English for UX Design: Essential Vocabulary

"user interview"

A structured one-on-one conversation with a target user to understand their needs, goals, and pain points.

"We conducted twelve user interviews before defining the core problem we wanted to solve."

"affinity mapping"

A collaborative technique for grouping research findings into themes to reveal patterns and insights.

"After the interviews, the team spent an afternoon doing affinity mapping to cluster the feedback."

"pain point"

A specific frustration or problem that users experience when trying to accomplish a goal with a product or service.

"The biggest pain point we discovered was that users could not find the checkout button on mobile."

"contextual inquiry"

An observational research method where a researcher watches users in their natural environment as they complete tasks.

"Contextual inquiry revealed that nurses used the app in noisy, dimly lit conditions we had never considered."

"screener survey"

A short questionnaire used to identify and recruit research participants who match the target user profile.

"We sent a screener survey to filter for participants who had shopped online at least once a month."

"empathy map"

A collaborative tool that captures what a user says, thinks, does, and feels to build a shared understanding of their experience.

"The empathy map helped stakeholders connect emotionally with the frustrations of elderly users."

"research synthesis"

The process of analysing and organising raw research data into actionable insights and design implications.

"Research synthesis took two days but gave us clear design priorities for the next sprint."

"diary study"

A longitudinal research method where participants log their experiences over days or weeks to capture behaviour in real time.

"A diary study over two weeks revealed how the app fit — or failed to fit — into users' daily routines."

"user persona"

A semi-fictional archetype representing a key segment of the target audience, built from research data.

"We created three user personas to keep the team aligned on who we were designing for."

"mental model"

A user's internal understanding of how a system works, which may differ from how it actually works.

"The mental model most users had of the app was more like a filing cabinet than a search engine."

"jobs to be done"

A framework that describes what users are trying to achieve — the underlying goal — rather than features they use.

"Using a jobs-to-be-done lens, we realised users wanted to feel in control, not just see their data."

"proto-persona"

A hypothesis-based persona created quickly from assumptions before research data is available.

"We sketched proto-personas at the project kick-off to align stakeholders on our assumed target users."

"user journey map"

A visual representation of the steps a user takes to achieve a goal, including their emotions and touchpoints.

"The user journey map showed a clear frustration spike at the account verification step."

"touchpoint"

Any point of interaction between a user and a product, service, or brand across a journey.

"We listed every touchpoint from the first ad impression to the post-purchase support email."

"scenario"

A narrative description of a specific user completing a task in a particular context, used to guide design decisions.

"We wrote a scenario in which Maria needs to reschedule an appointment from her phone on the bus."

"JTBD framework"

Short for Jobs to Be Done — a structured approach to understanding the functional, social, and emotional goals behind user behaviour.

"The JTBD framework helped us reframe our product around outcomes rather than features."

"card sorting"

A research method where users organise topics into groups to help designers create intuitive navigation structures.

"Card sorting with 20 participants revealed that users expected payment settings under 'Account', not 'Settings'."

"tree testing"

A usability technique for evaluating the findability of topics within a proposed navigation structure without visual design.

"Tree testing showed that only 40% of users could locate the refund policy in the current navigation."

"navigation schema"

The overall system of menus, links, and labels that allows users to move through a product.

"We redesigned the navigation schema after research showed users consistently got lost after the second level."

"taxonomy"

A classification system that organises content into hierarchical categories and labels to support browsing and search.

"Agreeing on a consistent taxonomy for product categories took three workshops with the content and UX teams."

"wayfinding"

Design elements that help users understand where they are within a system and how to reach their destination.

"Breadcrumbs and progress indicators are classic wayfinding tools in complex checkout flows."

"content inventory"

A complete list of all content assets within a product or website, used as a foundation for audits and restructuring.

"The content inventory revealed over 200 orphaned pages that had not been updated in three years."

"findability"

How easily users can locate specific information or features within a product, a core goal of information architecture.

"Low findability scores in testing prompted a full overhaul of the site's search and filter system."

"labelling system"

The words, icons, and symbols used to represent categories, actions, and concepts throughout an interface.

"Inconsistent labelling caused confusion — some screens called it 'log out' and others called it 'sign out'."

"wireframe"

A low-fidelity schematic that outlines the structure and layout of a page without colour, typography, or detailed visuals.

