Handoffs and Habits A to Z

A document stating how a product conforms to an accessibility standard, criterion by criterion. A VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is a common format.

Also called ACR · VPAT

Regular checks that a product stays accessible after release, using automated scans, manual spot-checks and user feedback.

Also called ongoing accessibility testing

A structured discussion after an activity or project, built on four questions developed by the US Army. For blameless postmortems after incidents, see Stacks and Sprints B7.

Also called post-implementation review · lessons learned · AAR

Rules for applying an identity consistently: logo, colour, type, imagery, voice and examples of correct and incorrect use.

Also called brand book

Identifying which groups a change will affect, how their work or experience will change, and what support they will need.

Also called change impact analysis

A workshop in which the people who will use or deliver a service take part in designing it, alongside the design team, as contributors rather than as test subjects.

Also called participatory design session · co-creation workshop

A plan setting out what messages each audience needs, through which channels, when and from whom. Telekom's omni-channel matrix maps activities to journey stages and channels.

Also called communication planning · omni-channel matrix

Guidance for each component in a design system: what it is for, when to use it and when not to, its parts, states, content rules, accessibility and code.

Also called design standards · pattern documentation

A set of rules for writing in a product or organisation: voice, tone in different situations, grammar, terminology and formatting.

Also called voice and tone guide · editorial style guide

A plan for retiring a product or feature responsibly, covering communication, data, migration and timing.

Also called sunset plan

A written account of a design project: the problem, the process, key decisions, the outcome and what was learned.

Also called project case study

A structured session in which designers present work in progress and receive feedback judged against the design's goals rather than personal taste. In silent critique, reviewers write comments before discussion.

Also called crit · silent critique

Transferring designs, specifications and the reasoning behind them to the developers who will build them, and staying involved through build.

Also called developer handover

Assessing how well design and user-centred practice are embedded in an organisation, often against a staged model such as Nielsen Norman Group's six stages, from absent to user-driven.

Also called design maturity model

A record of significant design decisions: the context, the options considered, what was chosen and why.

Also called decision log · design decision record

Presenting design work to stakeholders, to share progress, get feedback or reach a decision. For the elevator pitch as a format, see Instruments and Moves C1.

Also called show and tell · demo · pitch

Regular, repeated team practices, such as critiques, reviews, planning and retrospectives, scheduled so design work stays visible, coordinated and improving.

Also called DesignOps rituals

A precise description of a design for the people who build it: layout, measurements, design tokens, states, behaviour, content and edge cases.

Also called redlines · specs · UI specification

A time-boxed process, classically five days, in which a small team moves from a problem to a tested prototype (Knapp et al., 2016). Telekom's customer experience camp is a longer version, of 8 to 12 weeks.

Also called Google Ventures sprint · customer experience camp (CX camp)

The process by which changes to a design system are proposed, reviewed, built, released and communicated, and who decides.

Also called contribution model

Building a design system: an inventory of existing interface patterns, design tokens, core components, documentation and a governance process.

Also called component library set-up

Each participant receives a fixed number of votes, often as stickers, to place on the options they prefer. Votes can be stacked on one option or spread.

Also called dotmocracy · multi-voting

A continuous cycle of collecting feedback from users, sorting it, acting on it and telling users what was done.

Also called feedback triage

A staged process that moves many problems and ideas through increasing evidence, with fewer progressing at each stage, towards a small number of scaled solutions. Cooper's stage-gate model formalises the decision points.

Also called stage-gate process · problem to growth and scale funnel

Structures for discussion with many participants. In a fishbowl, a small inner circle talks while others listen and can swap in. In a gallery walk, groups move between displays and add comments. In World Café, people discuss questions in small table groups and change tables between rounds.

Also called fishbowl · gallery walk · World Café

A list of final checks across product, support, communication and operations before a release goes live.

Also called go-live checklist · readiness checklist

Reviewing data about learners and learning, such as completion, scores, time on task and patterns of attempts, to improve materials and support learners.

A collection of 33 simple, repeatable formats for involving everyone in a group, as alternatives to presentations and open discussion (Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2014). 1-2-4-All is the best known.

Also called 1-2-4-All · 15% solutions · TRIZ

A regular review of usage metrics against targets, to see what is working, what has changed and what needs investigating.

Also called product analytics review · dashboard review · analytics review

Fair recognition for participants' time, and protection of their well-being and data, with particular care for children and vulnerable people.

Also called research safeguarding

Research with real users after release to learn how a product is used in practice and whether it meets its goals.

Also called post-release research

Assessing a space after people have used it for a while, to see whether it works as intended for its users and activities.

Also called POE

Planning a formal evaluation of a programme: its logic, the questions to answer, the measures, the design and the data collection.

Also called evaluation plan

Reviewing content on a regular schedule so it stays accurate, current and useful, using the same method as a one-off content audit.

Also called content governance review

Telling users what has changed in a release, who it affects and what they need to do. For changelogs as a developer record, see Stacks and Sprints B3.

Also called changelog writing

The people, processes and tools that make research repeatable and safe across an organisation, such as recruitment, consent, data storage, tools and the repository.

Also called ResearchOps · participant recruitment · research panels

A searchable store of research findings across studies, so evidence can be found and reused. Atomic research breaks findings into experiments, facts, insights and recommendations, each linked to the evidence behind it (Pidcock, 2018).

Also called atomic research · insights repository

A regular team meeting to reflect on how the team worked and agree improvements. Formats include start, stop, continue and the sailboat, where wind, anchors, rocks and an island stand for helps, hindrances, risks and the goal.

Also called retro · sailboat retrospective · start · stop · continue

A plan for introducing a product, service or policy in phases, with readiness checks, support, communication and decision points between phases.

Also called implementation plan · implementation roadmap · roadmap for implementation

A blueprint of the service as it will work after redesign, showing changes to user actions, frontstage, backstage and support processes. It uses the same form as the current-state blueprint in Define.

Also called to-be blueprint

Taking notes with a mix of words, drawings, containers and connectors. Graphic recording is the same practice done large, in real time, for a group.

Also called visual note-taking · graphic recording

Guidance that helps teachers or facilitators deliver a lesson, module or programme as designed, including timing, actions, resources and adaptations.

Also called facilitator guide · implementation guide

Designing how users and staff will learn to use a new product or service, from first-use onboarding inside the product to training and ongoing support.

Also called professional development design

Short statements of a requirement from the user's point of view, with criteria that must be met for the story to count as done. For the terms, see Stacks and Sprints B9.

Also called story writing

Turning an abstract idea into a simple picture by understanding it, simplifying it to its essence and translating it into a literal, metaphorical, diagrammatic or conceptual image (Crothers, 2017).

Also called UST model (understand, simplify, translate)

Short activities at the start of a session, or after a break, to help people get to know each other, relax and get into a creative frame of mind.

Also called icebreakers

Agreed ways of working for a group, such as how decisions are made, how people speak and listen, and how meetings start and end. Check-ins and check-outs are short rounds that open and close a session.

Also called ground rules · team norms · check-in and check-out

A one-page plan for a workshop that sets out its goal, participants, agenda, methods, materials and expected outputs. The Design Thinking Toolbox includes a version.

Also called agenda canvas · session design