Google UX Design key terms

A process that places the needs, goals, and limitations of the people who will use a product at the center of every design decision, validated through research rather than assumed by the designer.

A five-stage, iterative problem-solving framework-empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test-used to move from understanding users to validating solutions, with looping back between stages as learning occurs.

UX covers the whole experience and the reasoning behind it, while UI concerns the visual and interactive surface-layout, color, type, and controls-through which that experience is delivered.

The degree to which a product lets a specific set of users achieve their goals effectively, efficiently, and with satisfaction in a given context of use.

Designing for groups that have historically been overlooked, deliberately providing support proportional to a group's needs so that outcomes, not just access, become fairer.

Creating one solution that works for the widest possible range of people, regardless of ability, age, or circumstance, rather than adding accommodations after the fact.

The practice of making products perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for people with disabilities, commonly guided by WCAG contrast, keyboard, and screen-reader requirements.

The first design-thinking stage, in which the team observes and interviews real users to understand their context, emotions, and unmet needs before proposing any solution.

A moderated conversation in which open-ended questions elicit a participant's behaviors, motivations, and frustrations, ideally without leading the participant toward a preferred answer.

A four-quadrant synthesis tool-says, thinks, does, feels-that organizes interview observations into a shared picture of a user group and exposes gaps the team still needs to research.

A fictional but research-grounded profile of a representative user, capturing goals, frustrations, and context, used to keep decisions focused on real people rather than the team's own preferences.

A concise, human-centered description of whose need is unmet and why it matters, written without naming a solution so that the team can explore multiple directions.

A visual timeline of the steps a user takes to reach a goal, annotated with actions, thoughts, and emotional highs and lows, revealing where friction occurs across the whole experience.

The divergent stage in which the team generates many varied candidate solutions-through brainstorming, Crazy Eights, or How Might We prompts-before converging on ideas worth prototyping.

A reframing technique that turns a problem statement into an open question starting with those three words, inviting many possible solutions without implying a single correct answer.

A timed sketching exercise in which each participant draws eight distinct ideas in eight minutes, forcing quantity over polish so that unexpected directions surface quickly.

A specific friction, frustration, or unmet need a user encounters while pursuing a goal, which a design should reduce or remove.

A diagram of the sequence of screens and decisions a user passes through to complete a task, used to plan navigation and spot dead ends before visual design begins.

The organization, labeling, and structural hierarchy of content and features so that users can find what they need and predict where things live.

A simplified, low-detail layout showing placement of elements, hierarchy, and structure without final colors, imagery, or typography, meant to be fast and cheap to change.

A clickable or paper-based version of a design with minimal detail, used to test structure and flow with users early, when changes are inexpensive.

A static, high-fidelity visual representation of a screen that shows final typography, color, imagery, and spacing but does not yet include working interactions.

An interactive model closely matching the final product in visuals and behavior, used to test realistic flows and to hand off precise specifications to developers.

A moderated or unmoderated session in which representative users attempt realistic tasks while observers record successes, errors, and comments, revealing where the design fails.

A research technique in which participants speak their thoughts continuously while working, exposing expectations and confusion that silent observation would miss.

The researcher who runs a usability session: welcoming the participant, reading tasks neutrally, probing with open questions, and avoiding cues that reveal the expected answer.

A question phrased so that it suggests or encourages a particular answer, biasing research data; neutral wording such as 'How was that?' avoids it.

A document stating the study's goals, research questions, methods, participant criteria, timeline, and how findings will be shared, agreed before data collection starts.

A short survey used to filter applicants so that study participants match the target user profile while excluding people who would bias results, such as competitors or experts.

A synthesis method in which observations are written on separate notes and clustered by theme, turning scattered qualitative data into grouped, named findings.

A meaningful, actionable conclusion drawn from research data-often explaining why users behave as they do-that can directly inform a design decision.

A shared library of reusable components, styles, and usage rules that keeps screens consistent and speeds up collaboration between designers and developers.

A reusable, self-contained interface element-such as a button or card-with defined variants and states, assembled into screens rather than redrawn each time.

A Figma feature that makes frames resize and reposition their children automatically as content or screen size changes, supporting consistent spacing and responsive behavior.

An approach that lets one layout adapt fluidly across screen sizes using flexible grids, relative units, and breakpoints, so content remains readable and usable everywhere.

A specified viewport width at which a layout changes-for example, switching from a stacked mobile column to a multi-column desktop grid-to preserve usability.

Designing the smallest screen and tightest constraints first, then progressively adding features and layout complexity for larger viewports, which forces clear content priorities.

The measurable difference in luminance between text and its background; sufficient contrast is required for readability and is a core accessibility check for every design.

A structured narrative of a project covering the problem, research, decisions, prototypes, testing, and outcomes, showing an employer how a candidate thinks, not just what they made.