Various terms that we often encounter in the design process

To explain certain concepts in design processes, we use different terms, each with its own specific details or sometimes interchangeable. In this article, we'll group and differentiate terminologies according to the stages of work, from thought frameworks to methodologies and approaches in presentation.

 

Frameworks

User-Centered Design (UCD) / Human-Centered Design (HCD): Focuses on maximizing user benefits and tailoring the design to meet real user needs, rather than pleasing the designer, project owner, or product owner.

 

Methodologies

Service Design: Design that considers all stakeholders in a service, including service providers and users, to create efficient service experiences.

Experience Design (XD) / Interaction Design (IxD): Focuses on user interactions with products, systems, or services.

User Experience Design (UX or UXD): Designs the user's experience in terms of emotional response to using products or systems. It aims to add new value to the product and create a unique identity for the business.

User Interface Design (UI or UID): Involves designing information presentation, user interfaces, and the visual appearance of a product to communicate with users.

Lean UX & Agile UX: Lean UX accelerates the UX process, emphasizing less on deliverables and more on enhancing the end-user experience. Agile UX integrates developers and designers in the Agile product development process while maintaining traditional UX design principles.

Design Thinking: A process of exploration, design, prototyping, testing, and iteration, focusing on the user or human as the central point. It evaluates the feasibility of design outcomes both technologically and strategically.

System Thinking: Connects data and operational methods to understand the entire system comprehensively. Design teams need to grasp the entire system to address issues at each stage, not just a single operational phase.

 

In the planning, thinking, or discussion stages for "designing with the user or human at the center," it's crucial to communicate with clear terminology and meanings that colleagues and project stakeholders fully understand. This ensures that there are no misinterpretations of terms, whether in documents like Terms of Reference (TOR), briefs, or meetings, to avoid delays due to misunderstandings.