User Experience (UX) Glossary: 133 Terms You Should Know

The user experience (UX) design has its own set of specialized concepts and vocabulary that can be challenging to understand.

This comprehensive glossary of over 130 key UX terms offers simple definitions and practical examples to help you understand and apply UX terminology with ease, regardless of whether you’re new to UX design or need a quick reference.

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A

• A/B Testing: A method in UX research where two versions (A and B) of a web page or app are compared to determine which performs better in user engagement or conversion rates.
• Above/Below the Fold: Refers to the content visible on a webpage without scrolling (above) and the content that requires scrolling to see (below).
• Accessibility: The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities, ensuring all users can access and benefit from them.
• Agile UX: UX design methodology that follows the principles of agile software development, emphasizing iterative design, user feedback, and team collaboration.
• Archetype: A persona archetype is a representation of a unique user type that might use a site, brand, or product similarly, helping designers understand users’ goals, desires, and limitations.
• Animation: The use of motion to guide users’ attention, improve the user experience, and make interfaces easier to use by providing context and feedback.
• Adaptive Design: A UX design approach where a website or app changes its layout and content based on the detected device and screen size, ensuring usability across different devices.

B

• Breadcrumb Navigation: A type of web navigation that shows users their current location in a site’s hierarchy and allows them to navigate back to previous sections.
• Button Affordance: The design quality that makes it clear to users that an element is clickable, often through visual cues like shadows, gradients, or familiar shapes.
• Balance: A principle of design that ensures that elements on a web page are distributed so that the visual weight is evenly spread out, creating a sense of stability.
• Baseline Grid: A foundational grid used in web design to ensure consistency across different layouts and improve the readability of text.
• Buyer Persona: A detailed profile of an ideal customer based on market research and real data about existing customers, helping UX designers create user-centric designs.
• Behavioral Segmentation: Dividing a user base into groups based on their actions or behavior patterns, often used in UX to tailor experiences to different user types.

C

• Card Sorting: A method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site, by allowing users to group information into categories that make sense to them.
• Call to Action (CTA): A prompt on a website or app that encourages users to take some specific action, such as “Sign Up,” “Buy Now,” or “Learn More.” CTAs are crucial for guiding users toward the desired interaction.
• Color Theory: An area of study that explores how colors interact and their psychological effects, informing how designers choose and combine colors in UX to evoke specific responses.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action, such as completing a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, indicating the effectiveness of the design in encouraging user actions.
• Customer Journey Map: A visual representation of a user’s interactions with a product or service over time, from initial awareness to long-term use, highlighting key touchpoints and emotional states.
• Cognitive Load: The total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory, important in design to ensure information is easy to understand and use.
• Contrast: A design principle that involves differentiating elements (such as color, size, or type) to make them stand out. High contrast is essential for readability and accessibility in UX design.
• Collaborative Design: An approach to design that involves stakeholders, including users, in the design process to ensure the end product meets their needs and expectations.
• Content Strategy: The planning, development, and management of content—written or in other media. A good content strategy is crucial for providing users with clear, concise, and relevant information.
• Churn Rate: The percentage of users who stop using an app or service over a given period. It’s a critical metric for understanding user satisfaction and retention.
• Component Library: A collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications, ensuring consistency in design.
• Cross-Platform Design: Designing a product or service that provides a consistent user experience across multiple platforms and devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

D

• Design Thinking: A non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.
• Dark Pattern: A user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills.
• Design System: A comprehensive guide for project design that includes a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications.
• Decision Matrix: A tool to evaluate and prioritize a list of options, using a set of criteria deemed important.
• Design Sprint: A five-phase process that uses design thinking to reduce the risks inherent in successfully bringing products to market.
• Diary Study: A research method used in UX design where participants record specific behaviors or experiences over time, providing insights into user habits, pain points, and needs.

