The product designer’s glossary
A list of terms and acronyms that every product professional is likely to hear.
This text was written in Brazilian Portuguese by the end of 2018 when I was starting to work in a digital product environment. Now, I’ve translated it to English with some small changes. I hope you like it. ;-)
I’ve recently made a career transition from Advertising to Product Design. In this change, I came across a new world of terms and acronyms that I did not expect to find, despite having been studying a lot on the subject. And then I saw that it’s not just about UX, UI, Agile, and Sprints that live in this area. Suddenly, I discovered a new language in my early days as a Product Designer.
So I decided to write this list, to study all this vocabulary that is part of my new routine and also to help who want to start in the area, to get there more fluently.
As I said, this is a study, so if you find a description that you do not agree with, that deserves better care or even some important information is wrong or was left out, just let me know. The idea here is to learn. So let’s do this together? Ah, from time to time I am also completing this text with new terms, both those that I learn and those that the people pass on to me. So, use this text as reference material and come back whenever you need it! :)
Glossary
Here you will find a mix of the most common and widely used terms and those that you will likely hear daily. If you are looking for a specific term, just cmd + f (ctrl + f in Windows) to find it faster. Ready? Here goes the list:
UX (User Experience): Area that is concerned with user experience in a product or service (usually in digital products). Sometimes it is confused with the Information Architect or with the User Interface professional. Usually, an entire team should work according to a user’s experience. But yes, there are key professionals in this role who work to guide the team in this universe. UX professionals think about Navigation Map, Personas, Journey, Prototypes, and so on.
Information Architect: It is the professional who designs the navigation flow, wireframes of a product, and how all the information on a digital product is organized. Nowadays it is a nomenclature that is being used less since the professionals are worried about the experience of a product as a whole (see UX). But IA still has an important role in the deliverables of a UX designer, see more about it on this article by a Toptal designer, James Pikover.
UI (User Interface): Where the user interacts with the product. It is the jumble of buttons, cards, colors, titles, texts, micro-interactions, etc. All of these details must be consistent with the user experience and the brand identity of the product in question. The UI professional must be attentive to the look that the product must have, for ease of navigation (there are exceptions, of course), and must also be the bridge with the development to always check the feasibility and difficulties in implementation.
Navigation Map or Sitemap: A document that displays the entire path that is made between the steps within the product. It is important, both in the initial steps of the product, to design the navigation flow; and in the stages ahead, to guide the team. You can learn more about site maps in this article by Chris Mears on UX Mentor.
Persona: a document that describes a character that summarizes who is the user of the product. Personas are created from data and/or interviews with users. A project can have as many personas as the team finds necessary. But, of course, it is important to have a number so that people do not get lost in a sea of complexity. Personas are important to help the team understand who they are creating the product for and to discuss the best decisions from the user’s point of view. More details about personas and how to create them in this article by nngroup.
Prototype: It can appear in several forms, such as low, medium, and high fidelity. Usually, it is a design of the product that serves to test some hypotheses, and if the product is understandable from the user’s perspective. From the moment we test the prototype we can validate if we are on the right track or whether we need to make improvements.
Wireframe: Making a parallel with Architecture, it is as the architectural blueprint. Here the professional is not concerned with the visual aspects of the product; it just builds and the order of the information that will be on the screen. Later in the project, Wireframe is used to build the interface (UI).
User Journey: It is a document that maps the path that the user has taken before/during/after using a product. This document describes what the user wants, what he found, how he interacted, and his level of satisfaction at each stage. It serves to help you understand the whole flow and at what parts the experience can be improved.
Agile: Some describe it as a work methodology. But in reality, it is a manifesto that was created in the early 2000s with good practices for working efficiently in the development of a digital product. Usually, it accompanies Scrum or Lean, these are characterized as methodologies because they have several ceremonies, methods, and practices that must be followed throughout the process.
Lean: It is a work methodology based mainly on the Toyota model and that works side by side with Agile. The methodology envisages a way of working that always seeks to maintain focus and avoid unnecessary expenses, both time and money. The product in the Lean methodology follow this same premise, avoid having unnecessary or excess functionality.
Scrum: Methodology that focuses on performing complex jobs. It is based on a series of ceremonies and practices such as Daily, Planning, Backlog, Sprints, and another series of names that at first would seem intimidating. The PO (Product Owner) and Scrum Master are the ones who manage a Scrum team. Scrum focuses on Sprints for the delivery of the product, and at the end of each Sprint, the team divides with themselves all the lessons learned and ways to improve the workflow.
Kanban: It is a method of organizing the work usually done on whiteboards close to the team (but it can also be done using tools like Trello, Asana, or Jira). Usually, the work is divided into columns (to do/doing/done / etc) and in each column post-its related to the tasks are placed. Kanban is a great ally of other methodologies and adapts easily to them.
Canvas: It is a tool used to easily define and visualize the business model of a company or a project. Usually, it has nine blocks with basic questions that guide the understanding and definition of the business model.
