Meta Title: UX Jargon Every Designer and Techie Should Know
Meta Description: Confused by UX jargon like wireframes, heuristics, and MVP? Here’s a fun, plain-English guide to the most common UX terms designers and tech teams throw around.
Let’s Set the Scene
Imagine this: You join your first product design meeting. Everyone is nodding and casually tossing around words like:
- “We’ll just do a quick heuristic eval.”
- “Is this journey optimized for the MVP?”
- “Let’s move that to the backlog after the wireframes.”
And you’re sitting there thinking: “Did I walk into a design meeting or a secret society with its own language?”
Welcome to the world of UX jargon. 🪄
Today, let’s decode some of the most common (and sometimes confusing) UX terms so you can join the conversation without Googling under the table.
1. Wireframes
Think of wireframes as the blueprints of a website or app. They’re simple sketches or digital outlines showing where things like buttons, menus, and text will go.
Translation: No colors, no branding, just the skeleton.
Example: It’s like drawing a floor plan before decorating your living room.
2. Usability Testing
A fancy way of saying: “Let’s watch real humans struggle with our design so we can fix it.”
Designers ask users to complete tasks while they observe where people click, sigh, or yell “WHERE IS THE BUTTON!?”
Translation: It’s user-proofing your product before launch.
3. Heuristics
A heuristic evaluation is when experts review your design against a list of usability principles (a.k.a. Jakob Nielsen’s famous 10 heuristics).
Translation: Think of it as a UX report card.
Example: If your app hides the “Cancel” button in tiny gray text, that’s a heuristic violation.
4. MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
The MVP is the leanest, fastest version of a product that still delivers value. It’s not perfect—just good enough to test an idea.
Translation: It’s like serving fries before building the full Five Guys.
5. User Journey
A user journey is the map of how people interact with your product—from the moment they discover it to the moment they (hopefully) become loyal fans.
Translation: It’s like Google Maps for customer emotions.
6. Affordance
Affordance means how obvious it is that something can be used.
Translation: A door handle says “pull me.” A flat plate says “push me.”
Example: If your “Submit” button looks like plain text, that’s bad affordance.
7. Persona
Personas are fictional characters representing different types of users.
Translation: Your target audience, but with names, hobbies, and quirks.
Example: “Sophie, the busy mom, needs a fast checkout process.”
8. A/B Testing
A/B testing is when you test two versions of something (like a button color) to see which one performs better.
Translation: “Do users click the red button or the blue one?”
(Spoiler: It’s almost always the blue one. )
9. Eye Tracking
This UX research method literally follows where users look on a screen.
Translation: Creepy but useful. You’ll see if people actually notice your shiny new “Sign Up” button.
10. Cognitive Load
This is how much brainpower it takes to use your product.
Translation: If your app feels like studying for a calculus exam, the cognitive load is way too high.
Bonus: Backlog
Okay, not strictly UX, but every designer hears it in tech meetings. The backlog is the giant to-do list of features, bugs, and “someday” ideas.
Translation: The junk drawer of product development.
Why Knowing UX Jargon Matters
- It builds credibility with design and tech teams
- It helps you communicate faster (without explaining every term)
- It makes collaboration smoother when everyone speaks the same “UX-ese”
FAQ: UX Jargon
Q: Do I need to memorize every UX term?
Nope! Start with the basics—wireframes, usability testing, personas—and build up from there.
Q: Isn’t jargon just gatekeeping?
Sometimes. But when used well, jargon helps teams speak the same language efficiently.
Q: What’s the quickest way to learn UX jargon?
Work on real projects. The terms will stick once you use them in context.
Final Thoughts
UX jargon doesn’t have to feel like rocket science. Behind every intimidating word is usually a simple concept that boils down to making life easier for the user.
So the next time someone says, “Let’s test this MVP wireframe with personas and reduce the cognitive load,” you can just nod confidently and reply:
“Great idea. Let’s add it to the backlog.”
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