E

• Empathy Map: A collaborative visualization tool used to articulate what we know about a particular type of user. It externalizes knowledge about users in order to create a shared understanding and aid in decision-making.
• Eye Tracking: A method of measuring either the point of gaze (where one is looking) or the motion of an eye relative to the head, used in UX research to gain insights into user behavior and preferences.
• End User: The person for whom a particular product is designed; the final user of a software product, who might not necessarily be the purchaser.
• Error Message: Feedback is provided to users when an action cannot be completed due to an error, ideally offering clear explanations and guidance on resolving the issue.
• Ethical Design: Design that seeks to minimize harm and maximize benefits for users, considering privacy, accessibility, and the overall impact on society.
• Exit Rate: The percentage of visitors to a webpage who navigate away from the site after viewing the page, often used to indicate the quality or relevance of the page content.

F

• Fidelity: In prototyping, refers to the level of detail and functionality built into a prototype, ranging from low-fidelity (simple and abstract) to high-fidelity (complex and interactive).
• Focus Group: A moderated discussion with a group of users aimed at gaining insights into attitudes, perceptions, and opinions toward a product, concept, or idea.
• Formative Testing: User testing is conducted early in the design process to gather insights that will inform design decisions using prototypes or early versions of a product.
• Flow: The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process.
• Five-Second Test: A usability test where users are shown a visual or design for five seconds and then asked what they remember, testing the clarity and effectiveness of a design’s communication.
• Flat Design: A minimalist UI design style that uses simple, two-dimensional elements and bright colors, emphasizing usability and clean, open space.

G

• Grid System: A structure comprising a series of horizontal and vertical lines used to arrange content. In UX design, it helps in creating a consistent, organized layout that enhances the user experience.
• Gamification: The application of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts to improve user engagement, organizational productivity, flow, learning, crowdsourcing, and more.
• GUI (Graphical User Interface): A user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces.
• Golden Ratio: A mathematical ratio of 1:1.618, often found in nature and art, is believed to be aesthetically pleasing. In UX design, it’s used to create natural-looking, well-proportioned layouts.
• Gesture Navigation: The use of physical gestures, such as swiping, tapping, pinching, or stretching with fingers, to interact with and navigate devices or applications.
• Graceful Degradation: A design strategy that ensures a website or application will still function when newer technology cannot be used, albeit with a reduced level of performance.

H

• Hierarchy: The visual arrangement of design elements in order of importance. This is often achieved through scale, color, contrast, and spacing, guiding the user’s attention to where it’s most needed.
• Human-Centered Design (HCD): An approach to problem-solving that develops solutions by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.
• Hamburger Menu: A button typically used in mobile sites and apps that opens up into a side menu or navigation drawer. It’s represented by three horizontal lines resembling a hamburger.
• High-Fidelity Prototype: A prototype that is very close to the final product, with lots of detail and functionality, used for more accurate user testing and stakeholder reviews.
• Hick’s Law: The principle states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
• Heatmap: A graphical representation of data where values are depicted by color, used in UX to show where users are clicking, tapping, or scrolling within a page.
• Hero Image: A large, prominent image prominently placed on a web page, often in the header, designed to grab a user’s attention and communicate the core message or value proposition.
• Hypertext: Text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, typically by clicking.

I

• Information Architecture (IA): The structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities, and software to support usability and findability.
• Interaction Design (IxD): The practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services, focusing on creating engaging interfaces with well-thought-out behaviors.
• Iterative Design: A design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a product or process. Based on the results of testing the most recent iteration of a design, changes and refinements are made.
• Iconography: The visual images, symbols, or modes of representation collectively associated with a topic or subject. In UX, careful selection and design of icons can improve usability.
• Inclusive Design: Designing products, devices, services, or environments for a wide range of human diversity, abilities, and other characteristics, ensuring that they are accessible to as many people as possible.
• Input Field: An interactive element in a user interface that allows the user to enter data. Designing clear, accessible input fields is crucial for usability, especially in forms.
• Invision: A popular prototyping tool used in UX design to create interactive mockups for websites and applications, facilitating easier user testing and feedback gathering.
• Information Overload: A state in which the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing capacity, leading to decision paralysis or stress. Effective UX design aims to avoid overwhelming users with too much information.
• Infinite Scrolling: A web design technique that loads content continuously as the user scrolls down the page, eliminating the need for pagination. While it can improve engagement, it may also lead to user fatigue.
• Interstitial: A full-screen ad display that covers the interface of a host app or site. In UX design, it’s important to consider the timing and frequency of interstitials to minimize user disruption.

