Methods
& Tools
& Tools
Designers ask users to compare two versions of a prototype to help determine which is more effective in this UX design method.
A/B test
A gaffe in the design of everyday things, this term refers to the entrance of a building with a handle designed to convey the opposite interaction of what is required of the user.
Norman door
This heuristic speaks to the importance of keeping users informed about what's happening with the system, within a reasonable amount of time.
Visibility of system status
Bixal takes its name from this object you're likely to find in an arboretum.
A tree
This regular meeting is typically held at the end of a sprint and is used to identify ways to improve the team's processes, collaboration, and overall effectiveness.
Retro
Stakeholders are asked to actively participate in product development in this design method.
Co-design or Participatory design
USDS co-founder Jennifer Pahlka calls for the participation of designers in public policy development, in this book, published in 2023.
"Recoding America"
This heuristic refers to minimizing the need for users to remember information from one part of the system to another.
Recognition rather than recall
Though used infrequently and often scorned, this is the Bixal tool you receive emails about from Gerardo Maldonado.
Bixal Library
This small icon is often used to provide branding for a website at just 16x16 or 32x32 pixels.
Favicon
A combination of role-play and simulation, designers put themselves in a physical environment to instill a feeling of empathy for users, in this ideation technique.
Bodystorming
This leader in the field of information architecture aims to make IA and sensemaking skills accessible to everyone, and wrote the 2014 book, "How to Make Sense of Any Mess"
Abby Covert
This heuristic calls for simplicity, clarity, and to avoid clutter.
Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
This group of volunteers within Bixal seeks to promote dialogue, facilitate continuous learning, and foster a culture of respect where all Bixalers can bring their authentic selves to their work.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council
This acronym refers to data that designers must safeguard to ensure a person's anonymity.
PII or PHI
Designers use sticky notes and sketches to outline user interactions when planning design sprints in this Agile UX design method.
User story mapping
UX design was found to be partly the cause of a 2018 gaffe by the Emergency Alert System when it erroneously warned people of an incoming ballistic missile heading toward this state.
Hawaii
The US Digital Service developed a set of 13 Digital Service plays. This is the title of the first play.
Understand what people need
This is the number of people currently on the XD team.
31
This term describes a brief, non-intrusive module that appears at the bottom of a screen to provide quick notifications or alerts to users without disrupting their current activity.
Toast
Founded in 2013 in Amsterdam, this website builder lets designers import JavaScript, HTML, CSS code and generate components or UI screens.
Framer
Communication expert Edward Tufte attributed poor and confusing data visualization as a determining factor of this tragic event in 1986.
Space shuttle Challenger explosion
In 2000, Susan Weinshenk and this person created a categorization of 20 heuristics including "User Control" and "Human Limitations"
Dean Barker
This is the largest contract Bixal has won to date.
DataConnect
In 1995, this file type, which sounds like a sticky food, was enhanced to allow it to repeat continuously.
GIF