UX Design Glossary: 64 Essential Terms

UX design is core to the product development, improvement, and optimization process.

A strong design has the power to directly affect bottom lines. Take ESPN for instance. A homepage redesign once catalyzed 35% revenue growth for the sports-focused company.

Make sure you're not missing out on the benefits of UX for your business by developing an understanding of top UX terms — use our glossary to help.

64 UX Design Terms to Know

A

• A/B Testing: also known as split testing, A/B testing is when a designer users two versions of a design to learn which one performs best
• Accessibility: usability for people with disabilities or those who have unique product needs
• Affordance: a hint or suggestion that lets a user know how they should use a product
• Agile: a design approach that focuses on speed

B

• Backend: the server or database that’s working under the frontend to send data to the user
• Breadcrumbs: navigation that helps users find information through a hierarchical structure

C

• Card Sorting: a UX research method where focus group participants write labels on notecards based on their own intuition
• Case Study: a sample design that a designer includes in their body of work or portfolio
• Conversion Rate: the percentage of users that take the necessary or desired action
• CTA: “call to action” or an interactive part of a design that prompts a user to do something
• Customer Experience: how users interact with a product and the overall feeling they have about that interaction

Learn how much UX design costs with our UX design pricing guide. 

D

• Design Elements: common frameworks designers use to create their designs
• Design Process: a group of design elements form a design process
• Design Thinking: a human-centered approach to design projects that involves empathizing with an audience, defining the problem, ideating possible solutions, prototyping a viable solution, and testing the solution to determine how well it solves the initial problem.
• Development Process: a group of backend pieces used to make a product
• Design System: a group of design processes create a design system
• Diary Study: a UX research approach that involves designers keeping an active log of their thoughts and experiences for a given period during a project.

E

• End User: an individual that will use a product or application
• Eye Tracking: advanced technology that measures eye movements to gauge how long a user is looking at a product and where specifically their gaze is fixed

Weigh the pros and cons of hiring an in-house UX designer vs. UX firm when looking for a partner. 

F

• Final Product: a finished design and development iteration
• Flat Design: a UI that uses basic 2D design and bright colors
• Fonts: a unique alphabet designed so that all the letters have similar features
• Frontend: relating to the user-view of an application or product
• Functionality: a group of possible operations that a product supports

H

• Heat Map: a tool that shows where users click, scroll, and navigate on a browser page
• High-Fidelity Prototypes: an advanced iteration of a product that accurately shows how the finished version will look and feel
• Human-computer interaction: the general study of technical design and its ease of use for users
• HTML: a type of code that’s used to arrange a web page and its corresponding content

I

• Information Architecture: the area of design that centers on structuring information and developing a useful hierarchy
• Interaction Design: the study of improving a user’s experience within a product
• Iterative: a process in which a design is edited and shifted based on feedback
• iOS: the operating system for mobile devices created by Apple Inc.

J

• Journey Map: a visual depiction of a designer’s full process in creating work

K

• KPI: “key performance indicators” are measurable metrics used to gauge success of a process

L

• Landing Page: a digital webpage that prompts users to take an action
• Low-Fidelity Prototypes: hand-drawn or simplistic designs used to visualize screen layouts

M

• Mental Model: how a user interprets a product’s UX design
• Methodology: a way of accomplishing a design goal
• Microcopy: tiny pieces of text found on websites and products
• Mockup: a static wireframe that includes realistic product features
• Modal: a dialog box that pops up when a user clicks on something on a product’s screen
• MVP (Minimum Viable Product): a finished, usable product with few advanced features

O

• Onboarding: a series of screens that gives a user a guided introduction to their product

P

• Pain Points: issues that occur at different stages of a user’s experience
• Product Development: adding code and functionality behind an established design
• Product Design: the process of creating and iterating on products with the intention to address specific issues in the market

R

• Research Method: an avenue for gathering information on a given design topic

S

• Software Development: a set of computer science activities dedicated to supporting software
• Storyboard: a sequence of drawings that plan out a product

T

• Target audience: The target users companies are looking to attract
• Touchpoints: the ways a system uses to meet a specific user need
• Typography: the font and overall style of a text-based content asset

Discover how to build a UX/UI design budget with Clutch's guide. 

U

• Usability Testing (User Testing): the process of collecting feedback about a product’s usability
• User Experience: also called UX, user experience is the way a user interacts with and reacts to a product
• User Experience Design: the process of curating a product to the nuances of a user demographic
• User Flow: pictures that show a user’s path when interacting with a product
• User Interface Design: the design of the screens a user sees when engaging with a product
• UI Elements: pieces of a user experience, such as CTAs or landing pages
• User Journey: The customer journey a user takes when using a product
• User Research: investigating the need behind products and if they should be created

V

• Visual Representation: a 2D or 3D physical manifestation of a verbal concept

W

• Web Page: any hypertext document on the internet
• White Space: areas on a web page without copy or images
• Wireframes: an image that depicts the functional elements of a website or product

UX Design is a Huge Part of Online Products

While it’s important to understand UX terms if you plan on engaging in UX-related work, knowledge building doesn’t end there. If you’re looking to invest in UX design assets, it’s best to hire an expert who can put that understanding to action.