Guide: Review Guide

A/B testing

A technique of showing two or more variants of a design to users at random to find out which one performs better. When running A/B tests, you only want to vary one element or aspect of the design—this allows you to pinpoint exactly which feature influenced the result.

Above/below the fold

“Above the fold” refers to content that is visible at the top of a website; the user doesn’t need to scroll to see it. “Below the fold” refers to content further down the page which the user would need to scroll in order to see. In UX, it’s important to put meaningful, important content above the fold (for example, a header).

Accessibility

Accessibility or accessible design helps differently-enabled users to interact with a product. Those with difficulty with any of the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch or taste may be benefitted by using products and services that have been designed with accessibility in mind.

Active listening

Interviewing technique in which the interviewer pays attention shows acknowledgment and provides feedback to encourage the conversation.

Active voice

Active voice makes subjects do something (to something). For example, in "Jill selected the link," the verb "selected" is in the active voice.

Adaptive

An adaptive interface is a collection of layouts designed specifically for different devices. it detects the device type being used and displays the layout designed for it. This does not mean it is a different website—it means you’ll see a specific version of the website which has been optimized for mobile, desktop or tablet.

Adobe XD

Part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, it’s a vector-based design tool used for creating wireframes, prototypes, animations and UI designs. We’ll explain all of these terms throughout our glossary.

Affinity mapping

An affinity map (or affinity diagram) is used by UX designers to organize their findings from qualitative user research. This entails data that can’t be counted or measured, and therefore requires thematic analysis. It can be used to categorize large volumes of data into designated categories based on themes or relationships.

Affordance

An affordance refers to all the actions that are possible with a specific object or element, depending on the user’s capabilities. When designing digital products, the goal is to create elements whose affordances (i.e., possible actions) match the user’s expectations. For example, if you design a button, the user will likely expect to be able to click it. For instance, buttons on interfaces, for example, afford being pressed to trigger an action.

Agile sprint

Derived from the Scrum method, an agile sprint is a period of time during which a defined objective must be completed and ready for review. Commonly, a sprint lasts from a week to a month, but each sprint must always be the same length. The work to be developed during the sprint must be prepared beforehand and must not be changed once the sprint has started. At the end of the sprint, an evaluation of the work done allows you to continue in the same direction or change course.

Agile UX

Agile UX adds UX design and research methods to the agile methodology. The most crucial driver for Agile UX is the close cooperation between developers, UX designers, and UX researchers during the entire process of product development. Ideally, every sprint entails a design and/or research goal. By planning, testing, optimizing, and re-testing elements throughout the project, the UX team is able to roll out a final product that has already been validated by their target users. Instead of building the entire product at once, Agile breaks it down into smaller bits of user functionality and assigns them to two-week cycles called iterations.

Analytics

Analytics measure human behavior on a site. They help us better understand and interpret patterns of behavior on the products we use.

Android

As a UX designer, you’ll commonly come across two operating systems: Android and iOS. Android is Google’s open-source mobile operating system. Visually, it is characterized by Material Design, a design language developed by Google in 2014.

Animation design

Animation design is the process of creating animated (or moving) graphics. In digital design, motion and animation are used to provide feedback to the user after a certain action—for example, an animation which conveys “loading” after a user clicks on a button. This clearly tells the user that their action has been registered.

Animated wireframe

A type of prototype that gives a visual representation of the user interface of a website or software application. Unlike static wireframes, in simulation clickable wireframes respond to user interaction.

Application Programming Interfaces (API)

Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, are pieces of software that help different applications communicate with each other. Products develop APIs to let you access and read information on their server easily.

Archetypes

Similar to a persona, but the difference is that the archetype is more based on behaviors, whereas the persona is oriented to socio-demographic data.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. Artificial intelligence systems include predictive systems, audio processing, speech to text, and natural language processing.

Atomic research

Atomic research is a new method for organizing and classifying with precision the data collected by listening and observing users. Whether qualitative or quantitative, this knowledge from X research (User eXperience Research) is broken down at an "atomic" level, and can then be analyzed. From their conclusions, the actions to be prioritized are determined. This technique is based on 4 phases: - The experience: "we did this"; - Observation of the facts: "and we saw this"; - Insights: "it made us think of this"; - The recommendations: "therefore, we will try to do that".

AttrakDiff

A questionnaire elaborated by Hassenzahl and his colleagues in 2003, it is a reference in user research. It allows to evaluate hedonic and pragmatic characteristics of an interactive system.

(UX) Audit

A UX audit reviews an existing product (or an aspect of the product) to identify issues in the overall user experience. You can think of a UX audit as a user experience health check, providing you with useful data to inform future design decisions. UX audits are typically conducted for quality assurance purposes after the release of a new product or a major redesign, but companies may schedule them periodically just to keep a general pulse on the product.

Augmented Reality (AR)

A technology that adds a computer-generated, visual layer on top of the real world. For example, generating an image of a mech robot that dances on your (real) desk. AR is a burgeoning technology that will help user in a new wave of user experience and interface design.

Automated UX Research

Automated business processes save time and budgets. Just like software for Marketing Automation, UX testing tools allow to digitize user research efforts and accelerate every part of a project. Online UX software not only allows us to systematically plan continuous studies and manage the recruitment process but to automatically gather and filter usability data, create individual research reports based on UX metrics and easily export and share results within an organization.

Avatar

Avatars represent users online who have not uploaded an image for themselves. You’ll commonly see them in comment threads or in games.

Back and Front-End Development

Back-end development refers to the server-side of an application and everything that communicates between the database and the browser. The front-end is what users see. Think buttons, text, beautiful colors, and the layer seen on screen when interacting with a product.

Backlog

A queue of work that needs doing on a product. A backlog is a list of tasks required to support a larger strategic plan. In a product development context, it contains a prioritized list of items that the team has agreed to work on next. Typical items on a product backlog include user stories, changes to existing functionality, and bug fixes.

Beacon

Beacons are small Bluetooth radio transmitters. They communicate with the user’s smartphone and are used to share information.

Benchmark testing

A procedure of using specific metrics to assess the user experience of a product or compare it with other products available on the market. UX benchmarking helps you assess how your product design is progressing over time and where it falls compared to competitors.

Beta testing

Beta testing is when you launch an unfinished product to a select group of users in order to see how it performs in the real world. This allows you to identify bugs, pain points and areas of improvement for your imperfect beta product before developing and releasing it fully.

Brainstorming

A key aspect of working in UX is coming up with ideas for how to solve user problems. Brainstorming is a popular ideation technique used by UX designers. It’s usually done in a group and essentially involves coming up with ideas and sharing them without too much thought. You can also brainstorm alone and map your ideas out on paper.

Brand identity

Brand identity captures and conveys the essence of what a company is all about. It’s built on company values and how you want people to feel when they interact with your product or service. The user experience of a product plays a hand in shaping and reinforcing the brand identity; so, as a UX designer, it’s important to factor it in.

Breadcrumb

Breadcrumb navigation systems help users understand their location in a website or app. They'll show a sequence of steps users have to take to get where they are.

Bug

Bugs are mistakes in software that can cause a product to glitch, behave in unintended ways, or even crash.

Business Analyst (BA)

Generally, business analysts, or BAs, analyze organizations and documents in their systems. In software development, business analysts often act as the bridge between product development and business stakeholders to craft and document product requirements and help ensure that product decisions make business sense.

Cache

A cache memory lets you store and save data temporarily for later use. You'll often find usernames, recent searches and websites in your cache memory.

Call-To-Action (CTA)

A call-to-action button is a visual or interface element that invites a specific action from the user. In apps and websites, CTAs often take the form of a short snippet of text, followed by a button.

