Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
41 results found in Design.
- Hybrid Craft (Digital Craft, Computational Craft)
- A making practice that combines traditional hand-craft techniques (embroidery, weaving, quilting, ceramics, woodworking) with digital fabrication tools such as computerised embroidery machines, laser …
- Inclusive Design (Inclusive Design Methodology)
- A design methodology that considers the full range of human diversity from the outset of the design process, including ability, language, culture, gender, and age. Inclusive design differs from access…
- Inclusive avatar (Disability-representative avatar)
- A digital self-representation in virtual environments that includes disability signifiers such as wheelchairs, prosthetics, hearing aids, canes, or visual metaphors for invisible conditions. Inclusive…
- Luminance Contrast (Brightness Contrast)
- The difference in perceived brightness between two adjacent surfaces or objects, as opposed to color contrast which involves differences in hue. Luminance contrast is particularly important for people…
- Metamessage (Designer's Metamessage)
- In Semiotic Engineering theory, the overarching one-way message that a designer sends to users through the system's interface, communicating who the system is for, what it can do, how to use it, and w…
- Motion Design (Motion Graphics, Motion-Driven Design)
- The practice of animating graphic elements - text, icons, diagrams, captions - in time-based media to communicate instructional content. In accessible educational video, motion design is used to guide…
- Multimodal redundancy (Redundant coding, Multi-sensory design)
- A design principle in which the same information is conveyed through multiple sensory channels simultaneously — such as visual, tactile, auditory, and textual — so that users can access it through whi…
- Multisensory (Multisensory Design, Multisensory Interaction)
- An approach to design and interaction that engages multiple human senses — such as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste — to convey information and create richer experiences. In accessibility, mult…
- Provocation (HCI) (Design provocation, Provotype)
- In human-computer interaction, a designed artifact whose purpose is to unsettle assumptions, provoke debate, or surface hidden values rather than to solve a defined problem. Provocations draw on tradi…
- Redundant Encoding (Redundant Coding, Multi-Channel Encoding)
- A design principle that communicates information through multiple visual channels simultaneously — such as colour plus shape, pattern, text label, or position — so that no single channel is required f…
- Small Multiples
- A series of similar graphics or charts arranged in a grid or sequence, each showing a different frame, condition, or time point, used to illustrate change or comparison. In tactile graphics, small mul…
- Soma design (Somaesthetic design)
- A design approach rooted in somaesthetics that foregrounds the sensing, feeling, living body as both the subject and medium of design. Soma design attends to the full range of bodily experience — touc…
- Sound Design (Audio Design)
- The craft of creating, selecting, and arranging audio elements - dialogue, music, ambient sound, foley, and effects - to shape the experience of a film, game, broadcast, or interactive product. For ac…
- Transitional Object (Comfort Object)
- A concept from developmental psychology, introduced by D. W. Winnicott, referring to a soft, often tactile object - a blanket, stuffed toy, or similar - that a child uses to support self-soothing and …
- Typography (Typographic Design)
- The art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and visually appealing. In accessibility contexts, typography encompasses font selection, size, weight, spacing (let…
- Uncanny valley
- A concept in robotics and animation describing the discomfort people feel when a humanoid figure looks almost, but not quite, realistic. As robots or avatars approach human likeness, they can provoke …
- Usability (Ease of Use)
- Usability is the extent to which a product, system, or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use,…
- User persona (Persona, Design persona)
- A fictional but research-based representation of a user archetype that captures key characteristics, goals, behaviours, and pain points of a segment of the target audience. In accessibility design, pe…
- Visual authoring (Visual content creation)
- The process of creating or editing visual content such as images, graphics, videos, or layouts. Visual authoring has traditionally been one of the least accessible creative activities for blind and lo…
- Visuocentric Design (Visual-First Design, Deaf-Centric Design)
- An approach to interface and content design that prioritizes visual communication and spatial organization, particularly for users of visual languages like sign languages. Visuocentric design recogniz…