What is User Experience? A guide to UX terminology (pt. 1)

All of the UX-related terms refer to an idea that users needs are core foundations when building a product or service. It means that the more relief for users pains and pleasure a product gives, the higher the chance that users will use it and pay for it. This knowledge is combined with business goals and marketing strategy to make a profitable product. UX is, therefore, a part of the whole business strategy. Below you will find some nomenclature regarding knowledge of domains, techniques used in the design process, and work methodology.

User Experience

User Experience (UX) is an idea of creating products or services with the deep focus on users needs, limitations, and skills. People only buy/use things that kill their pains or/and give them pleasure. In User Experience approach we focus on identification of those strains and gains to design painkillers and gain creators. As a result, the final product gives more satisfaction to users. The design process also focuses on business goals, stakeholders requirements, and the available technology.

Under the umbrella of User experience, there are such disciplines as UX research, Information Architecture (IA), Interaction Design (IxD), web accessibility, and visual design. Those are core elements of designing user-friendly interfaces.

"User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products”

- Don Norman and Jakon Nielsen

Usability

The ability to understand and use any software application or object. The better usability, the fewer instructions, tips, and training are needed to start using the product.

“The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.”

- ISO 9241-11

The process

UX research

This stage in the process focuses on the analysis of user needs, behaviours, and motivations. Here pains, gains, and context of usage are validated or discovered. Insights from UX research are the base for further stages of the product design process. There are many techniques and methodologies to conduct User Experience research such as observations, moderated UX tests, interviews, and many more.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

The science of how humans interact with machines. Currently, this term refers more to hardware solutions such as mobile phones, vending machines, VR glasses, and all other interactive tools that we are surrounded by. Interaction Design, which I will describe next, is an element of HCI.

Interaction Design (IxD)

IxD is a set of rules and tools that help to design the interaction between the user (human) and product that involves motion, touch, sound, etc. It is an approach of creating an intuitive interface based on the HCI knowledge.

Information Architecture (IA)

The art and the science of organizing, structuring, and labelling the content of the webpage. As an outcome, we receive content that’s organized in logical groups with defined relations between them. Information Architecture is essential when you want to have a page that's easily navigated and where users are always aware where they are, where can they go further, or how to go back to the content they've already seen. Well-design IA has a very positive impact on the web accessibility and usability.

Web accessibility

This term refers to the equal access to information and benefits of web and mobile solutions. This is a set of design rules that remove boundaries for people with limitations and disabilities such as visual impairments, difficulty or inability to use hands, deafness or hearing impairments, photo epileptic seizures caused by visual strobe or flashing effects, or cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

Web accessibility is regulated by Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), an international organization that works on guidelines and standards in software and focuses on making using the Internet easier for people with disabilities.

UX content strategy

Content strategy is a document with a set of guidelines, standards, and plans for the future development of content (text, messages, voice messages, visual language etc.). It focuses on the content lifecycle and its structure (Information Architecture).

Sketch, wireframe, mockup, and prototype

• Before reaching the final stage of the project, designers work with clients on less detailed presentation of the solution. At this stage, features and their shapes are discussed and co-created with a client. Everything can start with simple handwritten sketches.
• Wireframes (handwrite or digital) are low-fidelity views of the web pages that present relationships between pages and basic interaction. Very often they are black and white and show elements in a simple form, in contrary to mockups which are colourful and display images, logos, fonts, etc.
• The high fidelity presentation is a prototype, which behave like a final product. They are interactive and may, if needed, contain animated elements. It is a great tool for usability tests. However, creating prototypes requires more time and money than making static views.
  You might also come across the term paper prototype. It is a representation of the product drawn on the piece of paper and used for simple tests. This technique is mostly used in workshops sessions where there is no time to create digital views in HTML.

It is important to consult projects with a client on the very first stages, such as when creating sketches or wireframes.It will reduce the number of changes that will be made later during development since. Implementing changes to simple forms is much easier than doing so to a detailed structure.