Card Sorting

Card sorting is a UX research method which gives you insight into how users categorize information. In a card sorting session, participants are given notecards with different labels or topics written on them and asked to organize them in a way that feels logical. Card sorting helps you to design the information architecture (IA) of a website or app in line with user expectations.

Cascading Style Sheets CSS

A language that describes how HTML should be displayed. HTML is the bones of a content, whereas CSS is applied to HTML to give elements styling options like layout, color, typography and more.

Case Study

Formally, case studies are defined as a focused analysis of a person, group or project meant to understand causation. In relation to UX careers, a case study showcases the process of solving design problems. An emphasis is placed on how design thinking, methods and deliverables were used to solve user experience problems.

Chatbot

Chatbots are a chat interface that allow the user to ask questions to the system and receive answers and/or guidance. They are a popular customer service tool made to mimic the experience of texting a friend.

Checkbox

A checkbox is a UI element that allows the user to make a binary (yes/no, cancel/confirm) choice for a specific option.

Circular Design

The circular design is playing an essential role in this new nonlinear economy through building a design thinking process that intends to build new business models. It considers the future of the product that no longer have a lifecycle with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Clickstream

Clickstream refers to the path of clicks taken by the user to accomplish a goal.

Closed Card Sort

In closed card sorts, researchers provide pre-determined categories (hence "closed") for participants to sort cards into.

Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are errors in reasoning, memory or other cognitive processes that result from holding onto existing beliefs regardless of contrary information. There are more than 100 documented cognitive biases, commonly categorized in four categories: biases that arise from too much information, not enough meaning, the need to act quickly, and the limits of memory. Cognitive biases are particularly important to be aware of while conducting research, as a way of arriving at truer findings instead of relying on personal preferences. Example: Designer Bob loves minimalist design, and exhibits confirmation bias when he decides to approach his new UI project with an ultra-minimalist approach.

Cognitive load

Cognitive load is a crucial factor to consider when designing products, services and features. Put simply, cognitive load is the amount of mental effort required to complete a certain task. As a UX designer, you want to keep the user’s cognitive load to a minimum. This is all part of designing easy, enjoyable, efficient experiences.

Commits

Throughout the development process, developers create commits whenever they have reached a good point in their work. Commits are similar to drafts.

Competitor analysis

UX designers usually conduct competitor analysis during the research phase of a design project. With competitor analysis, you're looking at competing products within your niche or market space to see what they do well, where their weaknesses lie, and to get a feel for what your end-users will expect from a similar product (i.e., the one you're going to design). Competitor analysis helps you to make informed design decisions.

Consistency

Consistency is a key principle in UX design. It dictates that a user-friendly design always provides a consistent experience—once the user is familiar with your product, they can use it with ease; they don't need to learn new ways of completing tasks or solving problems at every turn. Essentially, consistency eliminates confusion!

Content Strategist

Content strategists help maximize the usability and profitability of content, throughout the full content lifecycle: analyzing, planning, writing, editing, distributing, managing and monitoring content. Due to the wide breadth of this field, the work that content strategists do often affect and involve information architecture and the user experience.

Content Strategy

The strategy, organization and management of content that aligns between user and business goals.

Contextual enquiry

Contextual enquiry is a user research method which involves observing and interviewing users while they interact with your product in their “natural” environment. So, rather than asking them questions about their experience of the product after they've used it, you watch them in action and ask questions directly at the source to fill in any gaps.

Context of use analysis

A method for determining the salient characteristics of an application by collecting and analyzing detailed information about the intended users, their tasks, and the technical and environmental constraints.

Conversion Rate

The Conversion Rate of a product or site is the percentage of users who complete a desired action. Say we're creating an e-comm site and the desired action is a successful purchase. The Conversion Rate would tell us how many users bought an item.

Crazy eight

User research method to generate new feature ideas with 8 participants. Each participant draws in a screen or feature for one minute (so, 8 minutes in a total) and then share it with the rest of the participants to improve design. At the end of the session, there is a convergence phase with “Best of” to see what features are most liked by participants.

Crowdtesting

Crowdtesting is a tool allowing a large number of users to contribute to test and / or evaluate a new product, service or concept.

Customer experience (CX)

Customer experience or CX, is the customers’ holistic perception of their experience with a business or brand. It covers every interaction the customer has with a business, from navigating the website to talking to customer service and receiving the product/service they bought. CX tends to be broader in scope than user experience (UX). UX is focused on a person’s interaction with an app or website, while CX is more about that person’s overall experience of a brand, including advertising, product quality, and customer support.

Customer Journey Map

This concept is also borrowed from service design. It is a document that shows how a customer moves through an entire service, and the different touch points they encounter. (See also user journey.)

Customer Relationship Management CRM

Customer Relationship Management software systems help manage business processes, like sales, data, and customer interactions.

Dark Patterns

Tricks used in websites and apps that cause unintended user action, like buying or signing up for things that you didn't mean to.

Dark UX

Dark UX is not a term you ever want to be associated with as a UX designer. It’s the practice of deliberately designing in a way that tricks the user or subtly pushes them towards an action they probably don't want to take. A classic example of dark UX is making it confusing for users to cancel their subscription.

Data-Driven Design

Design that is backed by data and helps understand the target audience better is known as data-driven design. Data helps prove, reveal, and improve your design. It proves that your work is on the right track, it reveals the users’ pain points and opportunities while unearthing new trends, and it improves your designs by adding objectivity to them.

Data Science

Numbers can tell us an awful lot about our users and their needs, and can help us define how to best meet them. Data Science focuses on making sense of these numbers or data and uncovering valuable insights that help us make better product decisions.

Decision matrix

A decision matrix – sometimes referred to as a prioritization matrix – is a framework used to evaluate and prioritize ideas based on a set of predetermined criteria. In UX, it can help you to weigh up different design options and make informed decisions that balance available time and resources against the needs of the user.

Design debt

Design debt (or UX debt) is the result of taking shortcuts in the design process in order to quickly reach a solution or produce a deliverable. This can lead to problems down the line and can ultimately result in a negative user experience. You might accumulate design debt if you skip user research or user testing, if you ignore style guidelines or neglect to keep adequate documentation. The Nielsen Norman Group has published a useful guide on how to identify, prioritize and resolve design debt here.

Design deliverables

Design deliverables are the tangible “things” or artifacts a UX designer produces throughout the design process. UX deliverables include things like personas, user journey maps, wireframes and prototypes. You’ll find a definition of all of these terms in the latter part of our UX glossary. Keep reading!

Design Exercise

Often a take-home "quiz" of sorts to determine a design process. Sometimes a part of UX interviews.

Design Facilitation

The skill of facilitating design process and efforts, such as presenting to stakeholders or conducting design workshops.

Design Patterns

Repeatable design solutions, often leveraging widespread user recognition to aid in the design process. For example, graphical icons such as the magnifying glass (search) are now design patterns that users know how to interact with.

Design Sprint

A collaborative methodology for rapidly identifying and solving a design problem. The five stages of a sprint are: define the challenge, diverge (ideate possible solutions), converge (choose the strongest concepts to develop), prototype, and test. The idea is to rapidly build and test a prototype in just five days, encouraging design teams to quickly move from problem to solution. Lego, N26, Uber and Google are just some of the major brands who advocate for the design sprint methodology.

Design System

A library of user interface elements, components, and guidelines that are used as the basis for any new and updated features in a product. The purposes of a design system include: maintaining consistency across a product when new features are added; making it easier to update components across an entire product; and reducing the amount of development time involved in any project.

Design thinking

Design thinking is a 5-stage method for creative problem solving. The 5 stages are: 1 Empathize (with the user), 2 Define (the problem), 3 Ideate (potential solutions), 4 Prototype, and 5 Test. Design thinking is used to address particularly tricky UX problems.

