Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
126 results found in Interaction Design.
- Cognitive Forcing Function (Cognitive Forcing)
- A design technique that deliberately disrupts automatic cognitive processing to prompt users to engage in more deliberate, analytical thinking. In human-AI interaction, cognitive forcing functions are…
- Command-Line Interface (CLI, Command-Driven Interface, Command Interface)
- A user interface style in which the user types textual commands, usually following a defined syntax, to drive a system. Command-line interfaces are typically fast and powerful for expert users, script…
- Confidence score (Certainty score, Prediction confidence)
- A numerical value (typically 0-100% or 0-1) indicating how certain an AI system is about its prediction or classification. In accessibility contexts, communicating confidence scores to users — particu…
- Consent Model (Consent Framework)
- A prescriptive framework specifying how consent should be requested, given, sustained, and revoked in a particular interaction context. Examples include affirmative consent (explicit verbal agreement)…
- Content Prioritization (Content Ranking, Element Prioritization)
- The process of ranking or scoring web page elements by their relevance or importance to a user's task, enabling the interface to highlight critical content and de-emphasize less relevant material. Con…
- Continuous Specification (Continuous Positioning, Continuous Cursor Movement)
- In cursor control interfaces, a positioning method where the cursor moves steadily in a given direction at a controlled rate until the user signals it to stop. This approach allows precise positioning…
- Conversational AI (Chat AI, AI Chatbot)
- Artificial intelligence systems designed to engage in dialogue with users through natural language, including chatbots, virtual assistants, and generative AI interfaces. Conversational AI has accessib…
- Conversational Gesture (Interaction Gesture, Dialogue Primitive)
- A conversational gesture is an atomic building block of human-computer dialogue — a simple, well-defined interaction pattern that enables communication between user and machine. In graphical user inte…
- Conversational Interface (Conversational UI, Conversational User Interface, Chat Interface)
- An interface that enables interaction through natural language dialogue, either spoken or text-based, rather than through traditional graphical controls like buttons and menus. Conversational interfac…
- Coordinated Views (Linked Views, Coordinated Multiple Views, Brushing and Linking)
- A data visualization technique in which multiple representations of the same dataset are displayed simultaneously and kept synchronized, so that actions in one view (such as selecting, filtering, or s…
- Crossing-Based Interaction (Goal Crossing)
- An alternative to traditional point-and-click interaction where users select a target by dragging across its boundary rather than tapping or clicking on it. Instead of requiring a precise tap within a…
- Cursor Control (Pointer Control, Cursor Navigation)
- The ability to direct and position an on-screen cursor or pointer using an input device such as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, joystick, or eye tracker. Cursor control is a fundamental requirement for …
- Customizable Interface (Configurable Interface, User-Customizable UI)
- A user interface that allows individuals to modify its appearance, behavior, or content display according to their preferences and needs. In accessibility contexts, customizable interfaces enable user…
- Dead Time (Wait Time, Idle Time)
- In scanning-based assistive technology interfaces, the period during which a user must passively wait before they can make their next input action. In row-column scanning, dead time occurs while waiti…
- Deictic Gesture (Pointing Gesture)
- A deictic gesture is a pointing or indicating motion (typically with a finger, but also with gaze, head, or tool) that directs another person's attention to a specific referent in the shared environme…
- Design Sprint (Google Design Sprint)
- A structured, time-constrained design methodology originally developed at Google Ventures that guides teams through five phases — Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test — to rapidly solve design pro…
- Designing with Friction (Friction by Design)
- An HCI design stance, associated with Matthias Korn and Amy Voida, that argues for deliberately introducing friction into interactive systems to surface politics, provoke reflection, and enable democr…
- Dialogue Design (Interaction Dialogue, User Dialogue Design)
- Dialogue design in human-computer interaction refers to the structured planning of the conversational exchange between a user and a system, defining how input is accepted, how the system responds, and…
- Discrete Specification (Discrete Positioning, Grid-Based Positioning)
- In cursor control interfaces, a positioning method where the user selects from a finite set of predefined locations to move the cursor to an approximate position quickly. Examples include grid-based s…
- Dwell Activation (Dwell Click, Dwell Selection)
- An input method where an action is triggered by maintaining focus on a target for a specified period of time (the dwell time). Commonly used with eye tracking and head tracking systems, dwell activati…