Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
91 results found in design.
- Game accessibility (Gaming accessibility, Accessible gaming)
- The practice of designing video games and interactive entertainment so they can be played and enjoyed by people with disabilities. Game accessibility encompasses a wide range of considerations includi…
- Gamification
- The application of game design elements — such as points, rewards, competition, collection mechanics, and progress tracking — in non-game contexts to increase engagement and motivation. In accessibili…
- HSL (Hue Saturation Luminosity, HSL Color Model, HSB)
- A colour model that represents colours using three components: Hue (the type of colour, such as red, green, or blue, expressed as a degree on a colour wheel from 0 to 360), Saturation (the purity or i…
- Haptic (Haptic feedback, Haptic interface)
- Relating to the sense of touch as a means of interaction between a user and a device. Haptic interfaces include braille displays that raise and lower pins to represent text, vibration motors in mobile…
- Hofstede Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, Hofstede Model)
- A framework by social psychologist Geert Hofstede characterising national cultures along dimensions such as Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus…
- Human-Centered Design (HCD, User-Centered Design, UCD)
- A design approach that prioritizes the needs, capabilities, and experiences of end users throughout the design process. Popularized by IDEO and formalized in ISO 9241-210, human-centered design involv…
- Inclusive Co-Design (Inclusive Participatory Design)
- A design methodology that ensures people from typically marginalized groups, including people with intellectual disabilities, are meaningfully included throughout the technology design process as equa…
- Information chunking (Chunking)
- The practice of organizing information into smaller, manageable groups or segments to reduce cognitive load and improve comprehension and retention. Rooted in cognitive psychology research on working …
- Instructional design (Learning design)
- The systematic process of creating educational or instructional materials and experiences that facilitate effective learning and task completion. In accessibility, instructional design principles ensu…
- Intentional Sensory Stimulation
- A design approach for technology that deliberately leverages optimal sensory modes — visual, auditory, haptic, or multimodal — to facilitate comprehension and engagement, rather than simply reducing i…
- Interaction metaphor
- A conceptual mapping that allows users to understand and interact with a digital interface by drawing on familiar experiences or mental models. Common examples include the desktop metaphor (files, fol…
- Intrinsic accessibility
- A property of a user interface whose underlying architecture inherently supports adaptation across a broad range of user capabilities, as distinct from functional accessibility which addresses specifi…
- Journey Mapping (Journey Map)
- A qualitative research and design method in which participants describe a trip, task, or experience step-by-step across sequential phases (e.g., pre-trip, in-trip, post-trip), identifying the tools th…
- Mark
- An elementary entity capable of perception within a spatial substrate. In the visual design space, marks include points, lines, circles, and areas — the basic building blocks from which all visual rep…
- Material Experience (Material Aesthetics, Material Interaction)
- The multidimensional way people perceive, interpret, and emotionally respond to the physical materials of objects they interact with. The materials experience framework categorizes these experiences i…
- Medicalised Aesthetic (Medical Model Design, Clinical Aesthetic)
- A design approach in assistive technology that prioritises clinical functionality over personal style, resulting in devices that visually signal disability through neutral, institutional-looking form …
- Mixed-Initiative Design (Mixed-Initiative Interaction)
- An interaction design approach in which both the system and the user can take initiative in directing the flow of interaction, rather than one party being entirely in control. In accessibility context…
- Mixed-ability group (Mixed-ability setting, Inclusive group)
- A group composed of individuals with and without disabilities who participate together in shared activities such as research, education, or design. Mixed-ability groups are valued in accessibility pra…
- Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration (Multi-Stakeholder Design)
- A collaborative approach that involves diverse groups of people with different roles, expertise, and lived experiences in the design and development process. In accessible design, multi-stakeholder co…
- Ocular normativity (Ocularcentrism, Ocular norm, Visual normativity)
- A concept from critical disability studies describing the cultural assumption that sight is the primary, most reliable, and most natural mode of knowing and perceiving the world. Ocular normativity po…