A complete UX glossary for the non-UX folks

Here are some essential UX terms and phrases you should know to speak and understand the designer’s language. 

Accessibility

Accessibility, in the UX world, answers two fundamental questions: can everyone use the product, and to what extent? It is typically evaluated based on how people with varied degrees of disabilities can use the product.

Designers use a blend of various page layouts, tailored versions, and apt color schemes to improve a product’s web accessibility, along with assistive technologies such as screen readers and voice-enabled search to ensure that they can easily use the product. 

A/B testing

This or that? Designers often find themselves in a dilemma while picking between two design versions. This could include deciding on the call-to-action (CTA) placement, button color, page layout, logo designs, brand moodboard, copy placement, etc. 

A/B testing is a common data-driven technique where a user group is given different design versions (design A, design B) to determine their preference and behavioral patterns. This activity lays a solid foundation to ask follow-up questions to identify the reasoning behind their decisions, friction points, and collect other valuable inputs that can enable them to improve the overall UX. 

Affinity map

Affinity map, also known as affinity diagram, is used by UX designers to note and organize content, observations and product features into various categories or logical groups. Designers create an affinity map to uncover patterns, trends and identify the area of improvement and get a better understanding of the information architecture (IA) of an app or a website. 

Adaptive

Adaptive, as the name suggests, is a UX term used to describe a design layout that can adapt to different screens and devices. In short, the application automatically detects the screen’s specifications and adjusts accordingly to display the version that is specifically designed for it, and is known as adaptive or responsive design. 

Agile UX

Agile UX is an approach that integrates user experience design into agile software development processes. It promotes continuous collaboration between designers, developers, and product teams throughout the development lifecycle.

Instead of finalizing all design work upfront, Agile UX supports iterative design, where prototypes, user feedback, and usability improvements are incorporated in short development cycles (sprints). This allows teams to adapt quickly to user needs and ensures that the product evolves in alignment with customer expectations.

Backlog

One of the most straightforward UX terminologies out there. Backlog refers to the list of pending tasks or deliverables, including feature developments, feature enhancements, bug fixes, and other such actions that need to be completed with priority. 

Beta testing

Beta testing makes it to almost every UX glossary created by UX experts, and for good reasons. 

Beta testing is the process of launching an unfinished or ‘work-in-progress’ product to a specific user group to determine its performance in real-life scenarios. The objective of beta testing is to identify bugs and technical glitches and get closer to the user’s friction points while interacting with the product before officially launching it. 

Card sorting

Card sorting is an interesting and effective co-creation technique used by UX designers to understand how users bifurcate information, create buckets of related content, and aggregate ideas. In this activity, users are given various labelled cards and asked to segregate them logically (categories), enabling designers to create user-centric information architecture (IA). 

Contextual enquiry

Contextual enquiry is a research technique wherein UX teams observe and interview users while they interact with products and services in their natural environment. For example, design teams of ride-hailing companies like Careem or Uber can observe how users interact with the app at airports, shopping malls, and other popular booking spots during peak and non-peak hours. This allows them to understand their booking preferences at different times of the day and get an in-depth understanding of their pain points. 

Here, the feedback is gathered from users in real-time when they are actually interacting with the product instead of waiting for them to finish using it. 

Burger menu

The burger menu is a popular UX icon that resembles a burger because of the three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other. When users click on the icon, it opens a hidden menu that isn’t visible otherwise. 

It is worth noting that burger menus are predominantly used for smaller screen sizes, including smartphones and tablets, which typically have limited screen real estate. 

Customer experience (CX)

Customer experience (CX) refers to the overall experience an individual has while interacting with a brand throughout the entire customer lifecycle, including purchasing and using a product or service. This also includes post-purchase interactions such as feedback forms, communication related to loyalty programs, etc. 

Although CX and UX are different concepts, it is important to understand that a brand’s UX can have a direct impact on its CX. 

Design debt

Design debt, or UX debt, is the end result of cutting corners in the design stage to achieve the desired result or complete a deliverable. This approach isn’t recommended since it usually results in various product-related issues, hindering the UX. 