J

• Journey Mapping: A visual representation of the process a user or customer goes through to achieve a goal with your product or service. It helps in understanding the flow of experiences a user has with an interface.
• Just Noticeable Difference (JND): The minimum amount of change needed for a user to perceive a difference. Understanding JND is crucial for designers when making adjustments to UI elements.

K

• Kerning: The process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font. Good kerning enhances the readability and visual appeal of text in UI design.
• Knolling: The process of arranging related objects in parallel or 90-degree angles as a method of organization. In UX, knolling can be used in visual design to create orderly and visually appealing layouts.
• Kudos: Positive feedback given to users to acknowledge their achievements or contributions. Incorporating kudos into UX design can enhance user engagement and motivation.

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L

• Landing Page: A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign, where a visitor “lands” after clicking on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or similar places on the web.
• Lean UX: An approach to UX design that applies Lean principles to improve the speed and efficiency of the design process, focusing on the actual experience being designed rather than deliverables.
• Lottie: A library for Android, iOS, Web, and Windows that parses Adobe After Effects animations exported as JSON with Bodymovin and renders them natively on mobile and on the web. It’s used in UX to implement complex animations easily.
• Lorem Ipsum: Placeholder text used in the design phase of a project to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content. It helps in focusing on design elements.
• Look-and-Feel: The design and aesthetic aspect of a user interface, encompassing elements like layout, colors, typography, and interactive elements, which contribute to the overall user experience.
• Low-Fidelity Prototype: A simple and often rapid prototype that provides a basic representation of the product or feature, used early in the design process to validate concepts and assumptions.

M

• Mood Board: A visual tool that communicates the essence of a brand, product, or project through images, colors, textures, and patterns, helping to define the overall style and approach of the design.
• Multivariate Testing: An experimental technique to test a hypothesis in which multiple variables are modified. It’s used in UX to understand how different elements interact and affect user behavior.
• Mobile First: A design strategy that starts with designing for the smallest screen and working up to larger screens, ensuring usability and a good user experience on mobile devices.
• Mockup: A static, high-fidelity representation of the design that provides a visual reference for the structure, content, and visual style of the product but lacks interactivity.
• Material Design: A design language developed by Google, emphasizing grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and depth effects such as lighting and shadows.
• Mouseover Effect: An interaction where an element responds to the user moving their mouse cursor over it, often used to provide additional information or highlight interactive areas.

N

• Navigation Design: Creating a navigation system that allows users to interact with and move through the product efficiently, encompassing elements like menus, search bars, and breadcrumbs.
• Nudge: A concept in behavioral science and UX design where subtle design features can influence user behavior in a predictable way without restricting choice.
• Neumorphism: A design trend that combines background colors, shapes, gradients, and shadows to ensure graphic elements resemble physical objects. It’s a play on skeuomorphism and material design.

O

• Onboarding: The process of introducing new users to a product, helping them to understand its value and how to use its key features, often through tutorials, guided tours, or introductory content.
• Omni-Channel UX: Designing a cohesive user experience across all channels and touchpoints of a brand, ensuring consistency and continuity in the user’s journey regardless of where they interact with the product.
• Opacity: In design, the degree to which content behind an element is visible. Adjusting opacity can create depth and focus in a layout.
• Overlay: A design element or component that appears on top of the current page or content, often used for modal windows, pop-ups, and tooltips.
• Object-Oriented UX (OOUX): A design methodology that structures digital systems around the objects in the users’ environment, creating a more intuitive user experience by mirroring real-world interactions.
• Open Source Design: Design artifacts shared publicly for anyone to reuse, modify, and distribute, promoting collaboration and innovation within the design community.

P

• Persona: A semi-fictional character based on user research that represents a key user group used in UX design to understand users’ needs, experiences, behaviors, and goals.
• Prototype: An interactive model of the product that simulates user interactions, used for testing design concepts and gathering feedback before final development.
• Paradox of Specificity: The idea that being too specific in design can actually lead to less effective solutions because it may not address broader or underlying problems.
• Parallax Scrolling: A web design effect that creates a sense of depth by making the background move at a slower pace than the foreground when scrolling.
• Pain Points: Specific problems that prospective customers of your business are experiencing, identified through UX research to help design solutions that address user frustrations.
• Pattern Library: A collection of design elements that appear repeatedly across a design ecosystem, providing a consistent experience.