Daily: Being able to appear with other names such as “daily meetings”, or “standup sessions”. These are daily team meetings with an average duration of 15 minutes where each person tells how their work is going. Generally, these meetings are held on foot and each person should speak with 3 basic questions in mind: what have I been doing since yesterday? What am I going to do today? Is there any impediment? The Dailies also serves to share small observations and clear up quick doubts. If there is a need for a more in-depth conversation, it is an opportunity to schedule a meeting with those involved.
Sprint: It is a period that varies from 1 to 4 weeks, in which the team is focused on delivering something or feature that adds value to the product. The team needs to plan the Sprints correctly so that the deliveries follow the planning.
Stories: It is the description of a requirement or a product need, but from the user’s point of view. From these stories, each deliverable will be divided into story points that represent the effort they will require in a Sprint.
DOR (Definition of Ready): It is the phase of the project where the whole team is aligned and understands what will be the deliverable at the end of a Sprint. Everyone must understand the “done” criteria of the product.
DOD (Definition of Done): It is the stage where all the Sprint stories have been completed. Done, that’s when the features of a story were all developed and tested, ready to be “delivered”.
Gemba: It is the time of the visit when some team or leadership meets the team in question to know the project for which they are working on. It is a very interesting activity for the exchange of knowledge and also for the visibility of the team within the company.
Backlog: It is the list of tasks and features of the product the team will do in a timeline. The backlog is designed by everyone or by the PO, with priorities, and stories that will make up the sprints to come. The items with lower priorities are left for future sprints.
Epic: A macro view of the team’s tasks. While stories are minor details to be made, the epic is the set of several stories. Generally, an epic cannot be completed in the sprint period, so it is broken into stories and then they can be delivered in the period.
Grooming or refining: Meeting that is based on answering questions. Usually, it is done at the end of a Sprint and a few days before a planning meeting, as there is time to organize the information that was left unanswered until the planning meeting. Sometimes, more than one grooming meeting can take place, the important thing is that all doubts and possible new items are 100% resolved before the planning meeting.
Iteration: It has two meanings, both apply to the product routine:
- Another name given to the Sprints.
- The idea of repetition, always aiming at constant evolution and learning in the process.
Pitch: Very common among startups, Pitch is a presentation, usually focused on selling an idea and gaining possible support. Sometimes it can appear in very short formats such as the elevator pitch, lasting less than 1 minute, or even longer, lasting 1 hour or more. In the universe of startups, Pitch is used to get investors for an innovative idea.
Discovery: Is the phase to understand the problem or the need for a project. When you define the objectives and the problem that the product seeks to solve. At this stage, the designers usually do a lot of interviews and research.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product): It is a way to release a product that seeks to use as few resources as possible and still have a functional product and test its acceptance. Usually, this product will have its main function and the improvements will be made over time. More about MVP on this article by Interaction Design Foundation.
Design Thinking: it is a work approach centered on people who, through iteration and a logical sequence of steps, propose to solve problems effectively. Collaboration is a strong word in design thinking, where everyone plays an important role in the process to discuss and work in favor of the same concept. Usually, when working with design thinking, the organization of ideas is extremely visual and each idea proposed in a round is discussed and evaluated by everyone in a democratic way. Post-its, whiteboards, papers, and pens are basic and extremely important tools for a design thinking session. IDEO is one of the first companies popularize and to start working with it.
Design Sprint: is a method created by google inspired by design thinking that proposes to solve, test, and validate the effectiveness of an idea in a very short period of time of just 5 days. It is often used to prototype digital products, but according to its creators, it can be used to test any new idea or solve a business problem’s that any company needs. Each day of a design sprint works as a phase of the creation of the idea, from concept to discussion, validation, prototyping, and finally the test. It must be composed of specialist professionals from different company disciplines. The sprint design has proven to be a very useful method as it drastically reduces cost and time and has thus spread widely among startups and tech companies.
Design System: a method that serves to centralize and standardize the entire library and the interface design principles of a brand and product. The design system is a material that works from the fundamentals of the interface of this product, addresses all conceptual aspects, going through solid arguments in the decision and choosing certain standards, going through components and modules of the interface of a product, and delivering to these programmed modules. Thus maintaining product consistency and agility for an entire team. It makes it easy to access and constantly evolve a brand’s interface. Sometimes it is confused with a style guide, this is within a design system but it is not exclusively the design system as a whole.
Style Guide: It is an exclusively visual library where the components, colors, and other visual styles of a product interface are centralized. It is often a file with several pages, where the designer can easily find all the “parts” of an interface to assemble it and deliver it more quickly to the development team.
Squad: they are lean and multidisciplinary teams that comprise the professionals who will be directly involved with a specific delivery. A model that has been used as an example is Spotify, where each squad works on specific parts of the product and its constant improvement. Netflix has it's design teams working divided by device or platform. In short, each company finds the ideal model to work according to its business. Usually, in a squad, there are professionals from development, design, business, marketing, data, and so on. This choice of professionals also depends on the business model and structure in question.
Updated on June, 2020
