UX Lex

An evolving, interactive glossary of UX research terms.

It's ironic. Those of us who work in UX, user researchers included, aspire to create terrific user experiences. That’s what we do. But what we have done with our own terminology is to create a mess. Eighty UXers from around the globe began to address that problem in September 2019. Here is a sneak peek of that work. More details, and full credits, to come. Sign up here to get weekly terms in your inbox >>

 

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z


Explore the terms


A

A/B Testing

Accessibility Testing*

Agile*

Affinity Map

Affordance*

Analytics*

Archetype*

Artifact*

Attention or Discoverability test*

B

Benchmark Testing

Bias

C

Card sort

Click test*

Clickstream analysis*

Co-Design

Cognitive Walkthrough

Competitive analysis*

Content strategist*

Content Strategy*

Contextual Inquiry

Conversion rate*

CX: Customer experience / CX research

D

Design Debt*

Design thinking*

Design Sprint*

Designer*

Diary study*

Desirability test*

Documentarian

Dogfooding*

E

Effective vs. Efficient*

Empathy*

Empathy mapping

End users*

Error analysis*

Error rate*

Ethics in research*

Ethnography*

Eye-tracking*

Evaluative research

Experience Design*

Expert Review*

F

Featureset*

Fidelity (low and high)*

Field Study*

Finding

Fitt’s Law*

Flat Design*

FTUX or FTU (First time user experience)*

Focus group*

Friction*

G

Generative research

Gestalt Principles*

H

Heat map*

Heuristics Analysis*

Hick’s law*

HCD / Human centered design*

Human Factors*

I

Idea generation*

IDI / In-depth Interview

In-context interview*

Insight

IA / Information architecture*

Intercept Interview/Survey

Intercept Recruitment

J

Jobs-to-be-Done*

Journey mapping

K

KPI / Key Performance Indicators

L

Lean UX*

Learnability*

Likert Scale

M

Market research

Marketing research

Mental model

Material Design*

Message or content test*

Measure*

Metrics*

Mindset*

Moderated Study

Moderator (for Research)

MVP / Minimum Viable Product

N

Needs assessment*

Note Taker

NPS / Net Promoter Score*

O

Observation*

Observer*

P

Paired interviews*

Pain Point

Panel*

Path*

Participant Pool / Panel

Participants*

Participatory design

Pattern library*

Persona

Primary research

Product design*

Product Manager*

Product scoping*

Protothon*

Prototype

PURE Method*

PUX / Previous User Experience*

Q

Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research

R

Recruiter*

Recruiting / Recruitment

Reframing*

Remote usability study*

Roadmap*

S

Sample / Sampling

Secondary research

Sentiment Test/Analysis*

Service Design*

Scenario*

Scenario Planning*

Screener / Screening

Shop-along*

Stack ranking*

Stakeholder

Storyboarding*

Subjects*

Summative research*

Survey / Questionnaire

SUS / System Usability Scale*

SUPRQ / Standardized Usability Percentile Rank*

SWOT analysis*

Systems Thinking*

T

Target market

Task Analysis*

Tech Debt*

Topline Report

Transcript / Transcription

Tree Test*

U

UCD / User-Centered Design

Unfocus groups*

Unmoderated Study

UMUX / Usability Metric for User Experience*

Use case*

80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle*

Unit Testing*

Usability*

Usability Research

Usability lab*

Usability test

Usable*

User Research

User Researcher

User Stories*

UI / User Interface*

UX / User Experience

UXR / User Experience Research

UXR / User Experience Researcher

V

Visual Design*

VOC / Voice of Customer*

W

Waterfall*

Wireframe*

Workflow analysis*

 

*These terms are still in process.

“You are amazing! I attended the Breaking into User research webinar hosted by Andi. I learned so much. I was amazed by how well versed one person can be. And your resources? The entire Curiosity Tank? The UX lexicon? Wow, thank you so much! It gladdens my heart deeply to know that people as amazing as you genuinely care about the community.”

- Marian Obuseh

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Enormous accolades to the dozens of people who have already contributed to this work.

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