UX glossary and terminology.

A/B testing in UX means showing two versions of a design to different groups of users and measuring which one gets the better result.

Above the fold in UX is the part of a page visible on screen without scrolling, while below the fold is everything you only reach by scrolling down.

Accessibility in UX means designing products so people with disabilities can perceive, operate and understand them, with or without assistive technology.

Adobe XD is a vector-based design and prototyping tool from Adobe that was used to create wireframes, interface designs and clickable prototypes.

An affinity map in UX is a visual grouping of research notes, quotes and observations into themes so patterns across many users become easy to see.

Affordances in UX are the cues in an object or interface that suggest what you can do with it, such as a raised button that looks pressable.

Agile UX is a way of doing UX work in short, repeating cycles alongside developers, so research and design keep pace with each sprint.

Animation design in UX is the planned use of motion, such as transitions and feedback effects, to help people understand what an interface is doing.

Beta testing in UX is releasing a nearly finished product to a limited group of real users to find bugs and usability problems before the full launch.

Brainstorming in UX is a structured group session where a team generates many ideas for a design problem before judging or choosing between them.

Brand identity in UX is the set of visual, verbal and behavioral traits that make a product recognizable and consistent on every screen.

A breadcrumb in UX is a small trail of links, usually near the top of a page, that shows where you are in a site and lets you jump back up.

Card sorting in UX is a research method where people group labeled cards into categories, showing how they expect content to be organized.

A UX case study is a written story of one design project that shows the problem, your process, the decisions you made and what came out of it.

Clickstream analysis in UX is the study of the recorded sequence of clicks and page views people make so you can see how they actually move through a product.

Cognitive load in UX is the amount of mental effort a person must spend to understand an interface and complete what they came to do.

Competitor analysis in UX is studying how rival products solve the same user problems, so you can spot strengths to match and gaps your design can fill.

Consistency in UX means similar elements look and behave the same way across a product, so users can apply what they learned in one place everywhere else.

Contextual inquiry in UX is a research method where you observe and question users in their own environment while they do real work with a product.

Customer experience (CX) is how a person feels about every interaction with a company, from first ad to support call, while UX covers the product part of it.

Dark UX is the practice of designing interfaces that trick or pressure people into actions they did not intend, usually to benefit the business.

A decision matrix in UX is a table that scores design options against agreed criteria so a team can compare them fairly and choose with evidence.

Design debt in UX is the buildup of inconsistent, outdated or shortcut design decisions that make a product harder and costlier to improve over time.

Design deliverables in UX are the tangible outputs a designer hands over, such as research findings, wireframes, prototypes and specs.

Design patterns in UX are proven, reusable solutions to common interface problems, such as a search box, a login form or a shopping cart flow.

A design sprint in UX is a short, structured workshop, usually five days, where a team takes a problem from idea to tested prototype.

A design system in UX is a shared collection of reusable components, design tokens, guidelines and code that keeps a product consistent across teams.

Design thinking in UX is a problem-solving approach that starts with understanding people, then defines the problem, generates ideas, and tests prototypes.

A diary study in UX is a research method where participants record their own experiences, tasks or thoughts over days or weeks, in real contexts.

Empathy in UX is the ability to understand what users think, feel and need, and to let that understanding shape every design decision you make.

An empathy map in UX is a simple one-page diagram that captures what a user says, thinks, does and feels, to help a team see the world from their side.

An end user in UX is the person who actually uses a finished product to get something done, as opposed to the people who buy, build or manage it.

Ethical design in UX is the practice of making products that respect users' time, attention, privacy and autonomy instead of exploiting them for business gain.

Eye tracking in UX is a research technique that records where and for how long a person looks on a screen, to show what draws attention or gets missed.

Fidelity in UX describes how closely a design artifact, such as a sketch, wireframe or prototype, resembles the finished product in looks, detail and behavior.

Figma is a browser-based design tool where teams create interfaces, build prototypes and collaborate on the same file in real time.

Flat design in UX is a visual style that drops shadows, textures and gradients in favor of simple shapes, bold color and clean typography.

A focus group in UX is a moderated discussion with a small group of people from your target audience about their needs, opinions and expectations of a product.

A full-stack designer is a designer who covers the whole product process, from research and UX to visual design, prototyping and sometimes front-end code.

Gestalt principles in UX are psychology rules describing how people group visual elements into wholes, such as by proximity and similarity.

A grid system in UX is an invisible framework of columns, gutters and margins that helps designers align and space elements consistently across a layout.

A heatmap in UX is a visual overlay that uses color to show where users click, tap, scroll or look on a page, with warmer colors marking more activity.

Heuristics in UX are broad rules of thumb for good interface design, used to judge a product and spot usability problems without running a full user study.

Hick's law in UX says that the more choices you give people, the longer it takes them to decide, so fewer clear options speed up decisions.

How Might We (HMW) in UX is a way of phrasing a problem as an open question, such as "How might we help new users get started?", to spark ideas.

Ideation in UX is the stage of the design process where a team generates and explores many possible solutions to a clearly defined user problem.

Inclusive design in UX is the practice of designing products that work well for people with a wide range of abilities, backgrounds, devices and situations.

Information architecture in UX is the practice of organizing and labeling a product's content so people can find what they need and understand where they are.

Interaction design is the practice of shaping how people and a digital product communicate: what users do, how the product responds and how it feels.

Intuitive design in UX is an interface people can use correctly without instructions, because it matches what they already know and expect.

