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Userlytics Glossary

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A

A/B Testing 

Learn how A/B testing hel optimize your website or app. Discover how to compare designs, content, and features for data-driven improvements.
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Accessibility 

Understand what digital accessibility means and why it's crucial for inclusive UX design. How to create websites & apps usable by everyone.
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Active Listening

Discover what active listening is and its importance in user research. Learn how this crucial skill enhances qualitative data collection.
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Active Voice

Learn what active voice is and why it's essential for clear, direct, and engaging content in UX writing and communication.
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Actor

Understand the concept of an 'actor' in UX and system design. Learn how they represent users interacting with your product or service.
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Advanced UX Research

Explore advanced UX research methodologies. Elevate your understanding of complex user behaviors and insights for better product design.
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Affinity Mapping

Learn about affinity mapping, a key technique in UX research to organize and synthesize qualitative data, uncovering themes and insights.
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Agile

Understand Agile methodology and its role in iterative product development. Learn how it integrates UX for flexible, user-centered solutions.
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AI Model Training

Discover AI model training in developing intelligent systems. Learn how data shapes AI for enhanced user experiences and insights.
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Artificial Intelligence

Explore Artificial Intelligence and its impact on technology and UX. Understand how AI revolutionizes data analysis and product design.
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B

BYOU (Bring Your Own User)

Discover 'Bring Your Own User' (BYOU) in UX testing. Learn how to test with your own specific audience for targeted, relevant insights.
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C

Call-to-Action (CTAs)

Learn what Call to Action (CTA)s are and their critical role in guiding users. Discover how effective CTAs drive conversions and engagement.
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Card Sorting

Card sorting is a key UX research method. Learn how it creates intuitive information architecture based on user mental models.
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Case Study

Learn the value of case study in showcasing real-world applications of UX research. Discover how they demonstrate project impact and insights.
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Center of Excellence (CoE)

What is Center of Excellence (CoE)? Learn how a CoE centralizes expertise to drive best practices and innovation in UX and beyond.
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Centralized UX Team

What is centralized UX team? Learn how this organizational structure fosters consistent design, shared knowledge, and stronger UX strategy.
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ChatGPT from a UX Perspective

Understand ChatGPT's impact from a UX perspective and the role in conversational interfaces, user interaction, and the future of AI design.
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Click Testing

Click testing is a fast method to assess first impressions and navigation paths. Optimize your design by understanding where users click.
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Cognitive Walkthrough

Cognitive walkthrough is a usability inspection method. Learn to identify potential user problems by simulating a new user's thought process.
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Concept Testing

Concept testing, a vital UX research method. Gather early feedback on ideas and designs to validate potential and refine product direction.
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Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias and its impact on research and decision-making. Learn to identify and mitigate this cognitive bias for objective insights.
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Context of Use Analysis

Understand context of use analysis in UX. Learn to examine the environment, users, and tasks to design products that fit real-world scenarios.
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Contributor Network

What is a contributor network. Learn how these curated communities provide access to diverse user testers for your research studies.
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Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Discover how to improve your website or app to increase desired user actions and business goals.
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Custom Network

Discover what a custom network is in user research. Learn how to leverage your own audience or specific demographics for targeted insights.
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Customer Activation

Importance of customer activation in the user journey. Learn to successfully onboard users and encourage initial engagement with your product.
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Customer Empathy

Customer empathy and its importance in UX design. Learn how to truly connect with users' needs and perspectives to build better products.
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Customer Experience (CX)

Importance of Customer Experience (CX) to craft seamless, positive interactions across every touchpoint of the customer journey.
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Customer Experience Narratives (CxNs)

Learn Customer Experience Narratives (CXNs) that capture the full user journey, revealing key moments and pain points for design insights.
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Customer Insights

Discover customer insights and their power in UX. Learn how deep understanding of user behavior and needs drives informed product decisions.
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Customer Journey

Customer journey and its significance in UX. Map user interactions to uncover pain points and opportunities for an optimized experience.
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Customer Journey Map

What is customer journey maps. Visualize UX, pinpoint pain points, and discover opportunities to enhance every interaction with your product.
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Customer Onboarding

What is customer onboarding? It's the process of guiding new users to successfully adopt your product, ensuring a smooth and engaging start.
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Cybersecurity

What is cybersecurity? The practice of protecting systems and data from digital attacks, ensuring safety and trust for users and businesses.
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D

Data Collection

Data collection is the process of gathering information from various sources to gain insights and inform decisions in UX research.
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Decentralized UX Team Model

Decentralized UX team model is an organizational structure where UX professionals are embedded within different product or functional teams.
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Deceptive Patterns

Deceptive patterns are user interface designs that trick users into doing things they might not intend, impacting trust and ethics in UX.
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Diary Study

