Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
229 results found in Research Methods.
- Technology Probe
- A simple, flexible technology deployed in real-world settings to gather data about user needs, preferences, and interaction patterns. Unlike polished prototypes, technology probes are intentionally op…
- Technology acceptance model (TAM, UTAUT)
- A theoretical framework predicting how users come to accept and use a technology, originally proposing that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use determine adoption. The Unified Theory of Acc…
- Testimonial Injustice
- A form of epistemic injustice, articulated by Miranda Fricker, in which a speaker's credibility is unjustly deflated because of prejudice attached to their identity. In accessibility and aging researc…
- Threat Modeling (Security Threat Modeling, STRIDE)
- A structured engineering practice for identifying, categorising, and mitigating security and privacy threats in a system before they are exploited. The widely used STRIDE framework (Microsoft) covers …
- Tiered Mentoring (Near-Peer Mentoring, Cascade Mentoring)
- A mentoring structure in which learners at several stages of development work together, so that each participant has a role model who is only one step ahead of them rather than many. In a tiered model…
- Time Diary (Time Use Diary, Activity Diary)
- A research methodology in which participants record their activities, experiences, or events in real time or near-real time as they occur, rather than recalling them retrospectively. In accessibility …
- Tower of Hanoi (Tower of Hanoi Task, Tower Task)
- The Tower of Hanoi is a classic cognitive assessment puzzle used in neuropsychology and educational research to measure multi-step planning and executive function abilities. The task requires moving a…
- UEQ-S (User Experience Questionnaire - Short, Short UEQ)
- UEQ-S is an eight-item short version of the User Experience Questionnaire, a standardised survey instrument that measures subjective user experience on a 7-point semantic-differential scale. It captur…
- Usability Study (Usability Test, Usability Evaluation)
- A research method that evaluates how easily and effectively users can interact with a product, system, or prototype by observing real users performing tasks. Usability studies measure factors such as …
- User Elicitation (Elicitation study, Gesture elicitation study, User-defined gestures)
- A participatory user-research method, widely used in gesture and interaction design, in which end users or domain experts are shown a desired system effect (a "referent" such as "rotate this object") …
- User Enactment (UE, Experience Prototyping)
- A research method in which participants explore emerging or future technologies through simulated scenarios using physical enactment stages (mockup environments). User enactment combines brainstorming…
- User Engagement Scale (UES, UES-SF)
- A validated self-report questionnaire for measuring user engagement with digital systems across dimensions including focused attention, perceived usability, aesthetic appeal, and reward. Developed by …
- User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ, UEQ-S, Short UEQ)
- A standardised self-report instrument, developed by Schrepp and colleagues, that captures a user's subjective impression of a product across dimensions such as attractiveness, efficiency, perspicuity,…
- 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…
- Valence-Arousal Model (VA Model, Circumplex Model, Valence-Arousal Space)
- A two-dimensional model of affect, introduced by Russell (1980), that represents emotional states along two orthogonal axes: valence (pleasant versus unpleasant) and arousal (activated versus deactiva…
- Value Sensitive Design (VSD)
- A design methodology that accounts for human values in a principled and systematic way throughout the technology design process. Value Sensitive Design integrates three types of investigation: concept…
- Video Coding (Behavioural Video Coding, Video Data Coding)
- A systematic research method in which trained analysts review video recordings to identify, label, and categorise specific behaviours, actions, emotions, or events. In accessibility and usability rese…
- Vignette Study (Vignette-Based Method, Vignette)
- A research method in which participants are presented with short, carefully constructed scenarios describing hypothetical or realistic social situations, then asked to make judgments about appropriate…
- Virtual audit (Remote audit, Virtual streetscape audit, GSV audit)
- A method of assessing the physical environment for accessibility features and barriers using street-level imagery such as Google Street View, rather than conducting in-person site visits. Virtual audi…
- Visual Attention (Attentional Allocation, Gaze Behaviour)
- The cognitive process of selectively focusing on specific parts of the visual field while filtering out other information. Visual attention determines which elements in a scene or interface a person n…