"We shared wireframes with stakeholders to get alignment on layout before investing in high-fidelity design."

"clickable prototype"

An interactive mock-up that simulates user flows and transitions so that designs can be tested before development.

"The clickable prototype let us run usability tests without writing a single line of code."

"affordance"

A design property that signals to users how an element can be interacted with — for example, a raised button suggests it can be pressed.

"Flat design reduced affordances, making it less clear which elements were interactive."

"micro-interaction"

A small, contained interaction that provides feedback or guides a user through a single task, such as a loading animation or a toggle switch.

"The micro-interaction on the like button — a brief bounce and colour change — made the action feel satisfying."

"fidelity"

The level of detail and realism in a prototype, ranging from rough sketches (low fidelity) to pixel-perfect mock-ups (high fidelity).

"We used low fidelity early to explore concepts quickly, then moved to high fidelity for final testing."

"gestural navigation"

A navigation pattern that relies on swipes, pinches, and other touch gestures rather than visible buttons or menus.

"Gestural navigation reduced visual clutter but required clear onboarding to teach new users the gestures."

"design handoff"

The process of transferring completed designs from the design team to developers, including specifications, assets, and documentation.

"We used Figma's inspect panel to streamline the design handoff and reduce back-and-forth with engineers."

"interaction pattern"

A reusable solution to a common interface design problem, such as infinite scroll, modal dialogs, or step-by-step wizards.

"The team chose a wizard interaction pattern to guide users through the five-step onboarding flow."

"think-aloud protocol"

A testing technique where participants narrate their thoughts, feelings, and actions while completing tasks, providing insight into their reasoning.

"The think-aloud protocol revealed that users read the error message but did not understand what action to take."

"task success rate"

The percentage of participants who complete a given task without assistance, a key usability metric.

"The task success rate for finding the return policy was only 35%, well below our 80% target."

"usability benchmark"

A reference standard against which current performance is measured, allowing teams to track improvement over time.

"We established a usability benchmark after the first round of testing to measure progress each quarter."

"severity rating"

A classification of how serious a usability problem is, typically based on its frequency and impact on user goals.

"We assigned a severity rating of critical to any issue that prevented task completion entirely."

"moderated testing"

A usability session where a facilitator guides the participant, asks follow-up questions, and can clarify instructions in real time.

"Moderated testing allowed us to probe why users hesitated before clicking the confirm button."

"unmoderated testing"

A remote usability method where participants complete tasks independently without a facilitator, allowing faster and larger-scale studies.

"Unmoderated testing with 50 participants gave us quantitative data on task times and error rates."

"first-click testing"

A method that measures where users click first when trying to complete a task, testing the intuitiveness of navigation and layout.

"First-click testing showed that most users started in the wrong section of the menu."

"heuristic evaluation"

An expert review method where evaluators assess an interface against a set of recognised usability principles.

"The heuristic evaluation identified ten violations of Nielsen's principles before we ran a single user session."

"design critique"

A structured session where designers present work-in-progress and receive focused, constructive feedback from peers and stakeholders.

"The weekly design critique helped us catch accessibility issues early before work was finalised."

"stakeholder alignment"

The process of ensuring that all key parties — product, engineering, business — share a common understanding of and agreement on design direction.

"We ran a stakeholder alignment workshop before starting the redesign to avoid costly scope changes later."

"design system"

A collection of reusable components, patterns, and guidelines that ensure consistency across a product or product family.

"Adopting a shared design system reduced the time spent on repetitive styling decisions by 60%."

"acceptance criteria"

Specific conditions that a feature or design must satisfy to be considered complete and ready to ship.

"The acceptance criteria for the new onboarding flow required an 80% completion rate in testing."

"design token"

A named variable that stores a design decision — such as a colour, spacing value, or font size — for use across platforms.

"Switching to design tokens meant we could update the primary colour across all platforms in one change."

"red-route"

A critical path or task that the most important users perform most frequently — and that must work flawlessly.

"Checking out was our definitive red-route, so we prototyped and tested it before any other flow."

"north star metric"

A single key metric that best captures the core value a product delivers to users and guides long-term design decisions.

"Our north star metric was weekly active users who completed at least one core task, not just logins."

"design debt"

The accumulated inconsistencies, workarounds, and outdated patterns in a product that slow down future design and development work.

"Years of ad-hoc feature additions had created significant design debt that the new team had to address."