Google UX Design

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Wireframes and prototypes

Building low-fidelity prototypes.

Prototype

A prototype is an early model of a product that demonstrates its functionality, without actually building the entire product. A prototype shows stakeholders and your potential users what your design idea can do.

Recognize implicit bias in design

Implicit biases are the collection of attitudes and stereotypes we associate with people without our conscious knowledge.

Whether positive or negative, these biases can unconsciously be mistaken for truth when in reality they aren't. Implicit bias can have detrimental effects on those who are the subject of the bias.

Avoid deceptive patterns

Although the term “dark patterns” is often used in the industry, at Google and at other places, designers often use the phrase “deceptive patterns” to avoid referring to something problematic as “dark” and potentially “bad.” Instead, the word “deceptive” focuses on the tactic itself that tricks users into doing or buying something they wouldn’t have otherwise done or bought.

Forced continuity: The practice of charging a user for a membership without a warning or a reminder.

Sneak into basket: When a user has to remove an item from their cart if they don’t want to buy it, which is an extra step that could be easily missed.

Hidden costs: Hidden or unexpected charges in the user’s cart that are not revealed until the end of the checkout process.

Confirmshaming: When users are made to feel guilty when they opt out of something.

Urgency: Attempting to convince users to purchase an item before they run out of time and miss today’s “amazing” price.

Scarcity: When a website makes users very aware of the limited number of items in stock.

Attention economy

The term attention economy originated with psychologist and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who believed that there are limits on what humans can think about and do at one time. Many scientists believe that humans aren’t very good multitaskers; technology should help users, not distract them. The more distracted a person is, the less likely they are to complete a task well.

The clash between attention and distraction is why UX designers need to consider how the products they design will affect a person’s behavior. Simon once said, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” In your role as a new UX designer, it’s important that technology improves the lives of your users and doesn’t harm them. Designers need to make sure they don’t design their products in a way that encourages addictive behaviors that could negatively affect users’ lives.

The concept of the attention economy also explains how interacting with technology may cause depression or anxiety for some.

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Avoid deceptive patterns. Be honest with users. Think about your purpose for design and how your own values align with the design.

Think about goals and metrics. Understand your company’s business goals and key performance indicators. Pay attention to how these business goals might contradict or align with your users’ goals.

Share good design practices with the people you work with. Understand your position of power as a UX designer. You have the ability to influence the decision-making process for good and make sure that the right design choices are being made.

Understanding my impact as a UX designer

Ethical design is about understanding how your design work affects the world.

A dominant culture affects the values or norms that are important for other cultures. If a dominant culture’s influence is too strong, many cultural points of view might not be considered in the design process. This means that some users might be left out.

How are the people using your product different from you?

How can you help people from non-dominant cultures feel more included in your product design?

Are there any challenges that people from certain groups or backgrounds might face as they experience your product?

If you feel a certain way about the product you’re designing, what’s the opposite of that feeling? Chances are, one of your users has that opposite perspective.

A marginalized population is one where people experience discrimination or exclusion from mainstream society because of specific characteristics or life experiences that are wrongfully deemed as inferior. Here are a few examples of marginalized populations:

People with disabilities

People with limited access to technology

People who speak different languages

It’s important to design products that are inclusive and easily accessible to all users.

Underrepresented populations are groups of people whose values and experiences aren’t represented often enough in a society that’s shaped by the dominant culture and their point of view. Underrepresented populations include people of certain genders or sexualities, people of color, and ethnic minorities, among others.

How can I design products so that the dominant culture is not always viewed as the norm?

How can I design products in a way that encourages all perspectives to be included?

Edge cases are situations that a user experiences with a product that the designers didn’t prepare for. The situation or obstacle that arises is beyond the user’s control to fix.

Good UX anticipates edge cases and reroutes users back to the happy path when things don’t go as planned.

Inclusive design means making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender.

Seek out the opinions of users, coworkers, and stakeholders who are different from you.

Create inclusive personas

Consider marginalized or underrepresented users when creating personas to avoid serving only users who seem “typical” or universal to you. Being intentional and inclusive when creating personas will prevent your product from advancing the same ideas about which kinds of cultures are or are not valued.

Broaden your definition of “stakeholder”

A stakeholder is any person or place that a project can affect. By broadening the definition of the stakeholders you’re designing for, you can design with a much wider audience in mind.

Increase collaboration

The more you collaborate with the many different types of people who are impacted by your products, the more insight you can gain from their participation.

Ask yourself: Do the small details that go into design decisions encourage all perspectives to be included?

Think beyond universal design. Even the most universal design principles need to be modified to fit a new context, and that context becomes broader as you engage with more diverse users.

Consider "multiversal" design solutions. Multiversal (or, Pluriversal) refers to the many ways that a design works for different people, while universal means that one design method works for many users. A multiversal design principle means making sure that a design has more than just one point of entry or more than one way to meaningfully experience it.

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Course 3 Week 3 - Glossary of terms and definitions - Google Docs⁠

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