UX Design Vocabulary for Everyone
50 +1 term you need to know as UX designer. ⏰ The vocabulary is constantly updating.
a
agile
comprises various approaches to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer(s)/end user(s). [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
alignment
a state of agreement and understanding on a group decision that includes follow-through on that decision. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
as-is scenario map
helps to document collective understanding of user workflows and are best used as precursors to exploring new ideas or for finding the right problem to solve. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
assumptions mapping
a team exercise where desirability, viability, and feasibility hypotheses are made explicit and prioritized in terms of importance and evidence. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
b
brainstorming session
a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. [Wikipedia 📜]
brief
a statement of your agreed terms of reference for developing a design to presentation stage. [Norman Potter, “What is a designer” book 📚]
c
cognitive walkthrough
is a method to test a prototype or solution with a user. You show them the prototype, give them a task to complete. Then the user completes the task while saying their thoughts out loud while you observe. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
collaborate
to work collectively toward a shared goal with an open mind to the ideas of others. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
collaboration
the action of working with someone to produce or create something. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
customer interview
an interview that is focused on exploring customer jobs, pains, gains, and willingness to pay. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
d
design research
a customer-focused approach that helps you answer questions like: Who are our users? What problems are they facing? How are they going to use this product? [Inside Design by invisionapp, “A quick guide to design research” article 📑]
design research
the practice of inquiry and discovery that builds knowledge, insight, and empathy for your users. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
design thinking
is a non-linear, iterative process which seeks to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The method consists of 5 phases — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test and is most useful when you want to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown. [Interaction Design Foundation, “Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
discovery survey
an open-ended questionnaire used in the collection of information from a sample of customers. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
e
email campaign
email messages that are deployed across a specific period of time to customers. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
empathy
the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
end user
is the ultimate human user of a software product. [Wikipedia 📜]
experience
the way a person feels, and what they think while they’re doing something. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
evaluative research
the purpose of the “evaluative” research is to evaluate an idea, user flow, or prototype. An evaluative research method used to gain understanding of a user’s mental model of abstract concepts. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
evidence
it is data that you get from research or generate from business experiments. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
f
feedback grid
is a synthesis tool for capturing feedback of any kind. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
g
grid system
helps align page elements based on sequenced columns and rows. [Interaction Design Foundation, “UI Design Patterns for Successful Software” course 👩💻]
i
ideating
the practice of coming up with new ideas. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
ideation workshop
a collaborative design method to help you and your client decide on design solutions. [Jesmond Allen & James Chudley, “Smashing UX Design” book 📚]
iterate
to change something existing (an idea, a product, a service, etc.) in small or big ways, gradually, as to improve it. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
l
layout
the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives. [Wikipedia 📜]
m
market research
focuses on the purchase and sales of the product or service, while design research looks at how customers will use and experience it. [Inside Design by invisionapp, “A quick guide to design research” article 📑]
mockup
is a prototype if it provides at least part of the functionality of a system and enables testing of a design. [Wikipedia 📜]
p
playbacks
an Enterprise Design Thinking Key, story-based presentations that bring stakeholders and whole teams together in a safe space to exchange feedback. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
product box
a facilitation technique used with customers to visualize value propositions, main features, and key benefits in the physical form of a box. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
project owner
is typically a product manager or executive who is held accountable for the success of the product or service, and is the person from whom the de- sign team ultimately takes direction. [Kim Goodwin, “Designing for the digital age” book 📚]
prototype
a first or early example that is used as a model for what comes later. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
prototype “clickable”
a digital experience (e.g. website, mobile app) that people interact with directly, even if the back-end system isn’t functioning. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
prototype “complex flow-chart”
a diagram that shows the possible user paths through a system. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
prototype “service blueprint”
a specific diagram that shows all angles of a user’s experience as a system. It represents the point of view of the end user, the service providers, and their technology systems. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
q
qualitative research
is an approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. [John W. Creswell, “Reaearch design” book 📚]
qualitative research
focuses observations on why and how things happen. [Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
quantitative research
an approach for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. [John W. Creswell, “Reaearch design” book 📚]
quantitative research
focuses on data that can be gathered by counting or measuring [Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
r
referral program
a method of promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, by word of mouth, or through digital codes. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
research findings
surface-level facts learned during your research, such as “6 out of 10 people clicked on the correct button.” Findings are things you can observe. Pain points are examples of observed findings. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
research insights
underlying themes discovered through synthesis. They capture the “why” behind your findings. Insights might describe the reason a group of users act a certain way. They are actionable and inform decision-making. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
research synthesis
the act of sifting through raw research data — interview notes, recordings, survey results, and more — to find themes and patterns. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
s
split test
is a method of comparing 2 versions, control A against variant B, and determining which one performs better. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
storyboard
illustrations displayed in sequence for the purpose of visualizing an interactive experience. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
stakeholder
is a person you need to work with to complete the project or anyone who has some interest in the project, either within or outside of the company.[Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
surveys
An activity where many people are asked the same questions in order to understand what most people think about a product. [Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
t
to-be scenario map
Draft a vision of your user’s future experience to show how your ideas address their current needs. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
u
usability study
a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. [Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
user
is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. [Wikipedia 📜]
user-centered design
is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. [Jesmond Allen & James Chudley, “Smashing UX Design” book 📚]
user-centered design
the practice of creating engaging, efficient user experiences. [Jesse James Garrett, “The Elements of User Experience” book 📚]
user experience
a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service. It includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human–computer interaction and product ownership. [Wikipedia 📜]
user test “cognitive walkthrough”
is a method to test a prototype or solution with a user. You show them the prototype, give them a task to complete. Then the user completes the task while saying their thoughts out loud while you observe. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
user test “feedback grid”
an activity to gather, organize, and make sense of feedback from users, team members, or stakeholders. [IBM, “Enterprise Design Thinking” course 👩💻]
UX research
focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through
observation and feedback. [Google, “Google UX Design Certificate” course 👩💻]
validation survey
a closed-ended questionnaire used in the collection of information from a sample of customers about a specific topic. [David J. Bland, “Test Business Ideas” book 📚]
wireframe
a schematic or blueprint that is useful for helping you, your programmers and designers think and communicate about the structure of the software or website you’re building. [“balsamiq” wireframing tool ✍️]