Diary study is a UX research method where participants log their activities and thoughts over time, providing insights into user behavior.
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Digital Personalization

Digital personalization helps tailor online experiences to individual users based on their data and behavior, enhancing engagement.
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E

Eighty/Twenty (80/20) Rule

80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) is the concept that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes, applied to optimize efforts in UX and business
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Empathy Gap

Empathy gap is the challenge in truly understanding others' perspectives, a critical concept in UX for designing with genuine user insight.
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Employee Experience (EX)

Employee Experience (EX) is the sum of interactions an employee has with their company, influencing satisfaction, productivity, and well-being
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Ethnography

Ethnography is a research method observing users in their natural environment to understand behaviors, needs, and cultural contexts.
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Evaluative Research

Evaluative research is a type of UX research focused on testing existing designs to identify usability issues and measure performance.
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Expert Review Method

Expert review method is a usability inspection technique to evaluate a product against established principles to identify UX issues.
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Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is a UX research method to monitors users' gaze to understand visual attention, interaction patterns, and where they focus.
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F

False Consensus Effect

False Consensus Effect is a cognitive bias where people overestimate how much others agree with their beliefs, impacting unbiased research.
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Fishbone Diagram

Fishbone diagram is a visualization tool used to identify causes for a specific problem, aiding in root cause analysis for UX issues.
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Five Second Test

5 second test is a method where participants view a design for five seconds, then recall what they remember to assess first impressions.
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Focus Groups

Focus groups are a research method where a small group of participants discusses specific topics to gather diverse perspectives and insights.
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Formative Research

Formative research is a type of UX research conducted during product development to gather insights that inform and improve design decisions.
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G

Generative AI

Generative AI in UX Generative AI is a game-changing technology that creates new content like text, images, audio, and code. It is quickly becoming part of digital products. In User Experience (UX), this technology shapes product design and user interaction. It helps create fresh, dynamic outputs. It’s important to know what Generative AI can do.… 
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Guerrilla Testing

Guerrilla Testing in UX Usability testing is important, but traditional methods can be slow or expensive. Guerrilla Testing provides a quick, easy alternative. It gets fast feedback from real people in public places. This method helps teams iterate designs quickly without formal recruitment. This article defines Guerrilla Testing, explains how it works, discusses its value… 
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H

Heuristic Review

Heuristic Review: Uncovering Usability Issues with Expert Evaluation In the fast-paced world of digital product development, ensuring a smooth and intuitive user experience (UX) is paramount. Users have little patience for confusing interfaces or frustrating interactions. But how can you identify potential usability roadblocks efficiently, even before involving end-users? Enter the Heuristic Review, also known… 
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Heuristic Review

In the fast world of digital product development, a smooth and easy user experience (UX) is key. Users have little patience for confusing interfaces or frustrating interactions. But how can you identify potential usability roadblocks efficiently, even before involving end-users? Enter the Heuristic Review, also known as a Heuristic Evaluation. This expert inspection method is… 
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Highlight Reels

You’ve spent hours on user interviews or usability tests. You’ve gathered valuable qualitative data. Now, how do you share those key user moments, like confusion, frustration, and delight, with your team and stakeholders? While detailed reports are useful, a UX Highlight Reel is a powerful way to convey findings. This collection of short video clips… 
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Human Insight

In today’s competitive market, creating a successful product goes beyond features and functionality. It’s about understanding people. Human Insight is the deep understanding of why people act as they do. This includes their motivations, unmet needs, frustrations, context, and mental models. It is more than just surface observations or data points. It’s about revealing the… 
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Hybrid Navigation Model (Hybrid Structure)

How do users navigate a website or app filled with varied content and features? Traditional navigation methods, like hierarchies or sequences, suit simple cases. However, complex digital products need a more flexible approach. This is where the Hybrid Navigation Model comes in, also called a Hybrid Information Architecture. This method combines elements from two or… 
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I

In-Depth Interviews (IDIs)

In the quest to create truly user-centered products, understanding who your users are and what they do is only part of the story. Real breakthroughs often occur when we grasp why we act, think, and feel the way we do. This is where the In-Depth Interview (IDI) shines. The IDI is a key qualitative research… 
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Incentives

Conducting effective UX research relies on input from the right people, your users or potential users. But how can you persuade busy individuals to share their time and feedback? The key often lies in providing a suitable Incentive. In UX research, an incentive is a reward given to participants. This can be money or another… 
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Information Architecture (IA)

Have you ever felt lost on a website, struggling to find what you need? Or maybe you’ve used an app that was easy to navigate? The key difference is often Information Architecture (IA). IA involves organizing, structuring, and labeling content in digital products like websites, apps, and software. Its main goal is straightforward: to help… 
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Intent Paths