UX teams that ignore user research and testing, meticulous documentation, are more prone to piling up design debt. 

Design sprint

Design sprint, as a concept, was invented by Jake Knapp, the co-founder of Google Meet and author of the bestseller “Sprint”. Now a popular UX term within the product design circle, design sprint is a product development methodology that focuses on building and testing prototypes within a short time period (typically five to ten days). The fundamental idea here is to transition from the problem stage to the solution phase. 

Design system

Design system encompasses ready-to-use design patterns, style guides, reusable UI components, and other design guidelines that design teams and developers refer to ensure design consistency throughout the product’s interfaces. 

Design thinking

Design thinking, again, is a very popular UX terminology that is often used in the UX design space. It is a strategic design method that is primarily built on five main steps, including Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Testing. The primary objective here is to find innovative design solutions to and cater to the user’s problems. 

Empathy map

An empathy map is a visual representation of what design teams know about users, including their attitudes, behaviors, communication tone, what they look for in a product, how they interact with it, and their feelings. The empathy map is divided into four quadrants: What the user says, thinks, feels, and does.

An empathy map enables UX designers to get closer to their users and build products that align with their needs. 

Eye tracking

Eye tracking is the process of tracking a user’s eye movements to gain valuable insights into which part of the screen they are looking at the most or which UX design elements are attracting maximum or the least attention. 

Flat design

Flat design is a UX design style that primarily uses simple 2D elements and bright colors to keep the entire design free from tridimensional UI effects, including embossing effects, shadows, transdparency etc. 

Focus group

A focus group is a qualitative user research method where a small group of participants (typically 5–10) are brought together to discuss their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes about a product, service, or concept. Unlike usability testing, the goal isn’t to observe task performance but to uncover shared attitudes, expectations, and emotional reactions. It’s particularly useful in the early stages of design to explore needs and generate ideas, rather than to evaluate specific features.

Figma

Figma is arguably one of the most popular design tools used by UX designers worldwide for various activities, including wireframing, collaborating, creating design systems, and more. While it isn’t a UX term, it is one of those words one keeps hearing in the UX field. 

Gestalt principles

Gestalt principles made their way into the world of UX from the field of psychology. They are a set of laws that define how the human mind interprets visual data. UX designers can use them to make better and informed design decisions and craft seamless user experiences. 

Heat map

A heat map is a data visualization technique used to determine where users are spending the maximum or least time by using a colored visual map, which is created by tracking mouse movements and clicks on desktops, and finger taps on mobiles and tablets. 

Typically, while warm colors, including red and orange, represent the most popular areas of the app or a website, cool colors such as blue and green signal low or less engagement. 

Heuristics

Heuristics is a UX term that originates from psychology, where it refers to mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make decisions or solve problems efficiently, often based on prior experience.

In UX, heuristics are used as guiding principles to evaluate the usability of an interface. A heuristic evaluation involves assessing a product or interface against established usability principles—such as Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics—to identify potential usability issues and areas for improvement.

Lean UX

Lean UX complements agile UX (number 5 in this UX glossary) since it is another collaborative UX design approach that primarily focuses on getting user feedback as early as possible to make accurate design-related decisions during the initial stages of validation and experimentation.

Mockup

A mockup is a drawing or a visual representation of how the final product will look and function post-development. It is important to understand that while wireframes work like the skeleton of the product, a mockup includes all the flesh, such as colors, buttons, graphics, and more. In short, mockups are static and high-fidelity representations of the final product.  

Moodboard

A moodboard is a visual tool used to convey the desired mood, tone, or style of a product or brand. It typically includes an organized collection of visual elements such as color palettes, typography, images, textures, and design themes. Product designers use moodboards to align creative direction, communicate ideas, and inspire the look and feel of the final design.

Onboarding

Onboarding is essentially a UX process wherein new users are guided via nudges or prompts to help them start interacting with the product and get familiar with the app or website’s key features and functions. 

Personas

Personas are imaginary characters that mimic the attributes and preferences of real target users. UX teams create user personas through various research models to design products that align with their users’ requirements. 