Diary study

A diary study is a research method used to collect qualitative data about user behaviors, activities, and experiences over time. In a diary study, data is self-reported by participants longitudinally — that is, over an extended period of time that can range from a few days to even a month or longer.

Direct user data

The feedback that comes from a face-to-face research method such as a one-on-one interview or focus group.

Discovery phase

First phase of the creation process, the discovery phase aims at knowing your potential users, understanding their habits and needs on a specific subject, in order to design a solution that will fit those.

(UX) Documentation

UX documentation captures all the steps you follow throughout a given design project. It allows you to keep track of the project and create a source of truth for all stakeholders to refer back to. UX documentation can include anything from the design problem and the project timeline to a summary of user research findings, early concepts and sketches, and results from usability tests.

Eco conception

Approach consisting of taking into account the environmental aspects throughout the life cycle of a product, with the aim of minimizing the ecological consequences linked to its design. Eco-design is a global approach that intervenes at the earliest during the product creation and development phase.

Edge case

An edge case is rare situation. In software design, edge cases often threaten to break a system and the user experience. Edge cases deal with the extreme maximums and minimums of parameters. For example, if an application allows for "unlimited" photo uploads knowing that users rarely upload more than 1000, how does the system deal with the edge case of the user who uploads millions of photos? Are there boundaries at this maximum end? That is an edge case, an unlikely-yet-potentially disastrous situation.

Effective

Measure or description of how accurately a goal can be accomplished.

Efficiency

Measure or description of how quickly and easily a goal can be accomplished.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to metaphorically put yourself in someone else’s shoes—and it’s the very foundation of good UX design. Empathy enables you to understand your user’s needs and pain-points, and to design solutions accordingly.

Empathy map

An empathy map is a visualization tool used by designers to depict and summarize what they know about a user (or group of users). It consists of four quadrants: “Says”, “Thinks”, “Does” and “Feels” which capture notes on what the user has said (for e.g., during an interview), what they think about a product or experience, the actions they take in a given context and how they feel during the process. As the name suggests, an empathy map helps you to build empathy for your end users.

End user

It’s impossible to talk about UX (or work in the field) without referring to the “end user”. The end user is, quite simply, the person you're designing for. It’s the person who will use your product or service and it’s the person whose pain-points you want to understand and solve.

Engaging or Engagement

Capturing the user's attention or interest or maintaining their interaction.

Entry field

The entry field, which is also known as a data or text entry field, is employed when users are required to make text or data entries, including keywords, commands, quantities, etc.

Environmental profile

A snapshot of the external circumstances of users that may impact the pursuit of their interaction goals.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics applies to the adaptation of a work environment - whether equipment, tool, or organizational system - to the needs of the user.

Error analysis

A part of task analysis that identifies the frequency and type of errors that occur for each specified set of task flows.

Error of commission

An error in which a user attempts to complete a task incorrectly.

Error of omission

An error in which a user misses a specific task or step.

Error rate

Frequency in which errors occur in a given time period.

Error recovery

The ability for a user to correct and continue to pursue their goal or complete a task.

Ethical design

You can think of ethical design as the process of “designing for good.” Ultimately, it’s about designing with the user’s wellbeing in mind. For example, an ethically designed social media app might contain features that encourage users to develop a healthy relationship with the app—such as a “time spent scrolling” warning to remind users to take a break.

Ethnography, or ethnographic research

Also known as shadowing. A methodology where the researcher accompanies the user and observes how they use the product or service within their natural environment.

Ethnographic study

A qualitative research method of observing users in their natural habitat to understand their behavior.

Experience Architecture

Experience architecture is a map that lays the outline of the path that a user will take from the start to the intended goal.

Experience map

A user experience map shows the users’ needs, expectations, wants, and potential route to reach a particular goal.

Eye tracking

An advanced method for assessing the visual hierarchy of information on a screen. Eye trackers record where the user is looking on a screen and for how long. Results are often displayed in the format of a “heat map”; this information can then be used to optimize a design.

Fidelity

Fidelity is used to describe the quality of wireframes and prototypes—in other words, how closely the wireframe or prototype resembles what the live product will look like. Low-fidelity wireframes are bare-bones outlines, whereas high-fidelity prototypes include visuals and interactive properties, closely mimicking the look, feel and behavior of a live website or app.

Figma

Figma is another popular UX design tool used for wireframing, building out design systems, collaborating, running workshops and more. It’s not a UX term per se, but it is fast becoming one of the most-used tools in the industry, so it’s worth knowing about.

Fishbone Diagram

A diagram designed to identify cause-and-effect relationships between factors in a given situation. It is made up of a "head" which states a problem and bones along the spine which represent factors and categories of factors.

Fitts' Law

A mathematical model that predicts how long it will take to point at a target based on target size and proximity, stating the further away and smaller it is the longer it will take for user to interact with it.

Flat Design

This interface design trend is based on readability and minimalism. With these simple geometric shapes and grid systems, paper graphics flatten and streamline interfaces.

Floating Action Button

A user interface (UI) element that sits on top of a screen design, often in the bottom-right-hand corner, and doesn't move when the user scrolls.

Flowchart

Flowcharts illustrate the steps a user can take to complete a task on a product.

Fly on the wall

Is a traditional observational technique that allows a design researcher to collect data by seeing and listening. This method helps the researcher to secretly gain an insight into the participant’s behavior in a certain scenario.

Focus group

Another UX research method, focus groups bring together a handful of users to discuss issues and concerns about the features of a product. Focus groups are moderated by the researcher, but for the participants, they feel unstructured and free-flowing. This can give way to very candid insights, and allows you to gather a variety of perspectives.

Font readability

How easy or difficult it is to read a collection of words in a specific type style.

Form

A UI element that gathers information from the user. Forms range from extremely short to extremely long. An example of a very short form is an email signup, which may have only an email address field and a submit button. An online loan application, however, might have a series of long forms in the flow.

Free listing

A data collection technique to gain user insight for a specific domain or topic by asking people to list all the items they can think of that relate to the topic.

Front-end Development

Front end development is the practice of implementing designs in code to be displayed on the web. Front end developers primarily use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to code designs. "Front end" refers to the "client side" - e.g., a user's browser, so front end development is the management of what people see in their browser, and not what goes on the in background with data storage & management (hence "back end").

Full-stack designer

A full-stack designer is a designer who has the skills and know-how to take on all the “stacks” (or layers) of the product design and development process. While most designers will specialize in just one area, such as UX design or UI design, full-stack designers can take on UX design, UI design, interaction design and frontend development.

Function Allocation

In human factors, determining responsibility for performing a given function to humans or technology within a given system.

Gamification

Gamification is the process of integrating game-design elements and principles into products in an effort to drive user engagement.

Gestalt law

Gestalt laws of Gestalt theories - meaning "shape" in German - break down the way the human eye perceives objects and imagines shapes where there were none initially. These theories were developed in 1910 by the psychologists M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler and K. Koffka. In UX, they are used to take into consideration the visual perception of a user when interacting with the elements of an interface. There are 6 laws of the Gestalt: the law of continuity, similarity, proximity, closure, good form, and that of common destiny.

Gestalt Principles

People do not visually perceive items in isolation, but as part of a larger whole. These principles include humans’ tendencies towards similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure.

Github

GitHub is a collaborative development platform used by developers. You can find a comprehensive introduction to GitHub here.

Graphic Design

Graphic design is one of the best-known practices within the world of design and technology. It includes fundamentals of design like typography, color theory, illustration and even photography. Sometimes also referred to as communication design, the practice of developing and communicating media to target audiences.

