Glossary

UX

Acronym—Our favorite acronym for user experience.

IA

Acronym—Information architecture.

IxD

Acronym—Interaction design.

information architecture

Information architecture defines the structure of digital information spaces—including Web sites, intranets, online publications, and other digital products—taxonomies of the hierarchical and associative relationships that exist between content objects; controlled vocabularies that effectively communicate the nature of and relationships between content objects; labeling for navigation systems that makes information browseable; metadata, retrieval algorithms, and query syntaxes that produce useful search results; and the content and format of both individual search results and sets of results. Good information architectures make information easier to navigate, search, and manage, balance breadth and depth appropriately, and enable users to readily find the information they need. Typical information architecture deliverables include wireframes, site maps, and flow diagrams.—Pabini Gabriel-Petit

interaction design

Interaction design defines workflows that support users’ goals and tasks, the affordances through which digital products and services communicate their functionality and interactivity to users, the ways in which users can interact with those affordances, products’ behaviors in response to user interactions, and the methods by which products indicate state changes. Good interaction design facilitates people’s tasks and ensures that digital products are both learnable and usable by reducing complexity as much as possible, preventing user error, adhering to standards when appropriate, and through consistency across an entire product or product line. Typical interaction design deliverables include specifications, wireframes, usage scenarios, and prototypes.—Pabini Gabriel-Petit

user experience design

User experience design takes a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to the design of user interfaces for digital products. It integrates interaction design, industrial design, information architecture, visual interface design, instructional design, and user-centered design, ensuring coherence and consistency across all of these design dimensions. User experience design defines a products form, behavior, and content.—Pabini Gabriel-Petit

user experience

Encompasses all aspects of a digital product that users experience directly—and perceive, learn, and use—including its form, behavior, and content. Learnability, usability, usefulness, and aesthetic appeal are key factors in users’ experience of a product.—Pabini Gabriel-Petit