Product roadmap

A product roadmap is a clear-cut strategy that outlines the objectives, milestones, and priorities for the development of a product. 

Prototype

A prototype serves as a simulation of the final product. UX teams build prototypes to get the necessary feedback to improve their product before sending it to the development team. 

Qualitative UX research

By now, you may have figured out that research is one of the key pillars of a great UX design, and qualitative UX research is one of them. Qualitative research primarily focuses on gathering intangible insights such as a user’s behaviors, inclinations, beliefs, motivations, and product feedback. 

Quantitative UX research

Quantitative research is conducted to gather measurable, numerical data that can be analyzed statistically. In UX, this includes methods such as surveys, A/B testing, analytics, and task success rates, helping researchers identify patterns, compare alternatives, and support data-driven decisions.

Responsive design

A UX term synonymous with adaptive design, a responsive design ensures that it aligns with different screen sizes. In short, the app or website will look and function seamlessly across various devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. 

SVG

Scalable vector graphics, or SVG, are one of the most used image formats in the UI space. They are essentially scalable 2D graphics that can be modified and animated with code. 

Internal and external stakeholders

While internal stakeholders are directly responsible and involved in the UX design process, external stakeholders primarily interact with the service or product. 

Examples of internal stakeholders: UX designers, product managers, sales team, developers, and business owners. 

Examples of external stakeholders: Clients, end-users, and investors. 

Storyboard

While a moodboard captures the look and feel that product designers are aiming to convey through a brand or product, a storyboard is a visual representation of a user’s experience over time. Structured like a comic strip, a storyboard illustrates key moments in the user journey, helping designers understand context, emotions, and interactions across different touchpoints.

Style guide

A style guide is an important document created marketing teams that covers the general brand guidelines that need to be strictly followed throughout the design cycle. The objective is to maintain consistency across product design, particularly when multiple internal stakeholders are involved. 

Technical debt

Although technical debt shares some overlapping aspects with design debt (see point 12 of this UX glossary), it primarily impacts the underlying codebase rather than the design system. Technical debt refers to the shortcuts or compromises in code that can lead to inefficiencies or maintenance challenges over time.

Thumb reachability

The thumb reachability is an important UX interaction element that assesses how seamlessly users can interact with the various UX elements on the screen using their thumb. 

Typography

Typography, although more commonly used in the user interface (UI) space, is the arrangement and style of text used throughout the product. 

Usability testing

Usability testing is used to determine how usable a product is by observing users in real-time as they interact with it. Typically, users are given a set of tasks or actionables, which are monitored by design teams to understand friction points. 

User-centered design (UCD)

User-centered design, or UCD, prioritizes the end users at every stage of the design process, right from the initial user research to product development. 

UX and UI

Of course, no UX glossary would be complete without covering these two essential terms. User Experience (UX) focuses on the overall journey a user has with a product, including its flows, information architecture, and functionality. In contrast, User Interface (UI) refers to the visual and interactive elements of the product—such as buttons, icons, typography, and layout—that users engage with directly.

User flow and journey

Although both UX terms have overlapping points, they are different. While user flow notes the path a user takes to finish a task, user journey provides a broader picture of how a user’s interactions and experiences across multiple touchpoints of the product. 

UX audit

A UX audit is a thorough assessment of an existing product’s visual design, user flows and journeys, usability, etc, to pinpoint areas of improvement. 

Waterfall

Waterfall is a linear project management and software development methodology where each phase—such as requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and deployment—must be completed before moving to the next.

In a Waterfall approach, UX activities are often front-loaded into the early design phase, meaning that user research, prototyping, and design are completed before development begins. This can limit opportunities for iterative testing and feedback during development, making it harder to adapt based on user insights later in the process.

Whitespace

The whitespace is the blank space between different design elements. These spaces are required to ensure your designs are clutter-free, and users can focus only on the relevant areas of the screen. 

Wireframe

A wireframe is nothing but a basic blueprint of the final product’s layout. It typically includes the product’s basic structure, navigation patterns, buttons, and content placement without interactive and visually-appealing aesthetics, including color, images, and other graphics.