What are the best practices for establishing a shared language and vocabulary for UX design collaboration?

There are 2 fundamental aspects of such an effort: 1 - Facilitate communication between stakeholders through the explanation of the most common terms in our multiple disciplines and; 2 - Align all the "client-facing" roles on a single, shared language and terminology. Senior enough teams tend to skip #1, but #2 is mandatory if you want to keep your sanity. In my experience, establishing a shared language and vocabulary only works if: - You adopt the users' terminology and vocabulary; - Involve every function that has contact with users: UX, Prod, Eng, CS, Mkt, Sales, etc.; - Have a Content Strategist/Designer or similar leading it.

Dejargonise as much as possible. Tech and design method terminology is useful among similarly trained people as a shorthand way of communicating principles but it is not up to users and people we work with to learn our words. We should be meeting our users and teams where they are at. If we have to use words like "wireframes" they should always be accompanied by a simple explainer. This is not to be patronising but is to respect the possibility that participants in our work are likely specialists in the task we are asking them about, we don't need them to be design specialists too.

Consistent Terminology: Use standardized terms for design elements, ensuring everyone refers to components in the same way.

First identify the user, and it's very important that the value proposition must be portrayed by the means of a common understanding among your users.

Establishing a shared language and vocabulary is important for effective UX design collaboration. Here are some best practices: 1. Define key terms 2. Create a glossary 3. Use visual aids 4. Conduct workshops 5. Document decisions A shared language and vocabulary is an ongoing process that may require updates as the project evolves and new team members join.

This thing is really helpful like the visual aids which includes mood boards, design patterns, style guides, wireframes, and prototypes, serve as tangible representations of design concepts. By visually illustrating color schemes, typography, interactions, and design elements, team members can align on the intended design direction. This not only reinforces the shared language but also provides a concrete context during discussions, fostering a more cohesive and visually informed collaboration environment.

Augmenting shared language involves not only defining terms but also employing visual aids and examples. These tools bridge the gap between words and meanings, fostering engagement and inspiration. Utilize sketches, diagrams, charts, graphs, icons, symbols, images, screenshots, videos, and more to vividly portray user interactions, product functionality, and overall user experience. Real-world examples, analogies, metaphors, and stories further enhance relatability and memorability, transforming abstract terms and concepts into tangible, accessible insights that resonate with the audience.

4.Use Visual Aids: Incorporate visual aids like flowcharts, wireframes, and prototypes to convey complex ideas more effectively and uniformly. 5. Document and Share Best Practices: Maintain a repository of UX best practices, guidelines, and case studies for team members to reference. 6. Encourage Cross-disciplinary Learning: Promote learning across different roles (like developers learning basic UX principles) to foster mutual understanding.

Cognitive Load Management. Highlight how effectively chosen visual aids and examples, when not overly complex, reduce the cognitive load for team members, ensuring easy comprehension and retention of key terms. Streamlined visuals and relatable examples should aim to simplify rather than overwhelm, optimizing understanding and encouraging a shared vocabulary without overburdening cognitive processes.

This shared language and vocabulary should be adequately documented and widely available internally in your Product/Service's tool of choice and should include up-to-date annotated screenshots of all the screens where you have named components. Depending on the complexity of your Product/Service, all or a subsection of these should be available to the users as well. Taking atomic design as a reference, internally, there shouldn't be any doubt about what you call what (i.e., differences between an input type text vs type password), but I would advise you to keep a single source of truth in Figma rather than multiple copies in different places. Externally, the lowest granularity should be molecules but YMMV.

We can make our glossary and style guide a team effort! It's not just about setting terms in stone. Everyone can pitch in, adding new words and letting fresh ideas flow. By keeping it updated and open to all, as dynamically as we create a language that grows with us, representing our collective journey in this project. It's a living tool that evolves as we do.

