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

• UX Magazine
• UXPin Free Books
• The Best UX Design Links of 2016
  
  

Last Reviewed/Updated: March 2018