You’ve carefully designed user flows and navigation, predicting how users should move through your website or app. But how do they actually navigate to reach a specific goal? This real-world journey, based on a user’s goal, is shown by the concept of an Intent Path. It shows the steps a user takes in your digital… 
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Interaction Design (IxD)

What makes a digital product feel easy and enjoyable to use? It’s more than just looks; it’s about how users interact with the system. This is where Interaction Design (IxD) comes in. IxD focuses on designing how interactive systems work. It explains how users take actions, how the system gives feedback, and how the whole… 
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Iterative Design

Iterative design is a practical and highly effective approach to creating user experiences. It acknowledges that the path to a great product involves learning and adaptation.
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L

Lean UX 

Lean UX is a user-centered approach to product development focused on building, measuring, and learning to create a minimum viable product.
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Likert Scales

A Likert scale is a psychometric scale used in surveys and questionnaires to measure attitudes and opinions on a range of statements.
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Live Conversations

Live conversations are a UX research method that involves live one-on-one discussions to gather detailed, qualitative feedback and insights.
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Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study is a UX research method that follows the same group of participants over an extended period to observe and track changes.
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Low-Fidelity Prototypes

A low-fidelity prototype is a simplified, non-functional representation of a product, used early in the design process to quickly visualize and test concepts.
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M

Matrix UX Team Structure

A matrix UX team structure is an organizational model where UX professionals report to both a functional manager and a project manager.
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Mental Model

A mental model is a user's internal representation of how a system works, guiding their expectations and interactions with a product or service.
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Mid-Market

Mid-market is a business segment between small and large enterprises, often targeted for product offerings with specific scalability and support needs.
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Minesweeping in UX Research

Minesweeping in UX research is a subtle, non-verbal method where a researcher watches a user's cursor movements to understand their thought process and expectations on a page.
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Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the version of a new product that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.
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Mobile Testing

Mobile testing is a user research process for evaluating how users interact with and experience a website or app on various mobile devices and operating systems.
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Moderated User Testing

Moderated user testing is a research method where a facilitator guides a participant through tasks, allowing for real-time observation and probing questions to gather rich insights.
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Multichannel Testing

Multichannel testing is a research strategy that evaluates user experience across multiple platforms and devices, ensuring a consistent and cohesive brand interaction.
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Multivariate Testing (MVT)

Multivariate Testing is an experimentation method that tests multiple variables on a webpage simultaneously to determine effective combination for conversions.
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N

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a company's product or service to others.
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Neural Networks

A neural network is a computational model inspired by the human brain, used in AI to recognize patterns and make predictions from complex data.
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O

Omnichannel Testing

Omnichannel testing is a user research strategy that evaluates the consistency and quality of a user's experience across all brand touchpoints, from online to in-person.
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P

Participant Recruitment

Participant recruitment is the process of finding and selecting the right people to take part in user research studies to ensure valid and actionable insights.
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Path

A path is the sequence of steps a user takes to complete a specific task or achieve a goal on a website or application, revealing key user journeys.
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Persona

A persona is a fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, product, or service, guiding design decisions with a human-centered focus.
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Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is any data that can be used to identify a specific person, making its protection a critical concern for user privacy and data security.
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Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics is the use of data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data.
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Product Management

Product management is the business process of overseeing the entire lifecycle of a product from ideation to launch and beyond, ensuring it meets user needs and business goals.
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Prototyping

Prototyping is the process of creating preliminary versions of a product to visualize and test ideas, gather feedback, and validate design decisions before development.
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Q

Qualitative Data

Qualitative data is non-numerical information from user research like interviews and observations, providing rich insights into user motivations, behaviors, and opinions.
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Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a type of user research that explores the "why" behind user behavior, gathering non-numerical data through methods like interviews and observations.
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Quantitative Data

Quantitative data is numerical information from user research, such as survey results and analytics, used to measure user behavior and test hypotheses.
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Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a type of user research that measures user behavior and collects numerical data, providing statistical evidence to validate or disprove hypotheses.
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Quick and Dirty Testing

Quick and dirty testing is a fast, informal usability testing method focused on getting immediate feedback and actionable insights without extensive planning.
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R

Remote Focus Groups

Remote focus groups are a qualitative research method where participants discuss a topic via video conference, allowing for geographically diverse insights.
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Remote Usability Testing

Remote usability testing is a research method that evaluates a product's usability with participants from different locations, providing flexible and scalable insights.
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Remote User Testing

Remote user testing is a research method that evaluates a product's usability with participants from different locations, providing flexible and scalable insights.
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Research Method

A research method is a systematic approach to collecting and analyzing data, providing a structured way to understand user behavior, needs, and motivations.
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Research Objectives

