UX GLOSSARY

Author’s note: I compiled and wrote these terms and definitions for “The UX Design Field Book”, and is included here as bonus content for the internet to enjoy and learn from. – DC

5-Second Tests – a method of Usability Testing that involves posting a screenshot of a single page of a site, and asking users what they remembered most, or what stuck with them.

Accessibility Design is the production of designs that meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

Affordances – the ways that users can interact with an item or system. A button can be clicked, a ball can be thrown, bricks can be stacked, etc.

Alt Attribute – A written description of an image. Alt attributes are included in the <img> tag, and should be descriptive of what’s included in the image so that visually impaired users can understand them. Icons and purely aesthetic images are exempt from requiring alt attributes in most cases.

Analysis Bias – when a researcher focuses on data samples that confirm their thoughts- usually data that favors their original hypothesis.

Artifacts – The documented output of a design technique or process.

Attitudinal Data – data that gives insight into why users are taking specific action.

Bandwagon Bias – a form of groupthink where members of a group believe something because other members of the group believe it.

Behavioral Data – is data that reflects the behavior or actions of how users are using a product.

Benchmarking is testing done to understand how well a site or product is performing.

Brand Guide – See Style Guide.

Captioning – The written transcript of a video file, displayed over the video itself for users with auditory accessibility needs. Captioning can be closed (overlayed over the top of the video itself as part of the video file) or open (added by a system as an overlay independent of the video file.)

Card Sorting – the process by which participants organize items into groups or sequences by grouping or ordering file cards. Can be done digitally or with actual file cards/stickies.

C/CA – See Comparative Competitive Analysis.

Co-Existing Hierarchy Model – a hybrid of the Strict Hierarchy Model and Index Model. A main page gives access to a particular set of subpages. That group of subpages then has its own Index Model applied to them, giving the user access to any subpages within the initially selected group.

Comparative Competitive Analysis – a strategy that identifies major competitors or comparative commercial products and researches their systems to identify existing patterns, best practices, and areas for improvement.

Confirmation Bias is seeking responses to a research that agree with a researcher’s already-held views.

Content Inventory – the cataloging of all the elements that might be needed on a page or series of pages, such as headers, images, keywords, copy, etc.

Cognitive Load – The amount of working memory used to complete a task by a user.

Cognitive Psychology – The scientific study of mental processes.

Daisy Model – an organizational model that guides users down particular paths, allowing them to return to points in that path (or the beginning of the process) once a task is complete.

Data Collection Bias – when a researcher’s personal preferences or beliefs affect the collection of data samples. This can include using inappropriate methods to collect data or asking bad survey questions.

Data Visualization – The representation of information in the form of a chart, diagram, picture, etc.

Dark Patterns – The old term used to describe Deceptive Design. The term is increasingly being abandoned due to the racist implications of correlating anything “dark” with something that is “evil” by its nature.

Deceptive Design – Any design that is intentionally created, guides users to make a choice against their own interests, and pulls the benefit of the design to the creating organization.

Design System – A set of interconnected design patterns and practices for a site, app, or system, organized to make the work of designers and developers more easily. Google’s Material Design System, Salesforce’s Lightning Design System, and Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines are examples of well-known Design Systems.

Ethnographic Research – see Field Studies.

Expert Reviews – a Subject Matter Expert (SME) review of a design for clarity, consistency, and functionality.

Eye Tracking – a type of Usability Testing using a webcam and software to track users’ eyes as they travel over the page, allowing researchers to gather a heatmap of where users are looking on a screen.

Field Studies (AKA Ethnographic Research) – UX Research that is done in-person, in the user’s environment.

First Click Tests – a type of Usability Testing that is set up by posting a single page at the beginning of a proposed flow and recording where users click when instructed to complete the related task.

The Five Dimensions – an Interaction Design methodology that champions the idea that there are five separate components that make up IxD, facilitating the communication between a user and a screen- words, visual recognition, physical objects/space, time, and behavior.

Flat Model – an organizational structure where all pages are of equal value. As such, they are put on the same level of navigation.

Field Studies – are done in-person, in the user’s environment.

Fitt’s Law – The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.

Goal Driven Design – developed by Alan Cooper, Goal Driven Design puts an emphasis on problem solving. This focuses on the wants, goals, and needs of the user, rather than placing the emphasis on the capabilities offered by a technological system.

