Top 10 UI/UX Terms Every Designer Should Know

This blog is inspired by foundational UI/UX resources such as the Nielsen Norman Group, Don Norman’s UX principles, and modern product design practices used across top tech companies. The content is rewritten in simple, practical language so beginners and intermediate designers can easily understand and apply the concepts.

Key references:

• Nielsen Norman Group
• Don Norman’s UX design principles
• Modern product team workflows

A User Persona is a fictional character created from real user data to represent your target audience. It helps designers understand user motivations, behaviors, frustrations, and goals. Personas ensure your design stays user-focused and avoids assumptions.

Key Points:

• Built using interviews & surveys
• Represents real user behavior
• Helps maintain user-centered design
• Prevents designing for 'everyone'

A User Journey Map visualizes how a user interacts with your product to achieve a goal. It highlights actions, emotions, touchpoints, and pain points. Journey maps reveal opportunities to improve usability, reduce friction, and enhance the end-to-end experience.

Key Points:

• Shows user actions + emotions
• Reveals friction points
• Helps optimize onboarding and flows
• Identifies improvement opportunities

Information Architecture (IA) defines how content is structured and organized within a product. Good IA ensures users can easily find what they need without confusion. Bad IA causes frustration, high bounce rates, and poor navigation.

Key Points:

• Ensures intuitive navigation
• Reduces cognitive load
• Organizes content logically
• Essential for scalable products

Wireframes are low-fidelity layouts that show structure, placement, and hierarchy without focusing on visuals. They help teams finalize flow early before investing time in detailed UI design.

Key Points:

• Focus on structure, not visuals
• Fast to create and iterate
• Helps align teams early
• Can be paper sketches or Figma frames

A Prototype is an interactive simulation of your design. It helps users, stakeholders, and developers understand how the product will work before it is built. Prototypes can be low-fidelity or high-fidelity depending on the design stage.

Key Points:

• Enables early usability testing
• Shows interaction flow
• Helps clarify behavior
• Reduces development mistakes

Usability Testing evaluates how easily users can complete tasks in your product. It uncovers confusion, friction, and unmet needs that designers often miss. Testing ensures your product works for real users—not just in theory.

Key Points:

• Reveals confusing elements
• Validates assumptions
• Provides actionable insights
• Must be done repeatedly

Accessibility (A11y) ensures your product can be used by people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairments. Accessible design benefits everyone by improving clarity and usability.

Key Points:

• Better for inclusivity
• Often legally required
• Helps reach more users
• Includes alt text, contrast, keyboard nav

Affordance refers to visual cues that show how an element should be used. Buttons look clickable, sliders look draggable, and links look tappable. Good affordance reduces friction and helps users interact without confusion.

Key Points:

• Makes UI intuitive
• Lowers learning time
• Uses visual cues
• Example: Raised buttons suggest pressing

Visual Hierarchy guides users to focus on the most important information first. Designers use size, color, spacing, and alignment to direct attention.

Key Points:

• Improves readability
• Reduces cognitive load
• Essential for clean UI design
• Uses contrast + spacing to guide attention

Microinteractions are tiny animations or responses that give users feedback—like button hover states, loading indicators, or “Liked” animations. They make a product feel smooth, modern, and polished.

Key Points:

• Provides instant feedback
• Makes product delightful
• Communicates system status
• Enhances user satisfaction

These 10 UI/UX terms form the foundation of great product design. Understanding them helps you communicate better, design smarter, and create experiences that feel intuitive and enjoyable. Master these basics and you’ll grow faster as a UI/UX designer.