Welcome to the latest edition of our new weekly blog series, Marketing Definitions. Each week, we will identify an oft-used term or phrase in the marketing community and break down its use and meaning for the broader population.

Last week’s term that we defined was Leads.

Today’s Term = UX

UX stands for user experience. It is an extension of, or rather an evolution from, UI (user interface).

We use the terms in the design world, to help guide the design process.

When a company is designing something – it could be a product, some internal system, a website, etc. – there must be some recognition of who the end user will be. For example, when designing the company’s website, the designer must first acknowledge that the users will be customers and potential customers.

Establishing the end user is critical, because it does you no good to design something that the user won’t get any value out of. That’s where UX comes in. UX design is the process of making your design more user-friendly.

By focusing on the user during the design process, the designer(s) should be able to make it more usable, more accessible, and more valuable.

An example of a company that puts user experience first in everything they do is Apple. Most people, when asked to describe their experience with a new Apple product, use the word “intuitive”. They pick it up and they instantly feel like they know how to use it, without any instruction. That should be the goal of any new design.

When you see the term UX, think user-experience, and know that it’s about designing something so that the end product is incredibly user-friendly (read: easy to use).

That does it for today’s definition. Have a term you’d like defined in a future post? Email us or post it in the comments below.