Master interaction design vocabulary: affordances, signifiers, feedback, user flows, fidelity levels, and micro-interactions.
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In UX design, an 'affordance' is:
Affordance (Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things) is the relationship between an object and an actor — a door handle affords pulling, a flat plate affords pushing. In UI, a raised button affords clicking. A perceived affordance is what the user thinks they can do, regardless of what is physically possible.
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What is the difference between a 'wireframe', a 'mockup', and a 'prototype'?
Wireframes define structure and hierarchy with minimal visual detail. Mockups add colour, typography, and visual design but are static (not clickable). Prototypes are interactive — they simulate user flows to test usability before development. Each stage serves a different purpose in the design process.
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A designer describes a feature as 'lo-fi'. In design fidelity vocabulary, this means:
Fidelity describes how closely a design representation matches the finished product. Lo-fi (low-fidelity): rough sketches or wireframes — fast to produce, invites structural feedback. Mid-fi: grayscale wireframes with real content. Hi-fi (high-fidelity): pixel-perfect mockups or interactive prototypes — close to the final product, used for usability testing and stakeholder sign-off.
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What is a 'micro-interaction'?
Micro-interactions (Dan Saffer) have four parts: trigger (what initiates it), rules (what happens), feedback (what the user sees/hears/feels), and loops & modes (whether it repeats). Examples: pull-to-refresh animation, password strength meter, toggle switch animation, success checkmark after form submission. They make products feel responsive and alive.
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In interaction design, 'mapping' refers to:
Mapping (Norman) describes how controls relate to the things they affect. Natural mapping uses physical analogies — a steering wheel maps intuitively to car direction. Poor mapping example: stove burner knobs that don't visually correspond to which burner they control. In UI: a volume slider should move left-to-right to match volume increasing left-to-right.