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

• A/B test (25 down) — A/B testing (also called split testing) involves simple randomized controlled experiments to compare two versions of a webpage or product and determine which version performs better.
• Beta testing (23 across) — Beta testing involves launching a nearly finished product to a selective group of users to uncover bugs or usability issues before the product is released to a wide audience. For example, researchers can join the UI Hub API Beta Program and be among the first to experience our API, which lets you integrations on top of our platform, connect to your tools of choice, then sit back and watch as your panel data gets automatically refreshed in real-time.
• Informed consent (20 across) — Obtaining (and documenting) participant consent is an important prerequisite for good user research, and should be collected with an informed consent form, as Lizzy Burnam explains. Collecting signatures may not be the most glamorous part of research, but luckily UI's Document Signing feature makes it easy.
• Lean UX (14 across) — Lean UX is a team-based, agile approach to building products that emphasizes shorter, iterative design cycles. Similar frameworks, like Feleesha Sterling's Rapid Research framework, build off the principles of lean UX to help meet the research demands of fast-paced, agile environments.
• Localization (2 down) — Localization is about more than translating user experiences into different languages—it involves adapting a product to meet the needs, preferences, and behaviors of different markets. Getting it right usually requires thoughtful cross-cultural research.
• MVP (45 across) — A Minimum Viable Product is what Product folks call a product that is just complete enough, feature- and design-wise, to be usable. It is not ready for launch to a wide audience, but is perfect for getting early feedback from users as part of usability or even beta testing.
• Screeners (51 across) — Screener surveys (or just screeners) are questionnaires that prospective participants complete before a study. They are used to filter out people who do not meet the criteria of a study, and are an incredibly important part of successful research recruiting.
• Surveys (47 across) — Surveys are one of the most popular research methods (66% of researchers said they use them "often" or "always"). But as the Erika Hall quote (see below) in clue 47 across makes clear, surveys are also fraught with peril, especially for inexperienced researchers. Here are survey best practices to follow.
• Task analysis (34 across + 5 down) — Task analysis is the process of, well, analyzing how a task is accomplished. This involves observing users perform tasks and achieve their goals, and may also involve interviews or thinkaloud exercises in which users articulate their processes.
• Typography (15 across) — Typography is, basically, the art of making words look good. It involves styling and arranging typefaces, font sizes, line spacing, kerning, and positioning to make written language appealing, impactful, and legible.

Researchers mentioned

• Ada Lovelace (55 across) — Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815 - 1852) was a founding figure in computational programing. She worked on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, and was the first person to recognize the computer's potential applications beyond pure computation. She was also the daughter ofpoet Lord Byron.
• Claude Lévi-Strauss (28 down) — Not to be confused with the US denim brand Levi Strauss & Co (same name, no accent or relation), this Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) was a celebrated French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work helped shape the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology.
• Erika Hall (3 down) — Erika Hall is an advocate of evidence-based design and clear language, co-founder of Mule Design, and oft-cited author of Just Enough Research and Conversational Design. She's an outspoken survey skeptic, as she explains in an early Awkward Silences episode called "Why Surveys [Almost Always] Suck."
• Gregg Bernstein (30 down) — Gregg Bernstein is a UX leader and the author of Research Practice: Perspectives from UX Researchers in a Changing Field. Check out this episode of Awkward Silences in which Gregg discusses UXR hot topics and explains how to build healthy and sustainable research practices.
• Kate Towsey (31 across) — Kate Towsey is a legend within the Research Operations community. In fact, she's the reason the ReOps community exists—Kate started a Slack community for research ops folks back in 2018 and since then, it has grown into a global community with thousands of members and numerous conferences dedicated to the operationalization of research. Kate was also the founder of Atlassian's Research Ops practice, something she talked about in depth on our podcast.
• Renee Reid (43 across) — Renee Reid is a human-centered UX Design Researcher (currently at LinkedIn). She is an outspoken voice and activist within UX Research and is the host of Tech Wrap Queen, a podcast about tech, design, and culture on air since 2020.

Tools & resources mentioned

• Cha Cha Club (54 down) — The Cha Cha Club is a members-only club for dedicated ResearchOps professionals to connect, grow, and shape a new field together. It was founded by ReOps trailblazer Kate Towsey (see above) and is proudly sponsored by User Interviews.
• Nielsen Norman Group (1 across) — Founded in 1998 by Jakob Nielson and Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) is not just a UI and UX consulting firm—their workshops, articles, and methodology are hugely influential in the field. (Ever heard someone say you only need 5 users for a usability test? You can thank Nielsen for that.)
• User Interviews — As we oh-so-casually mentioned in the clue for 29 down, User Interviews boasts a panel of over 4 million participants (and growing!). Who's in our panel exactly? Well for starters, we've got folks working in 73,000 professions across 140 industries. And when it comes to demographics and consumer behavior, we've got the gamut covered. You can read all about our panel makeup in this detailed deep dive.
• UX Research Tools Map (27 across) — There are several excellent lists of UX research tools out there—but UI's UX Research Tools Map is the only illustrated guide to the user research software landscape that categorizes and contextualizes the ever-growing list of tools in a visual way.

Explore the richly illustrated 5th annual UX Research Tools Map and get a free Figma template to make your own.