Research objectives are the specific, measurable goals of a research study, defining what a team aims to learn or validate about user behavior and needs.
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S

Scannability

Scannability is a measure of how easily users can skim and find key information on a webpage, a critical factor in designing for online reading behaviors.
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Scenarios

A scenario is a narrative description of a user's task or goal, used in UX research to create realistic contexts for testing and to empathize with user motivations.
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Screeners

Screeners are short questionnaires used in user research to filter and select participants who fit the specific criteria for a study, ensuring relevant insights.
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Script

A script is a detailed guide used in moderated user research, outlining tasks, questions, and scenarios to ensure consistency and coverage across all participant sessions.
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Sentiment Path

A sentiment path is a user's emotional journey through a product, tracking feelings like frustration, delight, and confusion to improve the overall user experience.
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Skip Navigation

Skip navigation is a web accessibility feature that allows users to bypass repetitive navigation links, providing direct access to a page's main content.
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Study

In User Experience (UX) research, a study is a planned, systematic investigation. It aims to answer specific questions or meet clear goals about users.
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Summative Research

Summative research is a type of UX research conducted at the end of a design cycle to evaluate the overall effectiveness, satisfaction, and usability of a product.
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Survey

A survey is a research method that uses a list of questions to gather quantitative data from a large number of participants, revealing patterns and trends in user opinions.
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T

The Three-Click Rule

The three-click rule is an unofficial web design guideline stating that users should be able to find any information on a website in three clicks or less.
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Thick Data and Big Data

Big data gives you scale. Thick data gives you depth. Used together, they create a complete picture of the user experience and support better decisions.
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Think-Aloud Protocol (TOL)

A think-aloud protocol is a qualitative research method where users verbalize their thoughts while completing tasks, providing insights into their mental models and decision-making processes.
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Tooltip

A tooltip is a GUI element that displays a brief, informative message when a user hovers over or focuses on an item, providing helpful context.
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Tree Testing

Tree testing is a usability technique for evaluating a website's information architecture, where participants navigate a simplified text-based hierarchy to find information.
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U

UI (User Interface)

The User Interface (UI) is the visual and interactive part of a product that a user sees and interacts with, encompassing everything from screens to buttons.
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Unmoderated User Testing

Unmoderated user testing is a research method where participants complete tasks on their own, capturing behavior and feedback without a facilitator for scalable, remote insights.
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Usability

Usability is a key quality attribute of a product, measuring how easy it is for users to achieve their goals effectively, efficiently, and with satisfaction.
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Usability Evaluation

Usability evaluation is the process of assessing effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction to improve a product’s user experience.
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Usability Lab

A usability lab is a controlled environment for conducting user research, where researchers can observe and record participants' interactions with a product.
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Usability Task

A usability task is a specific action a user is asked to complete during a usability test, designed to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a product's design.
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Usability Testing

Usability testing is a research method that evaluates a product by testing it with representative users, identifying issues and opportunities to improve user experience.
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Use Case

A use case is a list of steps, typically defining interactions between a user and a system, to achieve a specific goal, guiding the development process.
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User Experience (UX)

User Experience (UX) is the overall feeling a user has when interacting with a product or service, encompassing aspects of usability, accessibility, and delight.
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User Experience (UX) Research

UX research studies users’ needs, behaviors, and experiences to inform design decisions and create user-centered products.
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User Interview

A user interview is a qualitative research method where a researcher has a one-on-one conversation with a user to gain deep insights into their behaviors, needs, and motivations.
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User Research Education Program

A user research education program teaches UX research methods, skills, and ethics to create user-centered products.
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User-Centered Design (UCD)

User-Centered Design (UCD) is a design philosophy and iterative process that focuses on understanding user needs and goals at every stage of product development.
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UX Benchmarking

UX benchmarking is a research method that measures and compares a product's usability metrics against competitors or previous versions to track performance over time.
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UX Design

UX design is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product.
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UX Metrics

UX metrics are measurable indicators that track and evaluate user experience, guiding design decisions with clear, objective data.
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UX Writing

UX writing is the practice of crafting clear and concise copy within a digital product, guiding users through the interface to help them achieve their goals.
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V

Voice of Customer (VoC)

Voice of Customer (VoC) is a user research method that captures customer feedback and expectations across all touchpoints to improve products and services.
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W

Wireflow

A wireflow is a combination of wireframes and a user flow diagram, visually mapping the steps a user takes through an interface while showing the screen design at each step.
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Wireframe

A wireframe is a static, low-fidelity representation of a product's interface, outlining its structure and layout to guide design and functionality before visual design is applied.
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Workflow

Whenever a user interacts with a product to reach a goal. Booking a flight, submitting a report, or collaborating on a document
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