User experience (UX) covers all aspects of a person’s interaction with a company, its services and its products. The Nielsen Norman Group, whose founders Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen defined the term in a 1998 article, puts it this way. According to reports, ISO 9241-210 describes it as a user’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a system, product or service.
What is the difference between UX, UI and usability?
The user interface (UI) is the part people see and operate, such as buttons and layout. Usability measures whether a system is easy to learn, efficient to use and pleasant. UX is wider than both. The NN/g notes that even a polished interface does not give a good experience if the product lacks the content or function a person needs.
What does UX mean for SEO?
Google lists a good page experience among the things its ranking systems reward, and says relevance still comes first. Its page experience documentation asks, among other things, whether a page avoids intrusive interstitials, avoids excessive ads and displays well on mobile devices. The three Core Web Vitals give measurable targets: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. Search Console reports them for a site.
Other UX topics, such as navigation, copy and forms, are not search signals Google has named. They matter because visitors who cannot find what they need leave (opinion).
Example
A product page loads slowly because a banner image blocks the main content, and a cookie dialog covers the mobile screen. Compressing the image and shrinking the dialog improves Core Web Vitals and the visitor’s first impression at the same time.
FAQ
What does UX stand for? User experience.
What is the difference between UI and UX? UI is the interface people interact with. UX includes the whole experience before, during and after use.
Sources
- The Definition of User Experience (UX) – Nielsen Norman Groupnngroup.com
- Understanding page experience in Google Search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Core Web Vitals – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
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