Graphic Designer

Graphic designers are visual communicators who produce work across both digital and print mediums such as posters, brochures, invitations, and business cards. A big part of the job involves creating assets in a way that can be applied consistently across the entire brand, such as creating a style guide. While they don’t need to code, graphic designers often create user interface assets like logos and icons for the web.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

A GUI (graphical user interface) is a system of interactive visual components for computer software. A GUI displays objects that convey information, and represent actions that can be taken by the user.

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)

A legacy web graphics format that has frame-by-frame animation. It’s now used almost exclusively for animation.

Grid

A layout constraint that determines the positioning of user interface elements on a screen or page. Grids are fundamental to effective design systems.

Grid system

Grids systems are organizational tools that help us arrange content on a screen. They are made up of vertical and horizontal lines that create what we call columns and gutters.

Hack

In software development, a hack is a quick solution to a specific problem or bug, but which probably won’t be a long-term solution.

Hardware

The physical parts of a product or computer are called hardware. Think circuits, chips, plugs, and wires.

Hamburger Button/Menu

A visual pattern of three (or sometimes two or four) horizontal lines that typically indicates a hidden menu. Tapping or clicking it reveals the menu.

Heatmap

A heatmap is a data visualization which literally maps out in different colors how and where users have spent time on your website. Red areas of the heatmap indicate popular sections of the website, while blue areas are those which received less attention. Heatmaps are another tool used by UX designers to understand how users behave and to design accordingly.

Heuristics

Another term from the field of psychology, a heuristic is a mental shortcut which enables people to solve problems and make decisions quickly, based on what they've learned from previous experiences. In UX, we use heuristic evaluation to assess the usability of a digital interface.

Heuristic evaluation

It is a usability inspection method for computer software that helps to identify usability problems in the user interface (UI) design. It specifically involves evaluators examining the interface and judging its compliance with recognized usability principles (the "heuristics").

Hick's Law

Named after British and American psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman, describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has: increasing the number of choices will increase the decision time logarithmically.

High-Fidelity Prototype

An interactive prototype that simulates the real system or site's functionality and design details.

Hover help

Usually, a smaller box with information that appears or pops up if a user puts their mouse over a designated graphical element or text.

How Might we (HMW)

If you're in the process of solving a UX problem and trying to come up with ideas, you might frame the problem as a “How might we?” question. For example, if your problem statement is something like “Users struggle to fill out the application form and often fill it out wrong”, you could turn this into the following HMW: “How might we improve the application form to make it easier for users to fill it out correctly?” How Might We questions are a great way to progress from problem to solution while keeping the user at the forefront.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, is the standard programming language used to create websites. Unlike CSS, it is concerned with the structure of a website. Think of it as the programming language we use to create the blueprint of a website.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

A multidisciplinary field of study focusing on the design of computer technology and, in particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and computers. While initially concerned with computers, HCI has since expanded to cover almost all forms of information technology design.

Human Factors

The multidisciplinary study of human biological, physical, psychological, and social characteristics in relation to environments, objects and services.

Human Factors Engineering HFE (HFE)

Applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. It can contribute to the design of any system with a human interface, including hardware and software.

Hybrid App

Hybrid mobile apps combine both native and web technologies. They’ll often use a combination of technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and will live inside a native container that lets it access device capabilities.

Hybrid Card Sort

Hybrid card sorts allow for participants to both sort cards into predetermined, and also the option to create their own categories.

Hybrid navigation model (hybrid structure)

A combination of navigation structures incorporates some combination of components possibly including sequential and/or hierarchical IA designs.

Ideation

Ideation is all about generating as many ideas and potential solutions as possible, without considering or judging their feasibility. In the ideation phase, the focus is on quantity of ideas rather than on quality. Some popular ideation techniques include brainstorming, bodystorming and the SCAMPER method.

Inclusive design

Inclusive design is a set of methodologies “to create products that understand and enable people of all backgrounds and abilities. It may address accessibility, age, economic situation, geographic location, language, race and more.” Ultimately, inclusive design is about designing experiences which include and benefit everyone.

Inclusive design principles

They are intended to give anyone involved in the design and development of websites and applications a broad approach to inclusive design.

Information Architect

Professionals who design, organize, and manage information to make data easy to access and understand. Also referred to as IAs, information architects leverage a variety of design tools and research to make sense out of messes, whether that's creating a logical index of topics or ensuring that a site's structure is easy for users to navigate through.

Information Architecture (IA)

Information architecture is the practice organizing and arranging information to make it understandable. If you had your own grocery store, where would you put carrots? Apples? Bread? It sounds pretty simple until you start getting into things like peanuts, jelly, cream cheese, cake mix, and so on. Information architecture is figuring out how to arrange things into something that can be understood by your user. This includes defining hierarchies, parent-child relationships and in general making sense out of an (informational) messes.

In-Lab testing

In-Lab Testing refers to tests with users conducted in a usability lab and requires a moderator. A limited number of participants usually perform tasks to test prototypes, mock-ups, websites, mobile websites, or apps. Participants are not in their natural context of use, so data can be distorted. On the other hand, it enables researchers to conduct focus groups and obtain in-depth feedback and explanations.

Interaction Design (IxD)

A discipline that focuses specifically on how users interact with products (both digital and analog). This could be buttons on a page, swipes on an app, or how to use a can opener that only has one handle.

Interaction Designer

Since interaction design is an opinionated subfield of user experience design, interaction designers hold a more opinionated role compared to UX designers by focusing on the specifics of microinteractions, usability and accessibility. Because interaction designers are focused on creating key interactions for the product, they're often expected to be able to create highly interactive and complex prototypes. For example, IxD's would be more expected to create an end-to-end clickable prototype with detailed interactions (hover-overs, transitions) on Axure, whereas a UX generalist more likely to do high level screen-by-screen prototypes with Sketch+InVision. There's also an expectation of being able to implement designs in code, or at the very least prototype with front-end code.

International user research

The act of conducting a study in one or more countries other than your current one. Also sometimes called global research depending on the scope of the project. On top of translations, international research also brings a totally new factor into the mix: cultural differences.

Interviews

One-on-one interactions between end-users and researchers to gather data about the conceptual model or design of a system.

Intuitive design

“Intuitive” is a word that you'll hear time and time again in the UX world. Intuitive design is what UX professionals strive for; it’s design that the user can instantly understand and use without needing any kind of tutorial or instruction.

Invision Studio

InVision Studio is another powerful tool that all designers should be familiar with. It includes features and functions for drawing, wireframing, prototyping and animating—pretty much everything you need to bring your designs to life.

iOS

iOS is a mobile operating system designed and developed by Apple. If you have an iPhone, this is the OS in your device.

IP Address

An IP address, or Internet Protocol Address, is a unique number made up of numbers and periods used to identify each device utilizing the Internet Protocol to communicate.

Iteration

It isn't uncommon for a product to be chopped up into smaller pieces as it is developed or designed. Iterative development is just that: the practice of breaking down development into small parts. The period of time that we assign to work on each part is referred to as an iteration. They’ll normally last anywhere between 1-4 weeks.

Iterative design

Iterative design is the practice of continuously improving, refining and updating your product. An iteration of a design is essentially a new, updated version and designing iteratively enables you to keep improving the user experience on a regular and ongoing basis (rather than launching one version and never updating it again, regardless of how it’s received by users).

Jakob's law

Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Jakob's Law was coined by Jakob Nielsen, a User Advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group which he co-founded with Dr. Donald A. Norman (former VP of research at Apple Computer).

JavaScript

We've looked at HTML and CSS, two of the three cornerstone technologies in web development. JavaScript, the third pillar, defines how both the HTML and CSS should behave. Think of it as the language that helps us make elements on a page interactive.

