UX (user experience)
UX, or user experience, covers every part of how people experience a product or website, from the first impression to support. How it differs from UI and usability.
Updated October 2, 2026
UX, short for user experience, is the whole of how people experience a product, service or website: not just the screens, but also how easy it is to find what you need, how fast it is, how it feels and how the company treats you.
Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group define it as covering "all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products" (Norman & Nielsen).
UX, UI and usability
The three terms are often mixed up:
- UI (user interface) is what people see and touch: buttons, menus, layouts. It is one part of the experience.
- Usability is how easy the interface is to use. It can be measured, for example with a usability test.
- UX is the whole: including the expectations people bring, the first impression and what happens after the click.
Where the first impression fits
A visitor's experience starts before they click anything. In the first seconds on your homepage, they decide whether they understand it, trust it and want to stay. If that first impression fails, the rest of the experience never happens. That's the part of UX StayOrBounce measures, with four fixed questions. See how we score websites.