content by way of context recognition, hypertext or other interactive nodes; physical construct.
Information Architecture : Information Organization
The formal grouping or classification of information and content within a subject domain.
Information Architecture : Information Relationship
Methods, rules, and information attributes that enable the expert and non-expert creation of associations between information and content within and across domains.
Information Architecture : IA Management
The methods, processes, and resources for curating sustainable information architecture (work product) over time.
Information Architecture : IA Strategy
The planning of information architecture (Work Product) as a sustainable utility within a single domain and across disparate domains for the purpose of informational continuity and interoperability.
Information Architecture : Research/Analytics
The planning and analysis of embedded key performance indicators (KPI) that provide insights into an information architecture (work product), information behavior, and its use.
Interaction Design
A practice that develops the sensory-afforded structures and behaviors of an interactive object.
Interaction Design : Wireframe
A diagram that communicates the interactive behaviors of a user interface and its embedded components.
Interaction Design : Interaction
The physical behavior attributed to a user interface component.
Interaction Design : Pattern
A reusable component interaction and its related behaviors, specifications and related metadata.
Interaction Design : Convention
A Pattern that is promoted as ecosystem-wide standard and propagates accordingly.
Interaction Design : Device Strategy
The planning of interaction design across multiple devices and software platforms.
Interaction Design : Research/Analytics
The planning and analysis of embedded key performance indicators (KPI) within code that provide insights about general user interface performance.
Visual Design
A practice whose goal is to achieve functional, pleasurable, and meaningful visual aesthetics in support of effective communication.
Visual Design : Graphics
Visual form of communication that supports intentional cognitive responses and interface usability.
Visual Design : Layout
The physical composition and spatial relationship of page objects that support intentional cognitive responses and usability in finding and consuming content.
Visual Design : Style Guide
Standards and guidelines for layout and graphics execution
Visual Design : Art Direction
Supervision of the design execution of creative strategy on single or across multiple projects.
Visual Design : Creative Strategy
Setting of an overarching tone (mood) and standards for quality of layout and graphics across all related media.
Visual Design : Research/Analytics
The planning and analysis of embedded key performance indicators (KPI) within code that provide insights into the use of graphics and composition.
Computer Science
A scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications.
Wikipedia
Computer Science : Front-end Code
The production of client-side code that effectively displays content as intended.
Computer Science : Database Design
The modeling of real world “things” (entities) like objects and events into relational tables that provide the technical foundation for information retrieval within a system.
Computer Science : Server Code
Server-side scripting and routines that execute directly on a web server.
Computer Science : Infrastructure
The devices and hardware that provide the physical networks and systems for deploying an information technology.
Computer Science : System Architecture
The software, planning, and design of scaleable and flexible technology frameworks that support the information needs and behaviors of system users.
Other official DSIA terms
Design Architect
A design architect is a seasoned facilitator of experience strategy, UX design, and the operational lead in the creation of complex application user interface environments.
User Experience Design
A practice of determining the content, form, and behavior of an application user interface through holistic exploration of situational context and user empathy.