Guerrilla Testing – a type of Usability Testing done by selecting people at random from a public space, such as an industry conference, and asking them to do a short usability test with a product. This is done to get feedback from a wide cross-section of the population who don’t necessarily have experience using a product.

Hanlon’s Razor – Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (but don’t rule out malice.)

Hick’s Law – The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.

Hierarchical Structure – the presentation of content in a way that allows users to understand the level of importance for each element.

Hierarchy – the presentation of content on the carrier, be it a book page or poster, web page or mobile screen, in such a way that users can understand the level of importance for each element presented.

High Fidelity Mockups – a Visual Design artifact that is a very close approximation of the final iteration of a design. They should be as close to pixel perfect as possible, though they do not contain any interactivity as prototypes do.

High-Fidelity Prototypes – pixel-perfect representations of entire products or flows that contain full interactivity of all elements on a page. Due to their complexity and effort, they are typically only created for well-vetted, well-researched designs.

Index Model sites are sites with pages and subpages. Although pages may have subpages and workflows, using consistently available navigation for main content pages allows users to change between pages with a minimum of difficulty. The most common type of organizational model for a page.

Information Architecture – a science of organizing and structuring content of the websites, web and mobile applications, and social media software.

Interface Metaphors – visual elements that leverage the user’s knowledge of existing interfaces, be they in the digital or physical world.

Interaction Design– the design of how users interact with products.

Internal Stakeholders – Any member of UX design teams’ business team or partners, such as vendors and contractors, who might be involved in a project.

Jakob’s Law – Users spend most of their time on other websites and apps. This means that users expect yours to work the same way as the sites they already know. This applies both in general, and to any specific genre (e-commerce, blog, news, etc.) of sites.

Lab Studies – UX Research that is done in-person at a UX Research and Testing Lab, rather than in the participant’s location.

Law of Common Region – Elements tend to be perceived as groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.

Law of Similarity – The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.

Law of Uniform Connectedness – Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.

Leading or Loaded Questions – questions that nudge a respondent towards a particular response – are a common symptom of Data Collection Bias in qualitative research.

Likert Items – a question with five or seven point response on a visual analogue scale, which is commonly used to allow the individual to express how much they agree or disagree with a particular statement.

Likert Scale – The sum of the responses on several Likert Items.

An example of a Likert scale.

Lorem Ipsum – Filler text designed to look like words, but actually meaning nothing. Commonly used in wireframes and low-fidelity mockups so as not to distract designers or team members from focusing on a visual layout.

Low Fidelity Mockups – a Visual Design artifact that contains more color compared to

wireframes and may begin to leverage brand and style guides or design systems.

Low-Fidelity Prototypes – similar to Low-Fidelity Mockups in that they are a step above wireframes in terms of color, design, and content; however, prototypes include interactivity. They are commonly used to test interaction on a page to determine if interactivity and flows are intuitive.

Matrix Structure – a type of navigation that allows users to choose their own paths. Users may choose, for example, to navigate through content by date, topics, people, etc.

Mental Models – the user’s mental expectations of an interaction or system. Designers seek to model systems that are similar to mental models that the users are already comfortable with and knowledgeable about.

Moderated Testing – when a tester sits with a user and gives them a set of instructions to follow, asking the user to speak out loud about what they’re doing, seeing, thinking, and feeling as they attempt to accomplish the task.

Mockups – a visual design output that incorporates colors, imagery, and tone, often using style guide, design system or existing design patterns as a base.

Net Promoter Score – is a widely used market research metric that typically takes the form of a single survey question asking respondents to rate the likelihood that they would recommend a company, product, or a service to a friend or colleague.

NPS – See Net Promoter Score.

Personas – profiles of fictional people that represent a portion of the userbase in the system identified through qualitative and quantitative means. They serve to help keep the most important aspects of each section of a userbase in-mind, while providing an empathy boost.

Primary Research – research that you do yourself.

Procedural Bias – a bias in UX Research that occurs when research is set up poorly, eliciting incorrect or hurried responses. For example, asking students to complete a survey during a passing period between classes artificially limits the time they have to respond. This can lead to incomplete responses that do not provide an actual representation of their thoughts.

Prototype – A fully functional example of a site, page, or flow, usually created in design software like Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, Invision, Axure, etc.

Quantitative Research – the study of data that is in a numerical form, which can be into categories, ranked in order, or measured in units of measurement. This type of data is often used to construct graphs, create tables, etc.

