WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT FOR?

Business Stakeholders, Product Owners, Designers, Developers, QA Testers

  • Accessibility. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disabilities. Section 508 of this law applies specifically to electronic and information technology.

  • Assets. Specific graphic elements that have been sliced for developers to implement in an app (i.e. buttons, segment lines, banners, textures, etc.).

  • Brand. Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinctly identifies one seller's products from those of other sellers.

  • Certification. An external review or assessment of the quality of a particular product, normally leading to revisions if requirements aren't met.

  • Design Patterns. Normally a single component of a design that has been established as the standard. Design patterns are normally added to a repository or libary to be readily available for future use.

  • Developer. The programmer(s) in charge of writing, editing, and fixing defects within the code for any particular project.

  • Devices. A tool made or adapted for a particular purpose (i.e. smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, laptop computer, etc.).

  • Display Density. Also referred to as Pixel Density, the number of pixels a display can fit into a fixed physical space. The density is measured as DPI (Dots Per Inch) or PPI (Pixels Per Inch).

  • Display Resolution. The number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed (x,y). The number is determined by the width x height, e.g. 1080x1920.

  • Effectiveness. How well an interface supports the user in completing specified tasks.

  • Efficiency. How quickly an interface allows a user to accomplish an assigned task.

  • Error Rate. How many errors a user makes while performing specific tasks.

  • Ethnographic Research. Observing target users in their natural, real-world setting rather than in an artificial environment, such as a lab or focus group.

  • Flat Design. A minimalist aesthetic principle or design language currently used in various graphical user interfaces.

  • Font. A particular size, weight, and style of a typeface.

  • Heuristic Evaluation. How well an app conforms to current standards of usability, such as recognized best practices and guidelines from manufacturers.

  • Human Interface Guidelines (Apple). A comprehensive guide for visual, motion, and interaction design for Apple's iOS platform.

  • Icons. A graphic symbol that represents some real, fantasy or abstract motive, entity or action.

  • Interaction Designer. Defines the ways in which a user can interact with a computer system and/or mobile platform. Often responsible for creating wireframes, prototypes and assisting with usability testing.

  • Learnability. How quickly a new user can understand a user interface and accomplish basic tasks associated with a system.

  • Material Design (Google). A comprehensive guide for visual, motion, and interaction design across Android platforms and devices.

  • Measurements. The size, length, or amount of something.
    • Text: point (pt), ems (em), pixels (px), percent (%), scale-independent pixels (sp).
    • Dimensions: pixels (px), inches (in), percent (%), density-independent pixels (dp).

  • Metrics. Standards of measurement to evaluate aspects of an application.

  • Native App. An application that is using the language of the Operating System (OS) that it is being developed for.
    • Language examples: Objective-C, Swift, Java, etc.

  • Operating System (OS). Software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs (i.e. OS X, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, iOS, etc.).

  • Personas. Fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behaviorial set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.

  • Product Owner. Represents the stakeholder and is accountable for ensuring that the team delivers value to the business.

  • Project Manager. The person(s) in overall charge of the planning, execution and closure of any particular project.

  • Prototypes. A first or preliminary version of a design. For mobile applications or website designs, interactive prototypes are often created for user testing and to better communicate a design to developers and stakeholders.

  • Retention. How long it takes a user, after a period of non-interaction with the system, to relearn its use.

  • Satisfaction. Reported level of satisfaction users have with an app or system.

  • Scenarios. Usually tied to personas and are a part of creating a story about who the user of a particular technology is, what they know and what they want.

  • Semantic Differential. A measure of a user's reaction to stimulus words and concepts in terms of rating on bipolar scales defined with contrasting adjectives at each end (i.e. Good-3-2-1-0-1-2-3-Bad.)

  • Skeuomorphism. When design mimics particular features from the physical objects/ornaments.

  • Stakeholder. Also sometimes known as the sponsor, the person(s) with an interest in a given project. They may exert significant influence over the project's objectives and outcomes.

  • Styleguides. A set of standards for a design that provides uniformity in style and formatting.

  • Tester. The person(s) responsible for investigating an application or website's code for defects to ensure the quality of a product.

  • Typeface. A set of one or more fonts (font family) that share common design features.

  • User Interface (UI). The means by which the user and a computer system interact.

  • Usability. How easy a user interface is to use.

  • Usability Testing. Tests with real users that determine how easy a user interface is to use.

  • User Groups. A group of application users who share a particular set of characteristics. For instance, patients, caregivers, nurses and doctors could represent four user groups using an application.

  • User Researcher. A discipline that aims at improving or understanding the usability of products by incorporating experimental and observation research methods to guide the development of a product.

  • User Stories. High-level definition of a requirement as part of the Agile methodology that captures what a user needs to accomplish their goal(s).

  • User Experience (UX). The overall experience a person has while using a product such as a website, mobile application, computer application, etc.

  • UX Assessment. An evaluation of an application’s usability based on both heuristic evaluation and user testing.

  • Visual Designer/UI Designer. Responsible for creating comps/visual designs and preparing individual assets for any particular project.

  • Visual Design Comps. The layout of a proposed final draft of a design that is initially presented by the designer to the client/stakeholder. If approved, it is used as a guide for further design changes and production.

  • Wireframe. An image or set of images which display the functional elements and structure of a website or mobile app. Since wireframes are usually static, annotations are often used to describe the interaction of elements on a screen and/or what happens when a user interacts with those elements.

Resources & additional information

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Last Reviewed/Updated: March 2018