User Interface Design UI - visual design

The last phase of the design process is when the product (website) is given its final shape. Thanks to the visual language, UI designers add more value to interaction design, information architecture, and content strategy. This is the most attractive element of product design and surely less boring for clients than all the previous stages. However, we can't forget that the beautiful design needs to have a strong foundation to be usable. Otherwise, the client might get a piece of art to hang on a wall, not a product to use.

Service Design

Service design has a wider meaning than product design. It also contains the design of relationship with the product and focuses on the whole user experience, both online and offline. Here we design all user paths where interfaces are integral elements. Service design can be used to create a brand new service or to improve the current process.

UX audit / Usability engineering

Inspection of the product, service, webpage regarding usability. Auditor checks compliance with the UX standards, usability heuristics, and good practices. As a result, the list of improvement recommendations is created.

Usability test

Evaluation of the product or a prototype of the product with representative users. During the test, researchers investigate usability problems, gaps in the user flow, collect insight, and prepare recommendations for improvement. Usability tests are done in various ways but mostly they are based on observation of users interaction with the product. During such test, users have particular tasks to do. Researchers focus on the time spent on each task, a number of problems spotted, moments where users weren't able to finish tasks etc.

UX Strategy

Plan of UX actions and principles that will lead to achieving product goals. It is crucial to make constant adjustments that will make product both more suitable for clients and competitive. It means that UX approach needs to be present in the product and business strategy.

If you want to design a product that will be usable and will meet business goals, you need to be sure that the flow of the Product Design is respected by the design team. There should be analysis phase, architecture phase (Information Architecture, Interaction Design), and then Visual Design. Ideas should be validated by targeted users and changes applied according to the tests results. How it's done depends on many factors: the field of product, access to target users, stakeholders, amount and quality of data, time, and budget.

That’s it for this part of our UX cheat sheet. I hope that my definitions made it a bit easier to work on your projects with UX Designers. In the second instalment of this series, I’m going to talk about the methodologies that are used in the User Experience world - see you then!

In my previous article, I explained terms that refer to the product design process. Today I would like to focus on the other terminology that popped up recently and is more about how User Experience Designers work.

Apart from the steps of the design process and the order they are taken in, the way of implementing them can vary. The difference could be in the way new ideas are generated and how and when they are tested. All depends on the products, resources, time and budget, access to the end users, and development methodology (Waterfall or Agile). At the end of the article, I am going to write a short paragraph on UX profession itself and the terms that are related to it.

UX terminology

User-Centred Design (UCD)

It's the approach in the product design process, meaning that designers are focused on users' needs and the way they interact with the product. This requires User Experience research and test to collect insight and validate assumptions. In the results, we get a product that is tailored to the users.

Human-centered design is characterised by the active involvement of users and a clear understanding of user and task requirements; an appropriate allocation of function between users and technology; the iteration of design solutions; multi-disciplinary design.

- ISO 13407

It is important to understand that there is no one general characteristic of a user for all products. Each product has its own users that face problems concerning this particular field or the way they interact with the product.

For example, users of popular graphic design software might have different skills, habits, and needs than the ones of the popular instant messenger. That's why we can't create one profile for a "general user"; each product needs its own analysis to know more about people that will use it and in what context the interaction will occur.

Design Thinking

It's a methodology used in the initial phases of product design. It is a set of creative workshops techniques that help to analyze business objectives and users needs. Design Thinking is about finding solutions that both fit users and will meet business goals. When using those techniques, designers collect requirements and principles for the further work: Interaction Design, Informations Architecture, Content Strategy, etc.

Lean UX

It's a methodology of working where all findings and ideas are validated. All assumptions are prioritised and validated, which means that each feature is designed and tested in the very early stage. Lean UX is very useful in organisations that work in Agile methodologies and requires collaboration with the whole development team (Product Owner, Developers, Designers). Google Design Sprint is based on this methodology but it is more structured and has additional rules.

