The body of terms used with a particular technical application in a subject of study, theory, profession, etc.
54
votes
23answers
4k views
Better term for “user” [closed]
I often have to explain some aspect of an application, and often need to refer to users. I really don't like the term as it is not something with a good connotation (e.g. drug users) to the ...
38
votes
7answers
4k views
Synonym for 'GUI' for non-technical people?
Does anyone know a good synonym for 'GUI' that non-technical people will understand? Or a simple sentence explaining it that still won't scare them off?
Edit: Thanks for the answers :-) But I meant ...
37
votes
16answers
3k views
Why do we say we “browse” to a place on the Internet when we actually download a web server’s content to our browser? [closed]
Browsing the web is a common daily task for more than a billion users, and we do not pay much attention to it. We just “browse to a place” or ask our laughing friend across the table “where she is on ...
36
votes
13answers
1k views
What word can be used to mean either click or tap?
Very often we need to speak generically about clicking or tapping an item, but there seems to be a lack of vocabulary in English for this. We could just say "click or tap" every time, but that is ...
34
votes
9answers
1k views
Do non-technical/non-web savvy users understand the concept of tags?
Here at Stack Exchange we're currently wrestling with weaknesses in our tags system. As we open up new verticals – some of which include very non-technical users like cooking – we suspect that the ...
31
votes
13answers
8k views
Is it true that “the only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple”?
Everyone knows the famous quote (by Bruce Ediger or Steve Jobs, I'm not sure):
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned.
It's an amusing gem, but is it really ...
27
votes
4answers
1k views
You, Me, or Joe Soap
When listing content in an application (think of a list of documents) we show the name of the document and the name of the author.
What should be shown for the author's name when the person reading ...
26
votes
5answers
1k views
Is database too technical a term for user?
Are these terms 'Database', 'Record', 'Table', 'Field', 'Row', and 'Column' too technical (or even relevant) for a normal online banking application user, especially when talking to a customer service ...
26
votes
11answers
561 views
Usability/UX elevator pitch?
Whenever I try to introduce someone to usability/ux, I always find myself having to explain the following:
The definition of usability/ux.
The fact that I make web site easier and more pleasant to ...
25
votes
8answers
4k views
Search Vs. Filter- what is the difference
From the view of the user (not from a technical view)- What are the main differences between searching and filtering data, in order to get specific results?
i.e.- in both cases the user is looking ...
22
votes
6answers
710 views
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 ...
22
votes
2answers
451 views
Defining “Instantaneous” as part of usability acceptance criteria
The Setup
I have run into this problem time and time again. An interface is performing slow and QA and/or Engineering come back and ask, "can you please define the acceptance criteria for how fast ...
20
votes
5answers
6k views
What is this side menu called that can be found in many multi-touch apps, and where does it originate from?
It can be found for example in the YouTube and Facebook app.
19
votes
6answers
1k views
Which phrase is better: “Sort chronologically” or “Sort by date”?
I'm adding on to an advanced search screen, the standard few sort orders: by date, by name, etc.
I'm just wondering what the more commonly used/accepted way of phrasing it would be. "Chronologically" ...
19
votes
6answers
714 views
Is there a name for the UI that marks key positions in a scroll bar?
In Chrome, when you do a text search, you'll see the locations of found instances of the text string shown as yellow lines in the vertical scrollbar.
If you run Visual Studio with the Resharper ...
19
votes
3answers
400 views
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 ...
18
votes
2answers
777 views
Is there a visual glossary of (Windows) UI controls?
Some days it seems every member of my team calls each control by a different name. Is there a good resource, preferably with images, for what the official name of each control type is? I found a few ...
17
votes
6answers
850 views
When did UX start being called UX?
When did people start talking about User Experience as a role/domain similar to the way that it's used today?
The earliest reference I can find is the Norman, Miller, Henderson CHI 95 piece on ...
16
votes
5answers
694 views
How can I deal with diverse gender identities in user profiles?
I'm trying to work out the wording for (preferably) a gender dropdown in a user profile of a site I'm working on. I want to be inclusive of people who don't gender orient to either male or female ( ...
16
votes
6answers
778 views
What does it mean to 'humanise' interfaces?
When people say 'humanise' an interface, what exactly do they mean? Or is there a more formal word to this idea.
The word 'humanise' sounds vague to me. It could mean several ideas if not taken ...
16
votes
5answers
2k views
The notification tray at the top of Stack Exchange sites: what is it called? And are there other good examples of this?
I'm trying to clean up notifications for a client site and was wondering if the notification pattern that Stack Exchange employs has a name that I can use to search for more examples.
16
votes
12answers
1k views
What should internal “home pages” and “index pages” be called?
I'm trying to figure out what these respective web pages are called in relation to the larger architecture. Here's a simplified architecture diagram:
I understand that Home at the top is properly ...
15
votes
3answers
978 views
What's the common name for this button?
I'm trying to find out what is the way to call this kind of button:
To be precise, I'm talking about a button which acts like a regular one for most of its area, but has also a "more" area, ...
15
votes
6answers
290 views
Is there a term/name for these labels?
Are there any conventional names for these informational labels?
15
votes
2answers
523 views
What is User Experience (UX)?
I've looked at this site for the first time today. I've checked About, the FAQ and the FAQ and searched, and I don't seem to be able to find an answer on this site.
