A breakthrough approach to UX. Simple, flexible and free. Get user feedback that you can use to guide and improve designs. Align project teams around a common vision.
What is the 5D Rubric?
The 5D Rubric is a simple and flexible way of thinking about user experience (and customer experience) that simplifies both design and assessment.
How is the 5D Rubric structured?
The 5D Rubric is based on five dimension that, taken together, capture the user experience. This transforms user experience from an abstract and hard to communicate idea into a straightforward, concrete, and operational concept.
The five dimensions are:
Empowering - the product delivers all the functionality the user wants and needs
Efficient - accessing desired functionality does not waste time or effort
Intuitive - the product works the way the user expects it to, so it's easy to learn and use
Engaging - the user feels connected and productive during interactions
Trusted - the user has no concerns while interacting with the product
These dimensions are discussed in more depth in another article on this site.
How is it used for assessment?
As an assessment tool, the 5D Rubric can be used as a questionnaire. A single statement is used for each dimension. A sixth question asks the user for an overall rating.
The dimensions are always the same, but the statements which are shown to the user can be customized for the specific project you are working on. There are several sets of statements are available on this site which you can use and modify.
For example, to assess the product's empowerment, the user might be asked to rate their agreement to this statement on a scale of 1-5:
[product name] does everything I want and need
In addition to the numeric rating, the user is invited to explain their rating in a comment box:
What capabilities are missing or should be added?
When the responses are aggregated across users (which is done automatically in Google Forms), you get a numeric rating for each dimension and a list of user suggestions which you can use to improve the product or service.
How is it used for design?
The 5D Rubric provides a common language that enables UX designers, developers, and business people to collaborate effectively. One of the biggest hurdles to delivering excellent experience relates to communication gaps and conflicting agendas within a project team. Better communication leads to better decisions which results in better user and customer experiences.
What will I find on this site?
On this site yo will find everything you need to understand what the 5D Rubric is and how to use it to improve the digital experiences you deliver. There are a series of short articles that cover:
The five dimensions of the rubric
How to customize the 5D for your projects
A template, created in google Forms, you can download
How to use the 5D Rubric is a variety of ways
Try it out
The easist way to understand the 5D Rubric is to take a sample assessment and then look at the results. Just click on the next article and experience the 5D Rubric for yourself.