Job Stories

Also known as "jobs to be done," job stories help define user tasks in product design. A more generalized version of user stories that attempts to avoid leading a design with persona-first phrasing. Format: When [name situation], I want to [list motivations and forces], so I can [expected outcome]. Example: When I go shopping for groceries, I want to find the cheapest available produce, so I can save money shopping.

Journey Map

Customer journey maps visualize how users would achieve their goals and complete tasks - this could be purchasing a product or tracking fitness goals. Ideally, research should show the pain points and customer needs within this map. Journey maps are often presented as timelines to demonstrate interaction points covering the beginning, middle and end of an experience. An example journey map of a user's travel experience may look like: buy a plane ticket, get to the airport, get on the plane, take public transportation to a hotel.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are measurable values that help us understand and track how well a product is doing. As a UX designer, you'll often work with KPIs like task success rate, user error rate, and time on task. "KPIs" are used to track progress and measure goals.

KISS

Keep it Simple Stupid. A popular principle for encouraging simplicity in the areas of design and engineering.

Labeling systems

The consistent selection and placement of labels that best accommodates navigation.

Labels

Naming conventions for buttons or site navigation.

Landing Page

Any page a user lands on is considered a landing page. However, landing pages are often tied to ads and search results and are designed to meet specific conversion goals. Not only are they the page a user lands on, but they are also a crucial part of marketing campaigns.

Lean UX

A blend of agile principles and design thinking that eschews the focus on design deliverables, and instead prioritizes rapid learning & product development. Whereas traditional UX may include rounds of wireframes and design reviews, Lean UX would prioritize the development of a MVP to gather user feedback.

Learnability

How easy or difficult it is to learn to effectively use a system or interface.

Likert Scale

A response range for a type of survey question in which a person is asked to rate their reaction to a statement along a scale. The scale typically runs from a positive rating to a negative rating with a neutral score in between.

Localization

Customizing or personalizing a national or international product for a local market.

Material Design

The basic idea of this interface design is that the screen (smartphone or computer) has a thickness on which we can superimpose several layers of flat elements. The designers therefore takes the “flat” elements and gives them a little shadow, discreetly, to materialize their presence.

Memorability

The degree to which users can remember how to use an interface

Mental Map or Model

A mental model represents what the user believes to be true about a product’s functionality. The more a user’s mental model aligns with a product’s functionality, the easier it will be for them to use it.

Microcopy

Microcopy refers to the tiny tidbits of copy found on websites, applications, and products. These short sentences tell a user what to do, address user concerns, provide context to a situation

Miller's Law

The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory. In 1956, George Miller asserted that the span of working memory and absolute judgment were both limited to around 7 pieces of information.

Minesweeping

An action designed to identify where on a page links are located. Minesweeping involves the user rapidly moving the cursor or pointer over a page, watching to see where the cursor or pointer changes to indicate the presence of a link.

Mobile First

Application vendors consider their mobile users as the number one priority in their development roadmap.

Mockup

A mockup is a detailed static representation of the design that clearly displays the information structure, renders the content and demonstrates the basic functionality. A mockup is a prototype if it provides at least part of the functionality of a system and enables testing of a design.

Modal

A modal, or modal window, is a box that pops up outside of the main screen when the user clicks something on the current screen. Modals are used to draw the user’s attention and to get them to focus on one specific thing. To close the modal, the user must complete a certain action or actively click to exit out of it. An example of a modal could be the window that pops up when you’re reading a blog, asking you to subscribe to their newsletter.

Multichannel Experience

Multichannel or Omnichannel Experiences are related to the experiences customers or potential buyers make when interacting with a brand. They typically use a variety of channels to research product information and compare offers.

Multivariate Testing

The goal of multivariate testing is to determine which combination of variations performs the best out of all possible combinations.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

A product developed with only the most important features for the purpose of launching to an early set of users to provide feedback on the product. The goal of the MVP is to save time & resources by incorporating early user feedback before committing more resources for features that users may not care about or even use.

Navigation

The means by which users to get from page to page on a website.

Near Field Communication (NFC)

A technology that allows two physical devices that are in close proximity to share information. This is the technology that allows you to use your smartphone handset to pay at checkouts.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The NPS measures how loyal users are towards a brand or product. The question used to determine their level of loyalty is: “How likely is it that you would recommend “this brand/website/product” to a friend or colleague?” The NPS is calculated by using a 0-10 scale. Respondents are grouped into brand promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), and detractors (6-0). Subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoter’s results in the Net Promoter Score. It can theoretically range from -100 to 100. The NPS’ average depends on the industry sector.

Neumorphism

Interface design for which you have to imagine that the background itself is deformed in depth or in relief to create the interface. It is therefore treated as a soft virtual material, entirely plain, often of a slightly cold gray, allowing depth to be created with shadows and light reflections.

Onboarding

This refers to the steps that a user goes through when they first open up an app or join a service. Onboarding is an extremely important part of the overall user experience. Even if you have a user-friendly product, people are likely to abandon it during onboarding if they are not brought up to speed effectively.

Open Card Sort

In open card sorts, there are no predetermined categories (hence "open"). Participants sort cards into categories that make the most sense to them, then create their own labels for these groups.

Open Source

Anything you stumble upon that is open source is available for public use, and free. You can use it, modify it, and build with it without running into trouble.

Operating System (OS)

An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs.

Pain-points

Pain-points are any issues, problems, frustrations or hiccups a user encounters during a given experience or interaction. As a UX designer, it’s your job to conduct research in order to uncover user pain-points and to design experiences which seek to solve them.

Pair Design

The practice of putting two designers together to solve design problems. Benefits of pair design include: separating of strategic and tactical thinking, producing higher quality designs faster by providing continuous testing of ideas before they reach stakeholders. Pair design can make for better design output, but it also makes for happier designers. Although it has the potential of helping companies develop a deeper design practice and stronger design culture.

Pairing Development/Pairing Programming

Pairing development or pairing programming is the practice of working on code in twos. Two developers take turns writing and revising code.

Panel

A panel refers to a permanent sample of individuals, representative of a population, periodically questioned about their attitudes, habits, opinions or behaviors.

Paper Prototyping

The creation of a product prototype using roughly sketched interfaces on pieces of paper. Paper prototyping is often used in design sprints and any other setting where rapid prototyping is needed.

Paradox of specificity

The paradox of specificity states that when we design with a very specific user group in mind, we actually create products that appeal to a mass audience beyond that target group.

Pareto principle

The Pareto principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Its origins stem back to Vilfredo Pareto, an economist who noticed 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population. Though it might seem vague, the 80/20 way of thinking can provide insightful and endlessly applicable analysis of lopsided systems, including user experience strategy.

Parkinson's Law

Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent. Articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955 and since published online, it was reprinted with other essays in the book Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress (London, John Murray, 1958). He derived the dictum from his extensive experience in the British Civil Service.

Participatory Design

Participatory design (originally co-operative design, now often co-design) is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g., employees, partners, customers, end users) in the design process. The aim is to help ensure the result meets their needs.

Path

The route taken by a user as they move through a Web site. The path can be shown by breadcrumbs.

Performance Data

Data used to measure how easily or completely a user did a task.

Performance Objectives

The goals set for user behaviors on an individual Web page or a series of Web pages. These objectives usually are stated in terms of the time to correctly select a link, the overall accuracy of selecting links, the average time to select a target page, etc.

Performance Test

A usability test that is characterized by having typical users perform a series of tasks where their speed, accuracy, and success are closely monitored and measured.

Persona

The creation of a representative user based on available data and user interviews. Though the personal details of the persona may be fiction, the information used to create the user type is not.

Pixel

These little guys are the smallest controllable units on our screens. Pixels are literally tiny squares used to construct the images we see on our device displays. They aren't a specific color, but rather, change to be able to show different images and graphics.

