Stop! Halt! ✋

Have you finished the crossword yet? Are you prepared for spoilers? If not, scroll back up and finish playing before you read what's next.

Otherwise, keep reading for more information and useful resources related to the UX clues in this crossword.

UX terms to know

• AI hallucinations (1 across) — AI chatbots are powered by large language models (LLMs). When LLMs incorrectly perceive patterns, they can generate false information while presenting it as correct. This is called an AI hallucination, and is the most common concern about AI among UX researchers.
• Kerning (42 across) — In typography, kerning refers to the amount of space between two letters, or the process of adjusting that space to make text more appealing or readable.
• Longitudinal study (2 down) — Longitudinal studies involve repeated observations about a number of variables over an extended period of time. Diary studies, for example, are a UX research method in which participants keep a log of their thoughts, experiences, and activities over a defined period of time.
• Lorem ipsum (29 down) — Designers use this faux-Latin as a placeholder in prototypes and graphic design. The standard chunk of text ("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor...") has been in use since the 1500s!
• Matrix (23 down) — A matrix question is a closed-ended, multiple-choice survey question in which participants evaluate rows by the same set of column choices. They look like grids, and can be unwieldy to analyze if you're not careful.
• Persona (12 down) — Personas are research-based, archetypal representations of your ideal customer. They can get a bad rap, and some researchers advocate for replacing personas with things like mental models or thinking styles. Others say personas "stop freaking out, personas are just fine"—if they're done right.
• Qualitative coding (45 across) — Qualitative coding is the process of categorizing, labeling, and organizing qualitative data in order to identify themes and analyze relationships in the data. You can use it to turn complex data into conclusive insights.

Researchers mentioned

• Zora Neale Hurston (32 across) — Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. Her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance, while her anthropological work centered on the Black experiences, folklore, and hoodoo in the Caribbean and American South. She famous said "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

Tools mentioned

• ChatGPT (26 across) — By far the most popular AI tool among researchers, according to our survey, with over 50% of folks saying they've used the conversational chat tool in their research.
• Dovetail (19 across) — Dovetail is a customer insights repository and qualitative analysis platform. It is the most popular tool for storing UXR data and artifacts among user researchers, according to our 2023 State of User Research Report in which 19% of our audience said they use Dovetail for this purpose.
• User Interviews (3 down + 7 across) — User Interviews connects researchers with quality participants. With Recruit, you can find the right participants among our pool of over 4 million people with advanced targeting (by job title, skills, consumer behavior, product usage, etc.). Our panel management tools help automate the un-fun parts of research with automated scheduling, incentive distribution, and document signing features. Give us a try—it's free to start!

We surveyed 1093 researchers about how they use AI—read about what we learned in the 2023 AI in UX Research Report.