Human-Computer Interaction Glossary
25 essential terms — because precise language is the foundation of clear thinking in Human-Computer Interaction.
Showing 25 of 25 terms
A controlled experiment comparing two design variants to determine which performs better on defined metrics.
The design of products and environments so they are usable by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.
A quality of an object or interface that suggests how it should be used or interacted with.
A user research method where participants organize topics into categories to inform information architecture.
The amount of mental effort required to process information and interact with a system.
A usability inspection method that evaluates an interface by simulating a user's problem-solving process at each step.
A human-centered problem-solving approach involving empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
A research technique that measures where and how long a user looks at different areas of an interface.
A predictive model stating that movement time to a target depends on the distance to and size of the target.
Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules — a model for analyzing and predicting user task performance.
The gap between the system's state and the user's ability to perceive and understand that state.
The gap between a user's goal and the actions available in an interface to accomplish it.
An expert-based usability inspection method judging an interface against established usability principles.
The time to make a decision increases logarithmically with the number of available choices.
The structural design of shared information environments, organizing and labeling content for findability and usability.
The design of interactive products focusing on how users interact with them over time.
A user's internal representation of how a system works, shaped by prior experience and expectations.
A fictional, research-based archetype representing a segment of users, used to guide design decisions.
An early working model of a design used to explore, test, and refine ideas before full development.
A perceivable cue that communicates where and how to interact with an element, distinct from the affordance itself.
A usability method where users verbalize their thoughts during task performance to reveal reasoning and confusion.
The degree to which a system is effective, efficient, and satisfying for specified users in a given context.
A method of evaluating a product by testing it with representative users performing realistic tasks.
An iterative design approach that grounds each phase in the needs and limitations of the end users.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — W3C standards providing criteria (A, AA, AAA) for accessible web content.