Picker

A picker is a UI element that allows the user to choose, for example, a date, time, or color. Pickers tend to be used where there is a very high number of options, or the input is highly conceptual.

Portfolio

A UX portfolio is a collection of your best design work. It demonstrates your skills and abilities as a UX designer, and shows employers and clients how you work. A UX portfolio is a staple for anyone looking to land a job in the field.

Postel's

Postel's law can be expressed as follows: “Be tolerant in what you accept from users and specific in what you send to them.” Invented by American computer scientist Jon Postel, its goal is to make interactions more fluid and flexible by reducing the error rate. For this purpose, a certain level of tolerance regarding the errors that the user may make during a UX test is accepted. For example: on a site where you are asked for an IBAN, some will tend to enter this number with spaces, others dashes, and others all attached.

Preference Data

Information that is gathered about a user's perception and feelings about the experience

Preference Objectives

The goals set for user attitudes toward individual Web pages or an entire Web site. The objectives are usually set and measured using questionnaires. These objectives include information concerning user acceptance and user satisfaction.

Problem Statement

UX is all about solving user problems. A problem statement is, quite simply, a statement which summarizes and defines the problem that needs to be solved.

Product Designer

Nearly synonymous with user experience designer, often with the added expectation of implementing designs in code. Here's a description of a product designer role from ChowNow: - Synthesize broad concepts and ideas into engaging and impactful experiences. - Take product specs/requirements from concept to execution, transforming them into intuitive, user-friendly, UX/UI deliverables. - Lead user testing sessions with customers and collect data with A/B tests to make more informed design decisions. - Learn from customer usage and leverage feedback and data to continually iterate, innovate, and evolve the product. - Work closely with designers, engineers and product managers to define product opportunities and contribute to the overall product strategy. - Communicate your thoughts and decisions effectively to the executive team.

Product Management

Product management is the planning, forecasting, marketing and/or production of a product or service.

Product Managers

Professionals who navigate and manage the product cycle, from researching users and managing a roadmap to overseeing the development of the product. Depending on the business, a product manager may be responsible for one major feature, line of business or another project. Often considered "mini-CEOs" of a product because PMs have a direct impact on business revenue, cost and growth.

Product Roadmap

A product roadmap maps out the vision and strategy for a particular product and sets goals and priorities for the development of the product. UX design is a key part of the product development process, so it’s important to be familiar with the product roadmap.

Progressive Enhancement

The practice of adding functionality or visual finish as technical constraints are removed. For example, a browser that supports cutting-edge web standards might allow extra touches when it comes to interaction and animation.

Prototype

A prototype is a simulation or sample version of a final product, which is used for testing prior to launch. Its goal is to test products (and product ideas) before sinking lots of time and money into the final product. Examples of digital prototypes include interactive mockup of an app, website, or device. A tool to show preliminary design, pending user feedback and consultation for refinement. Spectrum of low to high-fidelity depending on what makes the most sense for the stakeholder to understand. e.g., clickable prototype vs sketch wireframes.

Pull Request

Pull requests let developers share changes they've made to code with others involved on Github.

Quality Assurance (QA)

Quality assurance (QA) is a way of preventing mistakes in products and avoiding problems when delivering services to users. In the manufacturing world, the role of QA helps identify and reduce defects in products. In the software world, quality assurance and testers work hand-in-hand with product teams to test edge cases. In essence, their job is to intentionally find breaking points in products so that users don't have to.

Qualitative Research

Research methodology based on understanding of behaviors, needs and perception of individuals. That's allowed through observation of individuals, or listening and interpretation of their answers and explanations. This methodology mainly replies to the questions "why" and "how". That includes for example individual interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, or remote user tests.

Qualitative user research

User research is a crucial part of the UX process and it can be either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative user research provides insight into your users’ thoughts, motivations and behaviors. It gathers qualitative data—data which cannot be measured or counted but is extremely valuable nonetheless. An example of a qualitative user research method is a user interview, where your data comprises what the user said during the interview.

Quantitative research

Research methodology based on statistical data. We look at the individuals as a group, and not as an isolated person. That means an adequate number of individuals is required, and that the sample needs to be representative of the target. Individuals answer a survey, giving precise figures as results. These results mainly answer to what and who (vs why and how with qualitative research).

Quantitative user research

UX designers and researchers conduct quantitative research to gather objective, measurable data about their users. An example of quantitative user data could be the number of people who visit a website in a given time frame or what percentage of users drop out of the checkout process at the last stage.

Quota

The proportion applied to some identified criteria in order to build a sample of individuals. Quotas can make a sample representative if they match to the proportions of the aimed population.

Redlining

A document handed off to developers to ensure that designs are made according to specifications. "Redline" refers to the literal guides, which are often red lines, within a document that communicate exact spacing, margin, etc. Many teams require redline documents because developers may not have the design programs - nor want to use them - to interpret the intended output of the design. There are now many tools that help automate this process of creating specs and redline documents, like Zeplin and Avocode.

Refactoring

Refactoring is the process of cleaning up and tidying code without affecting functionality, essentially increasing its quality. It isn't done all at once but rather in small, incremental steps.

Remote user testing

Research methodology set up by Ferpection through its platform. Users have access to missions to test services or products, online or offline. For each mission, they have several steps to follow and describe their experience pointing out positive and negative feedback. Each piece of feedback is illustrated with a picture, a screenshot or a quick video.

Representative sampling

Choosing a group of participants that represent your target audience

Responsive

Not to be confused with adaptive, responsive websites adapt to fit the device they are being displayed on. They are a single layout that shrinks and stretches and rearranges the content on it to be easily viewed on each device type.

Responsive design

A design approach that responds to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries.

Responsive Web Design (RWD)

The practice of making web pages render well on a variety of devices and screen sizes. UX designers are expected to make designs that work across, and adapt well to different platforms.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A measure for evaluating business performance. In traditional finance, ROI is the most common "profitability ratio" most often calculated by dividing net profit by total assets. The general idea of ROI helps product teams evaluate whether certain efforts are worth pursuing.

Reveals

Information that automatically appears on the screen during a Web-based slideshow presentation, or while viewing a multimedia Web page.

Roadmap project

It’s the roadmap of a project. This agile, iterative and evolutionary method should be put in place from the start of your project to avoid the pitfalls of poorly managed projects. It will serve as a monitoring sheet, a backward schedule and a timetable.

Rollovers

A state change that involves one element being replaced by another upon the mouse going over it.

SaaS

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a software distribution model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and hosted on external servers. Subscribing users are able to access it through the web. The practice of delivering software via online subscription, rather than as a standalone product that is purchased one-off. An Office 365 subscription is SaaS; Office 97 on a CD-ROM is delivered as a one-off license.

Sample

A sample is a smaller, and more manageable group of people, coming from a larger population. It has to include the same main characteristics as the larger group. It can also be representative of this population, strictly speaking, by using specific quotas.

Scrum

A set of project management practices emphasizing daily communication, flexible planning, and short, focused phases of work.

Software Development Kit (SDK)

A software development kit, or SDK, is a software package that contains the tools required to develop products for a specific platform or operating system. They help expedite the development process by providing “parts” developers can use instead of having to write the code for them from scratch.

Search Engine Optimization SEO

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing a website’s visibility in free, or organic, search results. It often involves writing useful content on a website around words and phrases users use in searches related to the brand’s product or service.

Service Blueprint

The service blueprint is a technique originally used for service design and innovation, but has also found applications in diagnosing problems with operational efficiency. The service blueprint is an applied process chart which shows the service delivery process from the customer's perspective.

Sitemap

A sitemap gives a bird’s-eye view of the overall structure of a website. Very simply put, it’s a diagram which shows how pages are prioritized, linked and labeled.

