Speak their language

UX is a discipline that preaches consistency. It's also a devil for changing its own names.

Human factors. User centred design. Customer centred design. Human centred design. UX. XD. We can't even agree whether it's HCI or CHI.

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So imagine how it sounds to everyone else.

A small glossary

Site map (noun) - an architecture diagram.

User journey (noun) - a fancy flow chart.

Lo-fi prototype, hi-fi prototype (noun) - um. A prototype.

Information architect (noun) - the chap who wireframes. Not the one who builds the database schema.

Why I'm so vehement about it

You get what you ask for. Ask a room to draw a vase and you'll get a room full of vases. The words you choose shape what comes back. Ask them to provide a solution to displaying flowers in their home and you (should) get a lot of different ideas.

Design only works when the left brainers and the right brainers are in the same room, building the same thing. And they can only do that if they understand each other. If the business calls it a flow chart, it's a flow chart. Nobody was ever won over by a better label.

Tip

Use their words, not yours. Speak the language of the people you need on your side - you'll spend far less time explaining and far more time building.

Starter for 10 - some useful links

• GOV.UK guidance on writing plainly - the gold standard for saying things simply

• Content Design by Sarah Winters - why the words are the design

• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug - plain, practical and still right