Handbook
UX / UI Design
Reusable, **project-agnostic** blueprint for **UX / UI Design** — the discipline of making digital products usable, desirable, and accessible through user research, interaction design, visual design,
UX / UI Design
Reusable, project-agnostic blueprint for UX / UI Design — the discipline of making digital products usable, desirable, and accessible through user research, interaction design, visual design, and systematic evaluation.
UX / UI Design answers "is the product usable, desirable, and accessible?" — a question that spans the entire PDLC (especially P1 Discover and P2 Validate) and shapes every SDLC phase from requirements through release.
| Document | Purpose |
|---|---|
| UX-DESIGN.md | Design thinking, interaction design principles, visual design systems, information architecture, research methods, competencies |
| UX / UI Design ↔ SDLC ↔ PDLC bridge | How UX / UI Design maps across SDLC phases A–F and PDLC phases P1–P6 — emphasis on Discovery, Validation, Specify, and Verify |
| techniques/ | Deep guides: user research methods, usability testing, prototyping, A/B experimentation, design critique |
| accessibility/ | WCAG compliance, ARIA patterns, assistive technology, inclusive design, audit checklists |
Relationship to other packages
| Package | How UX / UI Design relates |
|---|---|
| Product development lifecycle (PDLC) | UX Design is the primary execution arm of PDLC P1 (Discover Problem) and P2 (Validate Solution). The PDLC defines UX Researcher and Designer as product trio roles; this discipline package provides the body of knowledge those roles draw on. |
| SDLC blueprint | UX deliverables (wireframes, prototypes, specs, design tokens) feed SDLC phases A (Discover) and B (Specify). Usability validation runs parallel to SDLC phase E (Verify). |
| Business analysis (BA) | BA elicits what stakeholders need; UX discovers how users experience and interact with solutions. Requirements analysis (BA) and interaction design (UX) converge during SDLC phase B. |
| Testing & quality assurance | Usability testing is a UX concern; functional and accessibility testing overlap with QA. Accessibility automated checks integrate into CI/CD quality gates. |
| Software architecture | Architecture decisions (component boundaries, API design, performance budgets) constrain or enable UX. Design systems bridge architecture and visual design. |
| Security / Cybersecurity | Security controls (authentication flows, consent dialogs, error messaging) have direct UX implications. Secure-by-default patterns must remain usable. |
Scope
This package covers UX / UI Design as a discipline — not just wireframing tools. It includes:
- Design thinking — double diamond, human-centered design, divergent/convergent cycles
- User research — interviews, surveys, contextual inquiry, diary studies, analytics interpretation
- Interaction design — affordances, feedback, consistency, mental models, navigation patterns
- Visual design — typography, color theory, spacing, layout grids, component libraries
- Information architecture — content taxonomy, navigation structure, labeling systems, search
- Design systems — design tokens, component APIs, theming, design-dev handoff, Storybook
- Accessibility — WCAG 2.x/3.0, ARIA patterns, assistive technology, inclusive design
- Prototyping and validation — low-fidelity sketches through high-fidelity interactive prototypes
- Usability testing — moderated/unmoderated testing, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs
Reference bodies of knowledge: Nielsen Norman Group, Interaction Design Foundation, UXPA Body of Knowledge, WCAG (W3C), Material Design, Apple Human Interface Guidelines.
Keep project-specific design assets in docs/design/ and design decisions in docs/adr/, not in this file.
Canonical source
Edit https://github.com/autowww/blueprints/blob/main/disciplines/product/ux-design/README.md first; regenerate with docs/build-handbook.py.