Qualitative Research – the empirical research where data is not in the form of numbers. These include information about users’ thoughts, feelings.

Remote Research – UX Research done using remote testing equipment or software, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc., that allow researchers to remotely view user’s actions.

Reporting Bias – the practice of reporting only data from UX Research that agrees with the researcher’s personal beliefs.

Responsive Design – a web development approach that creates dynamic changes to the appearance of a website, depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it.

Roadmapping – a high-level, visual summary of a product’s vision or direction. Roadmaps to include future new functionality, changes to existing features, and bug fixes.

Sampling Bias – occurs in UX Research when research respondents are not selected at random. A random selection of potential users – insofar as it controls for your target audience – is important to ensure that the selection of respondents, whose own biases will affect their responses, doesn’t skew the results of the research.

Screen Reader – a piece of software or hardware that allows users with low or no visual perception to read and interact with a website.

Secondary Research – research that someone else conducts.

Sequential Structure – the structure of paths for users to follow, allowing them to navigate step-by-step through content, usually to accomplish a goal.

Serial Position Effect – Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.

Show Stopper – Any issue that would cause a pause in or abandonment of the design or development process.

Signifiers – the means by which affordances can be discovered by the users. Intuitive signifiers guide the user to tap, slide, scroll, use voice communication, etc. Affordances without signifiers are referred to as “hidden affordances.”

The Single Page Model – when all content for a site is on a single page.

Site Map – A visual representation of the navigation structure of a site.

A highly-stylized representation of a site map. (Source: Matthieu Mingasson on Flickr.com)

SME – See Subject Matter Expert

Strict Hierarchy Model – an organizational model where apps and sites have a rigidly- defined and guarded hierarchy of subpages which are only accessible through the main page. This model provides focus for a particular path chosen at the outset, helping to limit distractions.

Style Guide – A set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. Style guides may be created for the use of the company as a whole, or just for the design of a particular website. Style guides often serve as the basis for a Design System.

Subject Matter Expert (SME) – Someone in an organization who can provide specialized knowledge about a product, service, or flow – often because they use that product on a regular basis. SMEs are not users.

Success Metrics – design-specific, quantitative, measurable goals by which a design can be measured, such as reduced time on task or reduced abandonment rate) are set and agreed to by the business, development, and design team members.

SWOT Analysis – A process in a Comparative/Competitive Analysis that assesses a competitor’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities for Improvement, and Threat to the competitive landscape.

System Usability Score – a simple, ten-item attitude Likert scale giving a global view of subjective assessments of usability.

Tertiary Research – research done by others and summarized by a third party.

Usability-Focused Design – an Interaction Design methodology that seeks to ensure that technical capabilities offered by a system satisfy requirements of usability.

Usability Testing is a technique used to evaluate the effectiveness of a design by testing it with its users.

UI – See User Interface.

Unmoderated Testing – when a user is given a set of instructions to follow and is observed remotely as they attempt to follow those instructions.

User Experience (UX) Design – is a social science that seeks to understand the wants, goals, needs, and pain points of users of an application, system, or tool. This is done through quantitative and qualitative research, cooperative iteration and testing, and continuous evaluation of the application, system, or tool. The final result is a design that is highly usable, ethical, accessible, effective, ethical, and beneficial to our users and employers.

User Interface Design – is the process designers use to build interfaces in software or computerized devices, focusing on looks or style. UI Design is not UX Design.

User Journeys – a mapping of a person’s experience during one session of using a website or application, consisting of the series of actions performed to achieve a particular goal.

User Persona – profiles of fictional people that represent a portion of the userbase in the system identified through qualitative and quantitative means. They serve to help keep the most important aspects of each section of a userbase in-mind, while providing an empathy boost (after all, it’s often easier to design for people rather than statistics.)

UX Research – the process of understanding user wants, goals, needs, and pain points through review of metrics, conversations with users, and observing user behavior.

UX Writing – the focus on the words, voice, and tone used to guide the user through a User Interface (UI).

Visual Design – in UX, the process of translating the results of UX Research into a usable, accessible, and efficient interface design.

Von Restorff Effect – When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is the most likely to be remembered.

WCAG – Stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, one of the current internationally-accepted standards of accessibility design for sites and apps.

Wireframes – basic representations of page layout and content without consideration to specific interactions, color, or branding.