UX Glossary · U
User experience
Also: UX
A person's whole response to using a product, including before and after, of which usability is one part.
User experience is defined in ISO 9241-210 as a person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use or anticipated use of a system. The phrase “anticipated use” is deliberate: the experience starts before the product is opened and continues after it is closed.
Don Norman coined the job title at Apple in the early 1990s, choosing it precisely because “human interface” and “usability” were too narrow for what the work covered.
What it includes that usability does not
Whether the thing was worth doing at all. Whether the user trusts it. What it felt like to wait. What happened when they tried to cancel. Whether support answered.
Usability asks whether a task can be completed effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction. UX includes that and the surrounding response.
What it is not
It is not a synonym for interface design, though it is used that way constantly. A “UX designer” who only produces screens is doing interface design, which is a legitimate discipline with a different name.
It is also not something a team can add at the end. The experience is produced by the whole product, including pricing, performance and support, most of which is decided before a designer sees it.
In practice
The most useful UX questions are usually not about the interface: why is this step here at all, what happens when it fails, and what does the person do next.