UX design, or user experience design, is the practice of designing how people experience a product so they can understand it, complete their goals, recover from problems, and get value with as little unnecessary friction as possible.
Imagine two expense apps with nearly identical features.
In one, adding an expense takes seven unclear steps, errors erase entered information, and users cannot tell whether the submission succeeded.
In the other, the next action is obvious, validation appears at the right time, the user keeps their entered data after an error, and success is clearly confirmed.
The difference is not simply visual styling. It is the quality of the user experience.
UX design is the work of intentionally shaping that experience.
Understanding goals, behavior, constraints, mental models, and pain points.
Organizing content and navigation so people can find what they need.
Mapping the steps, decisions, and alternate paths users take toward a goal.
Defining how the product responds when users click, type, drag, wait, fail, retry, or change state.
Making ideas tangible enough to discuss and test before implementation.
Observing whether people can understand and use the experience as intended.
Improving the experience as evidence changes.
UI design focuses more specifically on the visual and interactive interface layer: layout, color, typography, components, hierarchy, and states.
UX design is broader. It asks whether the overall journey makes sense and helps the user accomplish the right task.
A UI can look polished while the UX remains poor. A beautifully styled checkout still fails if users cannot recover from a declined payment.
Product design often includes UX design but may span wider product responsibilities such as feature strategy, design systems, visual direction, and ongoing ownership of the product surface.
In practice, many companies use the titles interchangeably.
A useful process is iterative rather than perfectly linear:
The team can move backward and forward as new information appears.
Good UX is contextual, but useful signals include:
A shorter flow is not automatically better. Sometimes extra friction protects safety, trust, or comprehension.
Visual design cannot rescue a misunderstood problem.
Errors, empty states, permissions, interruptions, and recovery are part of the experience.
Research should reveal needs and behavior. The team still has to design the solution.
Removing useful context can make an interface cleaner and the experience harder.
The shipped behavior, not the Figma file, is what users experience.
No. User experience applies to services and physical products too, although this glossary focuses on software products.
Some roles combine both. Others specialize. UX judgment can be strong without being the person who defines the final visual style.
To help the intended users achieve meaningful goals effectively, clearly, and with an appropriate level of effort and trust.
UX design asks a simple question across the entire journey: does this product make sense to the person trying to use it?
Every flow, state, message, and interaction contributes to the answer.
User experience · UI design · Product design · Interaction design · Usability
For the full process, read Figr’s UX design guide.