Mental Model

A mental model is the representation of a user’s expectations of how an interface should behave based on their knowledge, assumptions, and prior experiences with similar systems. For example, users might expect a shopping cart icon on an e-commerce site to function the same way it does on other e-commerce platforms they’ve used. These models influence how users navigate interfaces, interact with features, and make decisions while using a product.

UX research techniques like card sorting, interviews, and tree testing are commonly used to identify users' mental models and guide design decisions.