Glossary in UX

As a UX designer, I know how overwhelming it can be to come across unfamiliar terms and concepts in the field of user experience. That's why I've created this blog to serve as a reference guide for all your UX-related terminology needs.

A

Accessibility: The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with
disabilities

Advertising agencies: Teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns

Alternative text (alt text): Text that helps translate something visual, such as an image or
graph, into a description that can be read by screen readers

Apprenticeships: Provides on-the-job training to help people develop real skills

Assets: Everything from the text and images to the design specifications, like font style, color,
size, and spacing

Assistive technology: Any products, equipment, or systems that enhance learning, working,
and daily living for people with disabilities.

B

Bias: Favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information

Brand Identity: The visual appearance and voice of a company

C

Call-to-action (CTA): A visual prompt that tells the user to take action, like to click a button

Color modification: Features that increase the contrast of colors on a screen, like high-contrast mode or dark mode

D

Define: The phase of Design Thinking that involves leveraging the insights gained during the
empathize phase to identify the problem you’ll solve with your design

Design Agency: A one-stop shop for the look of brands, products, and services

Design Thinking: A UX design framework that focuses on the user throughout all five phases:
empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.

Digital Literacy: A user's level of ability related to using digital information and technologies

E

Empathize: The phase of Design Thinking that involves getting to know your user through
research

Equality: Providing the same amount of opportunity and support

Equity-focused design: Designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or
ignored when building products

F

Framework: Creates the basic structure that focuses and supports the problem you’re trying
to solve

Freelancers: Designers who work for themselves and market their services to businesses to
find customers

G

Generalist: A UX designer with a broad number of responsibilities

Graphic designers: Create visuals that tell a story or message

I

Ideate: The phase of Design Thinking that involves brainstorming all potential solutions to the
user’s problem

Ideation: The process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to
judge or evaluate them

Inclusive design: Making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability,
race, economic status, language, age, and gender

Information architecture: The framework of a website or how it’s organized, categorized, and
structured

Insight: An observation that helps you understand the user or their needs from a new
perspective

Interaction designers: Focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions

Iterate: Revise the original design to create a new and improved version

Iteration: Doing something again, by building on previous versions and making tweaks

M

Motion designers: Think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product

P

Platform: The medium that users experience your product on

Product: A good, service, or feature

Production designers: Make sure first and final designs match in the finished project
materials and that the assets are ready to be handed off to engineering team

Prototype: An early model of a product that demonstrates functionality

R

Responsive web design: A design approach that allows a website to change automatically
depending on the size of the device

S

Screen reader: Software that reads aloud any on-screen text, interactive elements, or
alternative text

Speech to text: Software that allows users to compose text by speaking into their device

Specialist: A designer who dives deep into one particular type of user experience, like
interaction design, visual design, or motion design

Startup: A new business that wants to develop a unique product or service and bring it to
market

Switch device: An assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer
keyboard or a mouse

T

Test: The phase of Design Thinking that involves facilitating and observing user tests with your
design prototypes

T-shaped designer: A designer who specializes in one kind of user experience (e.g.,
interaction, visual, motion) and has a breadth of knowledge in other areas

U

Universal design: The process of creating one product for users with the widest range of
abilities and in the widest range of situations

User: Any person who uses a product

User-centered design: Puts the user front-and-center

User experience: How a person, the user, feels about interacting with, or experiencing, a
product

UX engineers: Translate the design’s intent into a functioning experience

UX program managers: Ensure clear and timely communication so that the process of
building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish

UX research: Understand users and learn about their backgrounds, demographics,
motivations, pain points, emotions, and life goals

UX researchers: A type of researcher that conducts studies or interviews to learn about the
users of a product and how people use a product

UX writers: Create the language that appears throughout a digital product, like websites or
mobile apps

V

Visual designers: Focus on how the product or technology looks

Voice control: Allows users to navigate and interact with the buttons and screens on their
devices using only their voice

W

Wireframe: An outline or a sketch of a product or a screen