Glossary » Miscellaneous

Apple Macintosh

the first mass-market computer with a graphical user interface, the Macintosh was introduced in 1984. Its operating system is known as Mac OS. Many of the original concepts behind its user interface were adapted from work done at Xerox on…

Aqua

the visual design style of Mac OS X, which most noticeably uses colored transparent buttons.

autosave

a software feature that saves the file periodically while the user works on a document. Usually a user would need to explicitly save a file and risk forgetting to. The user would lose data if the application fails (e.g. during…

CHI

computer-human interaction, pronounced “KIE” (hard k, long i). HCI is the most common term for the field, but CHI is the term used (probably because it’s easier to pronounce) for the annual CHI conference sponsored by ACM SIGCHI (special interest…

Common User Access

CUA; a set of user interface standards established for IBM platforms in 1987.

CUU conference

Conference on Universal Usability, a conference that focuses on what it takes to make systems work for everyone, considering the wide diversity of people with different system configurations and from a wide variety of backgrounds, including international and disability issues.…

data mining

the use of statistical and visualization techniques to uncover trends and relationships within massive databases. Data mining is common with financial data, medical data, census data, and across the web as a whole. The trends sought after are often non-obvious…

data-centered interface

a user interface designed to support users editing object and documents and not designed around the use of application software. Users focus on documents without worrying about which applications are being used and possibly using multiple applications on the document…

desktop metaphor

the representation of familiar desktop items in a user interface to help make the capabilities of a computer clear. The prototypical example is the Macintosh desktop which is used as a backdrop for all application windows and the surface on…

Diamond Bullet

the company, Diamond Bullet Design, that created this Usability First website. Diamond Bullet specializes in usability evaluation and design services for internet and software products.

A “diamond bullet” is the typographic term for the diamond-shaped bullet points used in bulleted…

DIS conference

Designing Interactive Systems; a biannual conference sponsored by ACM’s SIGCHI. DIS aims to bring together different disciplines in interaction design and demonstrate best practices in design.

domain knowledge

or “subject matter expertise”; knowledge about a specific field of interest; knowledge about the content area for which a piece of software is being designed, as opposed to programming knowledge or usability expertise. For instance, when building medical software, physicians…

DUX conference

Designing User Experiences; a conference that explores how to create a great user experience from a product lifecycle and professional viewpoint.

front end

the user interface portion of a piece of software; the portion of the software that faces the user; opposite of back-end, the underlying functionality of the application.

gold plating

adding extra unnecessary features for their coolness factor rather than a perceived need.

heuristic

a rule of thumb. In usability evaluation, a heuristic is a guideline that works pretty well most of the time for identifying design problems, but shouldn’t be expected to cover every circumstance.

iterative

repeating. An “iteration” is a single loop through a cycle, such as the design-prototype-test cycle.

legacy system

an old hardware or software system which is generally out-dated in some way, either based on obsolete hardware or using an older user interface (such as a character-based interface). The term is usually used when planning a new system to…

Microsoft Windows

a common operating system platform with a graphical user interface that comes in many flavors, such as Windows 3.0, 95, 98, NT, CE, and 2000.

Moore’s Law

every 18 months, the number of transistors that can be packed onto the same amount of silicon doubles. In effect, the speed of computer chips doubles, and the amount of memory doubles. Proposed by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel.

Motif

a standard set of user interface components and guidelines for applications running on an X-Windows environment, typically for Unix systems. Motif is defined by the Open Software Foundation (OSF).

Open Look Graphical User Interface

a GUI standard introduced for X-Windows systems on Unix platforms. A thoughtful standard heavily-influenced by the Xerox Star interface, the Open Look guidelines are well worth review. However, the Open Look interface failed to catch on in the marketplace where…

procurement decisionmaker

the person responsible for selecting software to be used in an organization, who will need to have an evaluation of the usability of the software in order to understand its impact on the productivity of the organization.

proxemics

issues dealing with spatial relationships between interface components, devices, and users. For instance, the distance between users can determine what communication device is used and what settings are functional (such as volume). Also, the position of devices with respect to…

ruggedized device

a piece of hardware designed for abuse, such as adverse environments and usage. For instance, ruggedization might be useful in industrial settings, outdoor work, sports, emergency uses, or rough handling by children. Ruggedizing may include techniques such as rubber components,…