Glossary » Application Domains

incremental search

a search that progressively finds a match for the search string as each character is typed, as opposed to a delimited search.

installer

an application that copies software to a user’s computer (or server) and sets up and customizes the software for that particular user. Because installers are used only once and have the potential to interfere with a user’s system configuration, they…

instant messaging

IM; a technique of sending a message: the sender specifies the recipient and typically types a simple text message; the recipient has a window pop up automatically that displays the short message. This differs from email in that the interface…

instructional design

the design of an educational system, focusing on how people learn and how learning can be facilitated. An instructional designer will set educational objectives for the system and design the interaction to avoid straying from those objectives. A wide variety…

intelligent tutoring system

ITS; educational software that tailors the instruction based on the learner’s behavior, providing an appropriate level of instruction or even determining how a learner’s model of a domain is incorrect and choosing instruction and exercises specifically designed to help correct…

interactive fiction

storytelling where the reader is involved in making choices. The reader may choose what order to read in, may choose what path to take in the story (thus altering the plot), or may actively participate in problem-solving (usually puzzles) in…

inverted pyramid writing style

the basis of the journalism style, in the inverted period you begin by stating the bottom-line, then expand out into the details. This enables the reader to skim the text quickly for the main idea.

learnability

a measure of the degree to which a user interface can be learned quickly and effectively. Learning time is the typical measure. User interfaces are typically easier to learn when they are designed to be easy to use based on…

learner-centered design

designing around the specific needs of a learner; designing to foster learning. Similar to user-centered design (UCD), learner-centered design focuses on the tasks and goals of someone who is learning, motivates them, and helps them grow as they use the…

learning curve

used informally, the “learning curve” is simply the amount of time and effort people will need to master a new skill (such as a new piece of software). A “steep learning curve” is a more time-consuming learning period that may…

learning time

the amount of time it takes to acquire a new skill or piece of knowledge up to a given level of mastery. Since nothing is ever learned perfectly, target levels of mastery must be defined, such as the ability to…

lexicon

the set of terminology used in an application, including the set of commands and terms used for the objects in the application. A lexicon should be chosen that is as consistent as possible and that uses the natural terminology of…

logical punctuation

a recommended approach to placing punctuation where the punctuation is logically grouped with the part of the sentence it applies to, rather than where arbitrary rules imply it should go. For instance, your grammar teachers said to put commas and…

Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes is a groupware system that provides users with email, workflow, calendars, task lists, and document-sharing. Its infrastructure allows convenient flexibility in delivering these features. Lotus Notes is primarily restricted to asynchronous groupware features, and not real-time communication capabilities.…

man page

a help system provided on Unix and Linux systems. A user types “man ” on the command line and gets information on using that keyword, usually focused on syntax and parameters for Unix commands, and unfortunately, often lacking good examples…

marquee

1. (computer graphics) the dotted-line that appears around drawings when they are selected in drawing programs. When animated, a marquee is often referred to as the “marching ants”.

2. (graphic design) a hilited area, usually the focal point of a…

medical informatics

the field that examines the design and development of computers and software for medicine.

metagame

the context of a game and its use and all the ways it gets played that are outside the model of interaction the gameplay is designed for.

This includes ways the game gets played, for instance, by people saving and…

MMRPG

massively multiplayer role playing game; an online game with an essentially unlimited number of human players were each player takes on the role of a character in the game world.

MUD

multi-user dimension (or dungeon), a virtual reality, usually text-based, populated by many people, often used for chatting or playing games with other users.

Variations include a MOO (object-oriented MUD), MUCK (multi-user chat kingdom), and MUSH (multi-user shared hallucination). While some…

newsgroups and mailing lists

similar in spirit to email systems except that they are intended for messages among large groups of people instead of 1-to-1 communication. In practice the main difference between newsgroups and mailing lists is that newsgroups only show messages to a…

page-oriented scrollbar

a scrollbar that indicates the page number of a document as the user moves the scroll thumb (scrollbox). The page number may be indicated inside or beside the scroll thumb or on a status line. The scrollbar may also have…

panning

an alternative to scrolling for moving the viewed area within a window – the user drags the view (and usually the pointer changes to a flat hand) in 2 dimensions (instead of the 1-dimensional scrollbar).

In video, panning refers to…

payoff matrix

in game theory, a matrix showing the consequences of interactions between 2 players. Each dimension shows the range of choices for each player, and each cell specifies what happens for that pair of choices.

PDA

personal digital assistant; a hand-held computer, typically with the capabilities of a personal information management system, such as a clock, appointment book, and address book.