Sketch

Sketch is an industry-standard, all-in-one digital design tool. It includes tools for collaborative design, prototyping and developer handoff.

Sketching

A sketch is a rough drawing. In UX design, sketching not only helps with developing user interfaces, but is useful for design collaboration and communicating ideas.

Skeuomorphism

It's the art of forgery in interface design. For example, painting faux marble or faux wood on plaster, or putting diodes on artificial candles to create fixtures resembling the chandeliers of yesteryear. In the world of digital interfaces, we saw a lot of this type of design in the 90s.

Skip Navigation / Skip Logic

Allows you to create custom paths based on previous actions or answers

Slack

Slack is an internal messaging platform for teams. It is huge in product development. If you're taking a course with us, you're probably using it to connect with you peers and the CareerFoundry community.

Software

This term defines any internal program of a computer concerning the dematerialized and rational aspect of computing. Defines in opposition to hardware which describes the physical components of the computer. Ex: Word, Windows, Chrome, etc.

Specification (Spec)

"Spec" refers to specifications, which are technical requirements that are to be implemented during the product development process.

Split site studies

Creating two versions of the same website and testing them against each other.

Sprints

In agile software development, we call defined periods of time assigned to complete certain tasks “sprints.” Their length can vary but is usually around 1-3 weeks.

Stakeholder

Stakeholders are the people within a company or organization who are invested in the success of the product you’re designing, and who can offer insights and input to inform the design process.

Stakeholder interviews

Just as UX designers conduct user research to find out what the end user needs from the product, they might also conduct stakeholder interviews in order to understand the business goals that the product (and the product design process) should serve.

Storyboard

In UX, a storyboard is a visual depiction of a user’s experience with a product. It’s a bit like a comic strip, allowing the designer to envision all the steps in the user’s journey and to gain a deeper understanding of how the user will relate to and experience the product.

Style guide

A style guide is a document created by UX designers to set out the standards, conventions and guidelines which should be followed throughout the design process. The goal of a style guide is to ensure consistency. This is especially useful when you have lots of different stakeholders involved in the product design and development process.

Surveys

Surveys are another popular user research method. You can gather both qualitative and quantitative data through user surveys, depending on how you frame the questions. Surveys offer a relatively low-cost and not-too-time-consuming way to obtain large volumes of user data.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

Acronym of System Usability Scale, it's an American standardized survey designed in 1986. Focused on usability, the SUS consists of 10 questions and uses a scale of agreements, ranging from 1 to 5, to assess the level of customer satisfaction. The score is then calculated, and can range from 1 to 100. A score is typically said to be "good" from 75, "correct" or "fair" between 50 and 75 and "critical" for customer satisfaction at 50 and below.

SUS questionnaire

The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10-item questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

This is a graphics file format that has been around for a long time, but is now supported by mainstream web browsers, so is being used more often online. The advantage it has over pixel-based graphics formats like PNG and JPG is that an SVG can be resized infinitely without losing quality. This is because the file is saved as a set of mathematical data about curves and points, not as an array of color values for individual pixels.

Search Experience Optimization (SXO)

SXO stands for Search eXperience Optimization. It is defined as the combination of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and UX (User eXperience). Its goal is to produce content optimized for search engines and for the user by making his navigation as pleasant and efficient as possible.

T-Shaped Designer

T-shaped designers are strong generalists who know how to do all aspects of design sufficiently, but excels especially in one discipline. For example, a UX designer who specializes in front-end development. The horizontal part of the letter "T" refers to the breadth of design skills, while the vertical part of "T" refers to the depth in one design specialty. Some teams are built by selecting T-shaped designers whose strengths work well together. For example, pairing the UX designer who specializes in UI design with a UX Designer who

Target

The target is the population you want to reach with a product, service or brand.

Target audience

The set of users for which a system is designed or intended.

Target page

The location in a site where a user will find the information they are seeking.

Task analysis

A method used to identify and understand the activities to be performed by users when interacting with a Web site.

Task depth

The number of levels in a hierarchical structure. Products accrue technical debt whenever an easy but messy development solution is favored over a better yet more time-consuming alternative. Eventually, the messy solution will need to be cleaned up, generating work. This is what we call technical debt.

Task Flow

A series of steps ("flow") that users complete for a specific task. Task flows are similar to user flows, except they're generally linear without multiple branches or paths. E.g., all users would follow the same steps to complete that specific action, such as creating an account or going through a checkout process.

Task flow diagrams

A representation of the various tasks and their interrelationships on a site.

Task profile

An overview of a task and all of its characteristics such as frequency, importance and flow.

Task scenario

Narrative description of how and why a user would interact with an interface.

Taxonomy

The practice of classifying things and concepts.

Technical Debt

Technical debt is similar to design debt but instead of taking a toll on the design system, it takes it on the code. Products accrue technical debt whenever an easy but messy development solution is favored over a better yet more time-consuming alternative. Eventually, the messy solution will need to be cleaned up, generating work. This is what we call technical debt.

Tesler's Law

Tesler's Law, also known as The Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that for any system there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced. While working for Xerox PARC in the mid-1980s, Larry Tesler realized that the way users interact with applications was just as important as the application itself. The book Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer, includes an interview with Larry Tesler that describes the law of conservation of complexity.

Testing roadmap

A file mapping the different tests to come to help the product development.

Think Aloud

Think-aloud (or thinking aloud) is a method used to gather data in usability testing. During usability testing asking the user to think out loud about what they see and do help to gather valuable information.

Tree testing

Tree testing is a UX research method that provides insight into how easily people can find information on your website or app and where they get lost. Tree testing is useful for evaluating how user-friendly your site structure is.

True Intent Study

It is a research approach that enables companies to obtain a more holistic view of how well their website, mobile website or app is doing. True Intent Studies bridge the gap between Web Analytics and Online Surveys. By capturing both attitudes and behaviors of your actual site visitors in the context of what they are trying to do on the site, researchers are empowered to make informed decisions about site changes.

Typography

Typography refers to how text is arranged and styled. It’s more of a UI design term than a UX one, but it certainly plays a part in the overall user experience. Designers must choose typography that is easily legible and visually appealing for the user.

Unit Testing

The process of testing parts of an application to ensure they’re working properly. It can be done manually or can be an automated process.

Usability

How effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily a user can interact with a user interface. When we talk about usability, we're looking at how easy a product is to use. Ultimately, is it easy for the user to complete their desired tasks? Usability is absolutely critical to providing a good user experience!

Usability Benchmarking

This measures the current usability of a system and provides a baseline against which future usability can be measured.

Usability evaluation or assessment

A variety of techniques for measuring usability.

Usability lab

A space designated for conducting usability tests by observing user interactions with a system and recording their activities. Additional observers may be present or may observe via two- way mirrors or video streaming in another room.

Usability Testing

Usability testing is the act of evaluating products or services by testing them with users. During usability tests, researchers observe participants who attempt to complete tasks. The goal is to identify usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and determine participants' reactions to an experience.

Use case or User scenario

A document describing critical tasks to be accomplished by the user, actor, or persona which outlines the specific sequence of actions needed to achieve the goal, as well as alternative sequences.

User-centered design (UCD)

User-centered design (UCD) places the end user front and center throughout the product design and development process. It’s based on a set of principles which prioritize the end user, such as involving users from the very beginning of the process (i.e., through user research), getting real user feedback along the way and designing iteratively to keep improving the user experience.

User Experience (UX)

The user experience refers to a user’s emotions, attitude, and perceptions about a product, system, or service. In other words, it is how you feel while interacting with an app or website. Good UX makes a product useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, and credible.

