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Questions tagged [terminology]

Words used to describe or identify things, either from the user or designer's perspective.

Terminology is a discipline which systematically studies the labelling or designating of concepts particular to one or more subject fields or domains of human activity. It does this through research and analysis of terms in context for the purpose of documenting and promoting consistent usage.

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Why is backslash called BACK slash when arguably it points forward?

This is a backslash \. If you read the slash from left to right it starts at the top and goes down - hence it is a downslash. If you read the slash from top to bottom it starts on the left - which in our culture represents back direction - and…
daniel.sedlacek
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What's the common name for this GUI element? (left-right box, assignmentbox, relationbox)

You often see the following element to assign objects of a certain type to another object. We call it relationbox, but I can't find anything at all about relationboxes on the internet... It's such a simple and well known element, there's got to be a…
ASA
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Is the term 'real-time' understood outside the tech community?

We are making a website for pixel art that will have a diverse audience. Our leading tagline for the site is: "Real-time, collaborative pixel art." Real-time meaning updates to the pages will be immediate without page reload (real-time…
Stephen Watkins
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Is "having fun" a quality of User Experience?

Most of us here take user experience very seriously, and we answer questions with testing, convention, design pattern, white spacing, grouping, similarity, simplicity, proximity, consistency and much more as core business. But a quality for a user…
Benny Skogberg
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What's the difference between a panel and pane?

When naming different components in a layout what is considered a panel and what is a pane?
jjrabbit
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Name of the touch-ui "overscroll" feature?

What is the common/correct term for the "overscroll" feature very prominent in touch interfaces when scrolling a list of items? Description: When scrolling a list of items, the user can scroll over the end of the list, and after releasing the touch…
Ilari Kajaste
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What's the definition of "Usability"?

I'm looking for a clear, single-sentence definition of usability. A short definition of usability would make it much easier to convince people that usability is worth investing in. For example, a recent proposal for a Usability Roadshow to promote…
Bennett McElwee
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What is the term for numeric textboxes with arrows?

I was wondering whether there was a standard UI term for numeric textboxes with arrows that allow you to change the numeric value up or down, provided by some UI toolkits like Winforms. Here's an example of some of them:
Jez
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What to use - "Login" or "Sign in"? What about both?

I was trying to make up my mind whether to use "Login" or "Sign In" in the project I am working on by going through various well known websites. In my project, user can log in using either Facebook or email id. I landed upon Duolingo's and saw…
Mohit
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What is Opinion based and fact based?

I attended a UX meetup today, the speaker was pointing out that UX is all about transforming an opinion based design to fact based. I really don't understand what is opinion and fact based development. Example he gave was, To test the users…
Sajeetharan
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Looking for word or definition of "intro" of a site

See related meta post I answered: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/369410/why-is-there-no-explanation-hint-when-a-big-ui-change-occurs What is this type of functionality called (aside from Tutorial). From my post: I will say this..the one…
JonH
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Term for "pre-login" pages

When using a web application, there are certain pages displayed "outside" of the main application, typically prior to login. Examples include: Login, recover password, registration, etc. Some time ago I heard a word used to refer to these pages, but…
Pancake
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Is ”User Friendly” a valid term in User Experience?

I remember that we had a fierce discussion in school around the term “User Friendly” where our lecturer with emphasis stated that “… there is no such thing as user friendly. The only valid term you can and will use is useful. An application can…
Benny Skogberg
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Is there a word that descibes a UX that has been added-to over time and as a result no longer reflects the designers original intent?

A common scenario: A UX is designed, it gets built and deployed. Over time, people (for example execs, or devs) add new features, images, buttons etc without going through the design process. With each addition, the UX becomes slightly more…
Jon White
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Which is more likely to be understood, *Hover* or *Mouseover*?

We have a page where the content all has tool tips. There is a bit of explanatory text at the top of the page. We want to let visitors to the page know that they can hover their mouse over items for more information. I don't think that either term…
aslum
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