Describing User Experiences (UX)

This is a quick exploration to provide a wide array of articulate language to describe a user experience. Too often we default back to the same handful of adjectives that might include favorites like intuitive, user-friendly, confusing, or ugly.

I am somewhat inspired by Orwell’s Politics and the English Language while writing this, but don’t take a cynical stance. While he goes on to suggest that language may be used to manipulate or deceive in certain contexts, I am creating this as a way to illuminate, promote clear thinking, and increase clarity of communication when building things with a team.

Positive UX:

• Easy-to-use: accessible, clear, effective, efficient, effortless, frictionless, intuitive, simple, straightforward, streamlined, usable, user-friendly
• Enjoyable: captivating, delightful, engaging, exciting, fun, immersive, playful, pleasurable, rewarding, satisfying
• Helpful: clear, concise, guiding, helpful, informative, relevant, supportive
• Appealing: aesthetic, appealing, beautiful, clean, elegant, modern, sexy, stylish
• Credible: authentic, credible, professional, reliable, trustworthy

Negative UX:

• Difficult-to-use: clunky, complicated, confusing, cumbersome, difficult, frustrating, inaccessible, overwhelming, unusable
• Unpleasant: annoying, boring, frustrating, jarring, tedious, unpleasant
• Unhelpful: irrelevant, misleading, unhelpful, uninformative, vague
• Unappealing: amateurish, busy, cluttered, confusing, outdated, ugly
• Untrustworthy: deceptive, sketchy, suspicious, unreliable, untrustworthy

This is just a start and is meant to provide descriptive alternatives to whatever your standard fallback might be! The best adjectives will always depend on the specific UX you’re describing.

Bonus Qualities

• Unique: creative, cutting-edge, groundbreaking, innovative, inspired, original
• Purpose-built: efficient (for professional work), user-centered, inclusive, personalized, productive