R

• Responsive Design: A web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices, from desktop monitors to mobile phones.
• Rapid Prototyping: Quickly creating a working model of a product or feature to test ideas and assumptions, enabling fast iterations based on user feedback.
• Retention Rate: The percentage of users who continue to use a product over time. It’s a key metric for assessing the long-term value of the user experience.

S

• Sitemap: A hierarchical diagram showing the structure of a website or application, including the relationships between pages and other content components, used to plan and organize content.
• Scalability: The ability of a design to grow and accommodate more content, users, or functionalities without sacrificing usability or performance.
• Skeuomorphism: A design principle in which design cues are taken from the physical world to make digital elements resemble their real-world counterparts, enhancing user familiarity and usability.
• Storyboarding: A visual representation using illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, or interactive media sequence.
• Style Guide: A set of standards for the design of documents, web pages, or applications, ensuring consistency in style and formatting across all design assets.

T

• Typography: The art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed, playing a crucial role in UX design for readability and user engagement.
• Thumbnails: Small images representing larger images or content, often used in web design to make pages load faster and allow users to choose which larger images to view.
• Transparency: In design, the quality of being see-through allows for layering and depth in interfaces. In UX, it also refers to open communication with users about how their information is used.
• Triadic Colors: A color scheme involving three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, often used in design for a harmonious and balanced look.
• Tunneling: Guiding users through a set of predetermined steps or actions, often used in onboarding processes or when completing complex tasks.

U

• Usability: The ease of use and learnability of a human-made object such as a tool or device. In UX, it specifically refers to how user-friendly and efficient the interface is.
• User Flow: A diagram or series of steps a user takes to accomplish a goal within a product, showing the path from the entry point through a series of interactions up to the final action.
• UI (User Interface): The space where interactions between humans and machines occur, encompassing all the elements that users interact with, including screens, pages, and visual elements.
• UX Writing: The practice of crafting the text that appears throughout a product’s interface, carefully designed to guide and inform users effectively.
• User-centered design (UCD): A design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end-users of a product, service, or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.
• Usability Testing: The technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users, helping designers understand how real users interact with their products.
• Universal Design: The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
• User Journey: A story that follows the user through their experience with a product, capturing all the touchpoints where the user interacts with the product, including their feelings, motivations, and questions.
• UX (User Experience): Encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products, focusing on enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

V

• Vector Graphics: Graphics that use polygons to represent images in computer graphics. Unlike raster graphics, vector graphics can be scaled to any size without losing quality.
• Visual Design: The use of imagery, color, shapes, typography, and form to enhance usability and improve the user experience.
• Variable Font: A font file that is capable of behaving like multiple fonts by using a single font file which can represent multiple styles and weights.

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W

• Wireframe: A skeletal outline of a webpage or app’s structure, including layout and placement of elements, without detailed design or content, used in planning the interface.
• Wayfinding: In digital design, the ways in which people orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place; the digital equivalent includes clear navigation cues in interfaces.
• Workflow: The sequence of processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion, often visualized and analyzed in UX to streamline and optimize user tasks.
• Walkthrough: A step-by-step demonstration of a process or procedure used in UX to guide users through new or complex tasks.

Z

• Z-Pattern Layout: A design principle where the visual path for scanning content is shaped like a “Z” across the page. This layout is used to guide the eye from top-left to top-right, diagonally down to the bottom-left, and then across to the bottom-right, suitable for simple or minimally text-heavy pages.
• Zonal Analysis: A method used in UX research to analyze how users interact with different zones of a webpage or application screen, helping identify which areas attract more attention and engagement.
• Zeplin: A collaboration tool for designers and developers, facilitating the handoff by taking designs from Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, and Photoshop and generating style guides, assets, and code snippets.
• Zonal Occlusion: A technique used in UX design and testing to identify which areas of a screen or page are most effective at drawing user attention. By occluding or masking certain zones, researchers can gather insights into user behavior and preferences.