User Experience Design (UX design)

You're probably already familiar with this one but we couldn't have a UX glossary without defining UX itself. UX, or user experience, relates to how a user feels whenever they use or interact with a product or service. It captures how easy and enjoyable the product is to use overall. UX design is the process of creating these experiences, with a focus on solving a specific problem or pain-point for the user.

UX/UI Developer

Primarily a front-end developer with a knack for usability and a sensibility for coding products with the user in mind. Sometimes companies use this as a catchall unicorn role for someone who designs and codes.

User experience Management (UX Management)

UX Management is the discipline that takes care of providing business outcomes by optimizing the experiences that users have while interacting with the company brand. UX management is important to show the impact a good user experience can have on business and why it is worth investing in UX research.

User Experience Portfolio (UX Portfolio)

A showcase of a designer's best work. UX portfolios usually include in-depth case studies focusing on design process and problem solving. Most commonly presented as a website or slide presentation.

User experience questionnaire (UEQ)

A UX evaluation method, through a 2-3 minute survey developed by 3 German experts. The method is introduced as a "fast and reliable questionnaire to measure the User Experience of interactive products on 6 scales: attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, stimulation, novelty."

User experience research

The systematic investigation of users and their requirements, in order to add context and insight into the process of designing the user experience. In other words, it's asking your users to place them at the center of your decision process. UX research is not a technical assessment, even though you may encounter some bugs to fix. UX research is not theoretical research either, as it focuses on finding detailed facts on pragmatic real-life experiences and not abstract principles or theories. It is “applied” research.

User Experience Researcher (UX Researcher)

A professional who conducts user research and helps translate those insights into actionable goals for product teams. User researchers can apply a quantitative or qualitative focus to their work.

User Experience Writer

UX writers develop written copy for user interfaces, with the aim of helping customers interact and use a product. The writing that's produced - whether it's the label on a button or help text under a form field, is often referred to as microcopy. (A la "microinteractions" for the designs made by interaction designers.)

User Experience Writing (UX writing)

UX writing is a fast-growing field within UX. It’s the process of planning and writing all the text found on a digital product interface, with the goal of guiding the user through the experience. UX writing includes the creation of microcopy; things like error messages, welcome text and menu labels. It’s important to note that UX writing is not the same as copywriting.

User flow

A user flow is a chart or diagram which shows the path a user will take to complete a certain task. UX designers create user flows in order to understand how a user will move through the product and to design the product in a way that facilitates this movement.

User Interface (UI)

User Interface, in the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur.

User Interface Design

UI design is the process of designing user interfaces. A user interface is the point of interaction between humans and computers (see number 87 in our UX glossary). User interface design takes care of how digital products look, feel and behave for the end user. Good UI is part of creating a delightful user experience and UX and UI designers work closely together.

User Interface Element (UI Element)

User interface (UI) elements are all the different parts found on an interface we need to trigger specific actions or get around an app or website. Think the buttons, input fields, toggles, and radio buttons.

User Interface Pattern (UI Pattern)

UI patterns are reusable solutions to common usability problems in products or on the web expressed as a collection of UI elements. Think about a login screen. A common login UI pattern is made up of two input fields, one for a username and one for a password, and a button to submit these. We call this collection of elements a login pattern.

User interview

A user interview is a common UX research method, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin: you ask your user (or representative user) questions in order to gain insight into their thoughts, expectations, goals and pain-points in relation to a particular problem, product or experience. User interviews are a type of qualitative research (refer to terms 71 and 72 in our UX glossary to learn about the difference between qualitative and quantitative user research).

User Journey

A user journey is a chain of steps established by a UX designer to demonstrate where site visitors enter and how they interact with a design. A user journey is also referred to as UX flow. It is established for two chief purposes.

User Journey Maps

User Journey Maps are narrative documents that help us visualize the process a user goes through in order to accomplish a goal. They document the stages the user goes through, the tasks executed during each stage, user emotions, and product opportunities.

User Onboarding

User onboarding is the process of orienting users to a new experience, product, or feature. This often involves explaining how to use the product and user interface, with the goal of increasing user success and adoption of the product.

User Research

User research focuses on understanding user needs, behaviors, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and many other methods.

User Scenario

Used in early stages of a product, user scenarios are mini stories that describe the needs and/or context that brings a user to your product. They tell us who the user is, why the user is interested in your product, and what his or her goals are.

User stories

A user story is a brief, simple statement which defines the purpose (or one of the purposes) of creating a product. Writing user stories allows you to consider and capture what the user wants to achieve when they interact with your product. User stories are based on the following structure: As a [type of user], I need/want to [action] in order to achieve [goal or outcome].

User Testing

User testing involves evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. We do user tests on prototypes and products that are already built out to calculate whether the design was successful or not.

Verbatim statement

A verbatim statement is a raw piece of data which illustrates the exact word by word account of a user, without any modifications. Verbatim statements are commonly used by our teams during user tests.

Video Questions

Video Questions allow UX researchers to record customer feedback during a remotely conducted mobile usability test. Participants film their feedback and ideas on their own mobile devices. Users record their comments while they are surfing on your mobile web or prototype or while they are experiencing your product in one of your stores or at home.

Virtual Reality (VR)

A simulation of 3-D environments that users can interact with, often using special electronics like VR helmets, goggles, gloves, and sensors.

Visual design

Visual design considers the aesthetics of an app or website. In the context of UX, the goal of visual design is to use text, images, color and typography to enhance and aid the overall user experience. There is heavy overlap between visual design and UI design but one distinction commonly made is that visual designers consider the overall visual brand and identity rather than focusing on individual designs.

Voice of the Customer (VoC)

VoC studies are user tests that are based on online surveys. They enable companies to improve the user experience of their websites, generate user profiles, assess user behavior, and measure the level of customer satisfaction. Immediately before or after their visit to a website, users are invited to a study through a layer or a feedback tab. Participants perform tasks and provide feedback on different issues that vary considerably, depending on their sector of activity.

Voice User Interface (VUI)

Interfaces that enable users to use voice input to control computers and devices. Functional VUIs depend on speech recognition in order to translate voice input into commands a machine can understand.

Waterfall

In software waterfall development, each phase must be completed before the next phase can begin. So, all the designs would have to be completed before developers could begin any work. Compared to agile or lean, waterfall is a software development method with a relatively linear, sequential process. Originating from heavy manufacturing and automotive industries, waterfall is now seen as a less flexible and iterative way of design. For proven, repeatable projects, waterfall may still have a place.

Webapp

Webapps are short for web application, which is a computer program that users run in their web browser, also referred to as "client-side." A website can contain a mix of informational content (webpages) or functional applications (webapps).

Whiteboard challenge

Common in tech job interviews, whiteboard challenges are designed to assess a candidate’s communication and problem-solving skills. In it, candidates are given a problem and a whiteboard to develop the solution on.

Whiteboard Exercise

Whiteboards are used for collaborative design and brainstorming, so whiteboard exercises are often used to test applicants on their design problem solving abilities. Whiteboard exercises ask: are you able to visualize a process, show your work and arrive at a set of recommendations? Here's a common exercise: Design a(n) [object] for a(n) [audience], e.g., "Design an ATM for the disabled."

White space

White or negative space refers to the unoccupied or blank space on a page. In the shot below, white or negative space is used cleverly to shape a cursor.

Wireframe

A wireframe depicts the bare-bones layout of a website or app, showing how each screen will be structured and where different elements will sit on the page. Wireframing is an important part of the UX process as it allows you to test and validate initial concepts before developing them into high-fidelity designs and, ultimately, live products. Wireframes eventually evolve into prototypes, which are more life-like representations of how the product will look and behave.

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Create a Guide/Template: UX Researcher Glossary #54

Overview

Action Items

Resources/Instructions

Projects to Check

Tasks

Guide: Review Guide