InVision Studio was a screen design and prototyping tool built for UI design and animation, and it was discontinued when InVision shut down its products.

Iterative design in UX is a cycle of designing, testing and refining a product in repeated rounds, so each version learns from the one before.

Lean UX is a way of designing products by testing assumptions quickly with real users, favoring shared learning over detailed deliverables.

Material Design is Google's open design system, a set of guidelines, components and tools for building consistent interfaces across Android, web and more.

A mental model in UX is a person's internal belief about how a system works, which shapes what they expect to happen when they use it.

Microcopy in UX is the small bits of text inside an interface, like button labels, hints and error messages, that guide people through a task.

A mockup in UX is a static, high-fidelity picture of a screen that shows the final look, including colors, type, images and layout, but not how it works.

A modal in UX is a window that appears on top of the current page and blocks interaction with everything behind it until the user responds or closes it.

An MVP in UX is the smallest version of a product that real users can try, built to test whether the core idea solves a genuine problem before investing more.

Navigation in UX is the set of menus, links and cues that help people find content, move between pages and always know where they are.

Onboarding in UX is the guided first experience that helps new users understand a product and reach their first moment of real value.

Pain points in UX are the specific problems, frustrations or obstacles that users run into when trying to reach their goals with a product or service.

The paradox of specificity in UX is the idea that designing for one clearly defined user often ends up serving more people than designing for everyone.

A persona in UX is a fictional but research-based profile of a typical user, describing their goals, habits and frustrations to keep design decisions grounded.

A UX portfolio is a curated collection of your design projects, usually case studies, that shows how you think, work and solve problems for users.

A problem statement in UX is a short, clear description of the user problem a team wants to solve, who has it and why it matters, written before design.

A product roadmap in UX is a high-level plan of which problems and features a team will tackle over time and why, keeping design and engineering aligned.

A prototype in UX is an early, interactive model of a product that lets you test how it works and feels before spending time building the real thing.

Qualitative user research is the study of people's behavior, needs and motivations through observation and conversation, to learn why they act as they do.

Quantitative user research is the collection and analysis of numerical data about user behavior or attitudes, showing how many people do or think something.

Responsive design in UX is an approach where a website or app adapts its layout and content automatically to fit any screen size, from phone to desktop.

A sitemap in UX is a diagram or list showing every page of a website or app and how those pages are organized and linked, usually as a hierarchy.

Sketch is a vector-based design app for macOS that UX and UI designers use to create interfaces, icons, wireframes and design systems.

Stakeholder interviews in UX are structured talks with the people who have a stake in a product, held to learn goals and constraints before design starts.

A storyboard in UX is a sequence of simple drawn panels that shows how a person encounters a problem and uses a product to solve it, told as a visual story.

A style guide in UX is a reference document that sets the visual and writing rules for a product, such as colors, fonts, spacing and tone of voice.

Surveys in UX are structured sets of questions sent to many users at once to gather opinions, behaviors and satisfaction data you can count and compare.

Task analysis in UX is the study of how people complete a goal, broken down into the individual steps, decisions and tools involved from start to finish.

Tree testing in UX is a research method where people try to find items in a text-only outline of your site structure, showing whether the hierarchy makes sense.

Typography in UX is the choice and arrangement of typefaces, sizes, spacing and weights that make text readable and give an interface its character.

UI elements in UX are the individual building blocks of an interface, such as buttons, text fields, menus and icons, that people see and interact with.

Usability in UX is how easily and satisfyingly specific users can reach their goals with a product, measured by learnability, efficiency and error rates.

Usability testing in UX is a method where you watch real people try to complete realistic tasks with a product to find where they struggle.

A user flow in UX is a diagram showing the steps a person takes through a product to complete a task, including decisions and possible detours.

A user interface (UI) is everything a person sees, touches or hears when using a product, from buttons and text to layout, color and feedback.

User interface design is the craft of shaping the screens, controls and visual elements people use to interact with a digital product, clearly and easily.

A user interview in UX is a one-on-one conversation where a researcher asks people about their goals, habits and frustrations to understand their real needs.

A user journey map in UX is a visual timeline of the steps a person takes to reach a goal, showing their actions, thoughts, emotions and pain points.

User research in UX is the practice of studying people who use or might use a product, to understand their needs and behavior so design rests on evidence.

User stories in UX are short sentences that describe what a user wants to do and why, written from their point of view to guide what a team builds.

User testing in UX is the practice of watching real people try to use a product or prototype, to find out what works and what confuses them.

User-centered design is a process where designers involve the people who will use a product at every stage, from research and ideas to testing and refinement.

A UX audit is a structured review of an existing product that finds usability problems and ranks them by how much they hurt users.

UX design is the practice of shaping how a product works and feels to the people using it, so they can reach their goals with little frustration.

UX documentation is the written and visual record of research, design decisions and specifications that lets a team build and maintain a product.

UX strategy is a long-term plan that connects what users need with what the business wants, and sets the direction for how a product's experience should evolve.

UX writing is the craft of writing the words inside a product, such as buttons, labels and error messages, so people can understand it and get things done.

Visual design in UX is the craft of shaping how a product looks, using color, type, imagery, layout and spacing to make it clear, usable and appealing.

White space in UX is the empty area around and between interface elements, which gives content room to breathe and makes a screen easier to read and scan.

A whiteboard challenge in UX is a live design exercise in a job interview where you solve a problem on a whiteboard while explaining your thinking out loud.

A wireframe in UX is a simple, low-detail blueprint of a screen that shows layout, content placement and functionality before any visual styling is added.