Solidifying a shared language involves crafting a glossary and a style guide to document and standardize terms, concepts, visual aids, and examples. These resources act as a reference for teams and stakeholders, fostering quality assurance and consistency. Inclusion of definitions, explanations, synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations, acronyms, spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting, tone, and voice enhances clarity. These guides are not static; they evolve, accommodating new terms and concepts as the project progresses, ensuring that the language remains a dynamic and accurate reflection of the collaborative understanding.

Glossary and style guides are methods to gather all of your terms, brand colors, typography, and other things that will be used moving forward. This creates a uniformity for design teams in allowing only those things that have been agreed upon in the guides created. This makes it so that many designers can work on many projects/features, but still have it look like it all belongs to the same brand voice and style.

Making a list of words we use and a guide to how we talk about things can help us all talk in the same way. This list and guide are like a special book that tells us what words mean and how to write or talk about stuff. It's helpful for everyone working on the project and keeps everything consistent. We can keep updating it as we learn new things

The collaborative journey of establishing a shared language involves actively involving and aligning the team and stakeholders in the creation and usage process. It's not a dictation but a co-creation—an agreement shaped by all parties involved. This inclusive approach ensures that communication is a collective effort, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among team members and stakeholders. Leveraging the diverse expertise within the group allows for enrichment and improvement of the shared language. Soliciting feedback and input becomes a valuable means to refine and evolve the language, aligning it more closely with the collective understanding.

Be aware of how your stakeholders work and learn. It's best practice to have a glossary available, but chances are that you're working with someone who won't go through a glossary or do a pre-read. But, even if they do prepare beforehand, you will be more up-to-date with the terms and vocabulary. Knowing that, make sure that you have insight into the knowledge level of your stakeholders and repeat common terms or concepts often, explaining them again. This also helps for people who are auditory learners. Plus, repetition is the mother of learning!

-Regular Collaborative Reviews: Hold regular design reviews or critiques where team members can discuss and align on design decisions and terminology. -Feedback and Iteration: Encourage open feedback and iterative processes to refine and evolve the shared language over time. -Inclusive Language: Ensure the language and terms used are inclusive, considering the diverse backgrounds of team members and users.

Getting everyone involved in how we talk and understand things is a great way for us to all be on the same page. It's like a team effort where everyone gets to share their thoughts. When we all work together, it makes communication smoother, and everyone feels like they're part of the conversation. This way, we can make sure our way of talking makes sense to everyone and helps us do our best work together.

- Understand industry trends and best practices. - Identify current vocabulary and evaluate its logic, accuracy, and compatibility. - Introduce new vocabulary and gather feedback from designers and engineers. - Test new vocabulary with personas to determine suitability and identify issues. - Conduct testing with UX researchers using methods like card sorting and usability tests. - Obtain recommendations from UX researchers. - Involve UX writers, instructional designers, and learning designers to establish a shared language and vocabulary.

Maintaining a shared language involves inspecting and upgrading it on a regular basis. It is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. We fine-tune our language to match the situation, just as we would change a recipe to make it better. This assists us in ensuring that we are saying the right things in the clearest way possible. By doing so, we can solve any problems that arise and keep our communication style sharp and useful.

Consistency and confidence in language and vocabulary are essential elements in UX (User Experience) design. A shared language ensures clear communication among team members and stakeholders, leading to a unified understanding of design concepts and goals.

1 - Establishing a shared language and vocabulary only works if you involve EVERYONE who has contact with users, typically UX, Product, Eng, Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, UX/Technical Writers, QA, etc. Failing to include just one can have serious consequences, for example, technical documentation that doesn't match the UI. 2 - Always start with the users. Depending on your Product/Service, your audience and/or their industry might already have an established term for it. Use it. 3 - If you need to create terms, adhere to tried and tested naming conventions, and stay away from gimmicky terms. Always take into consideration translation & localization needs. 4 - Poor/unclear terms will increase significantly your cust. support costs

In my experience "flexible consistency" is important. By this I mean that you should develop a shared vocabulary, BUT be willing to shift, adapt, and if necessary to simplify that vocabulary. It is a living and ever-changing technical and cultural guide that serves the community, and not the other way around.