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Home
UX Glossary
Specificity

🎯

Specificity

Specific actions can be more effective than "general" ones.

Featured in 22 UX Bites

Similar psychology:

Pattern Matching
Delegated Decisions
Reactive Onboarding

Likely impacts:

Anxiety
Attention & Interest
Input Quality
Last updated: 23/09/2026

How to utilise this in your designs

You could make loading and success states more specific by naming where the user is travelling to, so booking a ticket feels more reassuring.

Apple Pay UI shows a grey loading screen saying "Booking your ticket to Lewes" underlined in white, transitioning to a white confirmation screen "You're going to Lewes."
Example from
Trainline logo
Trainline

Try changing a CTA label if the user has used a template before, so returning users see a more specific action than a generic, one-size-fits-all label.

Quick Notes UI with a "Use template" button highlighted by an arrow and "Add again" button underlined; lists show tags Idea, Note, Reminder in color-coded labels.
Example from
Notion logo
Notion

When users search for a specific task, e.g., furniture assembly, you could experiment with showing metadata relevant to that task, so results feel like specialists.

Tasker selection UI shows categories like Furniture Assembly, General Mounting with an orange arrow highlighting 794 Furniture Assembly tasks by Vitalii S. rated 5.0, $61.94/hr.
Example from
Taskrabbit logo
Taskrabbit

You could show specific social proof for each option, alongside a rating of how well matched the user is, so each choice feels designed for them.

UI shows four colorful card options: Quiet your mind (92%), Get things done (88%), Be confident (79%), Keep your cool (54%) each with match %, learners count, and purple Add buttons.
Example from
Ahead logo
Ahead

When asking for a subjective effort rating, try contextualising each option with a specific comparison, e.g., whether you can still hold a conversation.

Black UI panels show exercise intensity levels 1, 7, and 9 with white bold numbers and labels; underlined orange text emphasizes "walking slowly," "hard to talk," and "no talking."
Example from
Nike logo
Nike

Possible impacts

Specific CTA labels, e.g., 'Pay £3.30 today', could reduce users' anxiety about taking an action, by making clear exactly what will (and won't) happen.

As seen in:
Trainline logo
Trainline
Specificity creates comfort
Notion logo
Notion
Contextualising Notion templates

Specific, tailored content might capture more of users' attention and interest, as options feel designed-for-purpose rather than generic.

As seen in:
Notion logo
Notion
Contextualising Notion templates
Taskrabbit logo
Taskrabbit
Specialists not generalists

Asking more specific questions, with context for each answer, could improve the quality of data users give you, as they're less likely to guess or misinterpret.

As seen in:
Notion logo
Notion
Contextualising Notion templates
Nike logo
Nike
Contextualising the effort
Peter Ramsey, Built for Mars Founder

Written by Peter Ramsey

Consultant to 100+ companies

Published: 25/10/2023