Design Sprint

It's a methodology of designing products or working on product improvement that is used by Google design teams. The main idea is to go through the whole product design process (share insights, ideate, prototype, and test) in one 5 day sprint. It means that designers don’t try to design the whole product at once but rather focus on a particular part of it. The main goal is to have fast feedback about the designed features and to make fast decisions about the direction in which development should go.

Design Systems

This is a way of designing the site or application based on previously designed atomic components. Atomic components are independent elements that can be repeated on many pages or on the same website, for example, an offer tile, a text field, or a call to action button. Those components can build such molecules as a listing of offers or newsletter form. In Design System methodology they are standardized and, what is more important, there is a guideline on how and when use them to build any view.

Additional terms that you can come across when learning about UX

• Systems design
  Systems Design is the process of planning the whole ecosystem that surrounds interface: backend, frontend, and data architecture. It's a complex architecture of the digital product.
• CXM - Customer Experience Management
  This term is connected with Service Design but refers strictly to the organisation (company and its processes) and their customer service. It is not only design of the product but also the implementation of user-centred approach among the whole organization. It requires changes in processes and procedures if they have a negative impact on the usability or communication with clients.

Who's behind this? About UX/UI Designers

All UX design work is performed mostly by two professions: UX and UI Designers. Below you will find the list of methodologies and steps in the design process (described in the articles) matched with the profession that is responsible for it.

In some organisations, these two roles are mixed, and UX Designer is also responsible for the graphic design. Among UX Designers there might be a differentiation between researchers and designers. The first ones collect data, while the latter work on solutions based on that data. The bigger the organisation, the bigger the specialisation in particular fields can be noticed among designers.

This might be the reason why there are so many different terms for UX Design profession that you can come across: Digital Product Designer, UX Architect, UX Specialist, Interaction Designer, Information Architect, etc. If you decide to do your project with Merixstudio, you will work with UX Designer and UI Designer so the responsibilities will be divided between the two specialists.

There's, however, one additional (and very magical) term that needs to be described in this UX Dictionary:

UX Unicorn

As you noticed, UX Design profession requires a lot of knowledge and experience in many fields, especially if it is combined with UI Design. Moreover, in some companies, there are even more specific requirements for User Experience job, such as experience in marketing, product management, and programming. That is why it is not easy to find a person who possesses all that skills and in all of them has a certain level of experience. Such UX Designers are called UX Unicorns. :) Just like the mythical creature, they are very rare and hard to catch.

Let's match terminology with the profession

User Experience Designer (UX Designer)

User Interface Designer (UI Designer)

UX Unicorn

• User Experience;
• Usability;
• UX research;
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI);
• Interaction Design (IxD);
• Information Architecture (IA);
• Web accessibility;
• UX content strategy;
• UX audit / Usability engineering;
• Usability test;
• Service Design;
• UX Strategy;
• Design Sprint;
• Design Thinking;
• Lean UX;
• User-Centred Design (UCD).

• User Interface Design UI - visual design and corporate identity;
• Web accessibility,
• Usability;
• User-Centred Design (UCD).

• User Interface Design UI - visual design and corporate identity;
• User Experience;
• Usability;
• UX research;
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI);
• Interaction Design (IxD);
• Information Architecture (IA);
• Web accessibility;
• UX content strategy;
• UX audit / Usability engineering;
• Usability test;
• Service Design;
• UX Strategy;
• Design Sprint;
• Design Thinking;
• Lean UX;
• User-Centred Design (UCD);
• Web development.

Summary

In both parts of my UX guide, I've collected all the main User Experience terms that are used when dealing with the Product Design. You may have an impression that this is a very complicated process that's filled with buzzwords. Moreover, it makes the whole process longer since before you get a sketch or wireframe of your site, there is a lot of work to be done.

However, without proper User Experience approach, you'll risk a lot. Research shows that:

Companies with highly effective UX have increased their revenue by 37%, and top 10 UX leaders in America outperform the S&P with close to triple the returns – a significant lead. This clearly shows the ROI of UX design.

- UX Passion

When working on your project with Merixstudio, you will get not only a software developed with great detail but also tailored to your needs thanks to UX. Feel free to contact us to get more information!