UX Terminology every designer should know.

User Experience

What type of emotions does a user have when using your product or app. How did they feel? Were they frustrated, happy, engaged?

Information Architecture:

A document or chart that provides a map to how a product works. It is like a blueprint of that defines all the content hierarchy and interactions for the digital products. Best to use when talking to clients, stakeholders to find pros and cons, behaviors, bottlenecks, ect.

Usability Test:

Test or evaluation that is done by a test user or representative on the product. You may give them a list of tasks to perform or ask for the overall look and feel of the product. This will allow you to see where you can improve or things you missed in design. Typically done before launch.

User Interface

Designing all inclusive. In other words we are designing for users that may have special needs, for example hearing or visually impaired.

Personas:

A Personal is a fictional character created to represent a user type that may use a site brand or product.

A/B testing or split testing

is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to see which performs better. Typically not drastic changes, usually small changes like button placement or copy changes.

User Interface (UI):

These are visual elements that user must interact with.

Gamification:

A technique used to apply gameplay elements in non-gaming environments to increase user engagement.

UI Patterns:

Reusable solutions to reoccurring problems. For instance a nav bar will allow you to go to every section of the website. As a designer you can simply redesign a well established solution to a problem.

User Centered Design:

A collection of processes or steps which focus on putting the user at the center of the design and development of the product. Every decision made has the user goals in mind. 1. Identify the needs 2. Specify the requirements 3. Design a solution 4. Evaluate the solution with the needs you identified.