Product Design Jargon Buster Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the Ultimate Product Design Jargon Buster! This is a dictionary of design, development, and product management lingo your team and clients should be familiar with.

Part of getting everyone on the same page is making sure they’re all using the same words, so we’re covering everything from the most common to the most obscure. (We bet you’ve heard of an “interface,” but what about a “user feedback loop”?)

We defined 20 product design terms in Part 1, and here are 15 more you can add to your vocabulary.

Product Design and Development Terms You Should Know

A/B testing

There will always be multiple options in design, but it’s all about what performs the best. A/B testing compares two versions of a web page or app to see which is more effective. It’s also known as split testing.

Accessibility

Web and product design accessibility refers to making a website or app functional for as many people as possible. Learn more by reading our three-part Web Accessibility series.

Call to Action (CTA)

This is an interactive element on a website or app that motivates users to take an action that leads to a conversion. A CTA is usually presented as a button or hyperlink with action words like “Subscribe,” “Learn more,” or “Sign up.”

Heat Map

A heat map visualizes how people interact with a website or app—tracking where users click, scroll, and move their cursor. It’s a graph designers and developers can use to identify trouble spots and assess a product’s efficacy.

Interface

This is what a person uses to communicate with a product and input information. A smartphone touchscreen is the interface between a user and an app or website.

Landing Page

This is a web page a user is taken to or “lands on” after clicking a link in an email, ad, or other place on the internet.

Navigation

An app or website’s navigation is a set of actions that help users move between pages and information. It presents the product’s information architecture and shows the user exactly where they are.

Personas

These are fictional characters that represent the different users who may use a product or service. They are based on trends and audience research and are created to better understand user needs, pain points, behaviors, and experiences.

Scrum

A framework that helps designers, developers, and product managers create products and manage their work. 

Style Guide

This documents a site, app, or brand’s visual identity — their color palette, iconography, typography, UI/UX elements, and more. It can also be referred to as a design system or brand guide.

Use Case

A description of how people will interact with a website or app and what actions they’ll take to achieve a goal.

Usability Testing

The process of evaluating a product’s use and effectiveness by testing it on real users.

User Feedback Loop

A feedback loop is the process of continuously collecting user evaluations and using their responses to improve the product.

User Research

This step is necessary to gather insights on a product and how potential users may use that product. User research encompasses the different ways companies can study their audiences, but the most common are surveys and interviews.

Visual Hierarchy

People naturally process information in the order their eyes see it. A visual hierarchy organizes a website or app’s visual elements so they can be understood easily and in a way that guides a user to take specific actions.

There’s always more to learn in product design

Our Ultimate Product Design Jargon Buster is a living document we’ll continue to update with the terms teams should know. Make sure to check back for new additions and if you haven’t already, read Part 1 here.