These are the closest I can find:
...
14
votes
6answers
372 views
Correct terminology for “please the interviewer” bias?
I'm pushing usability testing within my workplace by performing some Steve Krug style usability tests, which have gone down so well that the product owner now wants me to add some marketing questions.
...
14
votes
3answers
1k views
Is user experience design (UXD) equal to user centered design (UCD)?
Can user experience design (UXD) and user centered design (UCD) be considered the same?
If not, how do they relate to each other and how do they differ?
14
votes
3answers
426 views
Is there a difference between affordance and discovery?
Looking at the UX principles that mozilla use as keywords to tag bugs in bugzilla it looks like ux-affordance and ux-discovery are very similar:
ux-affordance — controls should visually express ...
14
votes
1answer
2k views
When to use “join,” “register,” or “sign up”?
For a user, when is it better to be asked to do the following:
"Sign In" vs. "Log in"
"Join" vs. "Register" vs. "Sign Up"
"Sign Out" vs. "Log out"
Different websites seem to use them differently, ...
14
votes
2answers
350 views
What’s the origin of the metaphor “cloud”?
Today we use the term “cloud” without thinking about it. We use it mainly in terms of storage online, far away and unreachable. We can’t plug in a USB memory in the cloud to download data. We plug the ...
13
votes
4answers
8k views
What is the exact difference between fluid and responsive design?
What is the exact difference between fluid and responsive design?
I am bit confused about fluid and responsive design. Fluid is the one where we give width in percentages so that design will look ...
12
votes
8answers
207 views
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 ...
12
votes
2answers
652 views
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 ...
12
votes
5answers
326 views
How to explain to my client the difference between Front End and Back End?
I'm currently managing a project to bring a medium-sized shop into the online world for the first time.
The very non-technical shop owner is failing to understand what "front-end" and "back-end" ...
11
votes
11answers
607 views
What is the term for the contents of a tab?
In a tabbed interface, each tab has... "content" associated with it. Each tab has distinct "content"; e.g. in a web browser, it would be a web page. And each tab's "content" gets stuffed into a single ...
11
votes
5answers
445 views
Term for menu that appears at the top of many webpages
What is the term for the menu that appears at the top right of many webpages? Here are two examples:
11
votes
5answers
1k views
How broad is the definition of affordance?
While discussing the need for affordances to be consistent, comments between me and JeroenEijkhof indicate we don't have a similar interpretation of the term 'affordance'.
I claimed that something ...
11
votes
4answers
414 views
Is it a problem if a word describing a software action has additional controversial meanings in the real world?
Is it a problem if a word describing a software concept has additional potentially controversial meanings in the real world?
To name some examples:
icon - in software it is a small image which ...
11
votes
1answer
365 views
Is there a name for the pattern of a categorized autocomplete?
Lately, I've noticed that Facebook search presents it's autocomplete options as a nice categorized list:
However, I'm uncertain what to call this pattern. It reminds me a bit of what Peter Morville ...
10
votes
5answers
3k views
What is a “toast notification”?
Microsoft mentions the toast as a visual element in the package manifest for Metro-style apps with the attribute ToastCapable="true".
What does this mean?
10
votes
3answers
400 views
What's the terminology for bad practice around emulating browser functionality in your website?
Background
We've just updated one of our 10-year old web applications and in doing so have removed a "back" and "forward" button on the main menu. Our reasoning behind this change is that the web ...
10
votes
2answers
349 views
Proper term for conjoined choice buttons
I'm thinking of using a set of "conjoined choice buttons" to let the user filter a table of highscores. It would look sort of like this:
_______________________________
( ##EVERYONE##| FRIENDS | ...
10
votes
2answers
508 views
Are users comfortable with the term 'portal'?
I am building a site for managing datasets. The home page will be a portal displaying summary info about the user's datasets and other datasets in the system. I'm trying to decide what to call this ...
10
votes
4answers
190 views
Name or data on this error alert phenomenon?
This is just a curiosity on my part, but I'm wondering if there's a name or studies for what I'm going to describe.
I've noticed in many UX scenarios, not just computer related, that when there's an ...
9
votes
7answers
518 views
Should we re-think the use of the word “Save”
Inspired by discussions on using the floppy disk icon for save button, and how this might not be good enough nowdays since nobody uses floppy disks anymore, I started thinking of the word "save" ...
9
votes
8answers
357 views
Name for a rule about re-using terminology
Does the rule "Don't use the same name/word to refer to two different things" have a name, and, if so, what is that name?
9
votes
5answers
1k views
What is the difference between a UX Designer and a Product Manager?
The title is pretty self explanatory, but the context is that a new project with a small team will need the work of a product manager and the work of doing the UX both to get done. The company ...
9
votes
4answers
219 views
What do you think is a better label “New” or “Add”
At the moment I am building a web application that stores a lot of data inside of tables. In each of the pages containing the tables the users have many actions; they can add, delete, or edit the ...
9
votes
2answers
284 views
What's the best term to refer to the pointy part of a comic-book-style balloon UI element?
In discussing balloon-ish UI elements, I've described the pointy part as 'points', 'arrows' or 'spikes', and that seems to get the idea across to many people alright... but I find myself falling ...
9
votes
1answer
187 views
What is the formal name for an information block in a webpage?
The upper right of the following page has a block labelled "How to Format". What's the formal name for this element in GUI design?
