Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
21 results found in design principles.
- Ability Assumptions (Ability-Based Assumptions, Normative Assumptions)
- Ability assumptions are the implicit expectations that technology designers build into systems about users' physical, sensory, and cognitive capabilities. These assumptions — about how fast someone mo…
- Ability-Based Design (ABD)
- A design philosophy that focuses on what users can do rather than what they cannot, adapting systems to leverage each individual's specific abilities. Instead of designing for a "typical" user and the…
- Context-Aware (Context-Aware Design, Context-Sensitive)
- An approach to designing systems, content, or interfaces that adapt their behavior or output based on the context in which they are used, including the user's goals, the platform or source where conte…
- Crosscutting Concern (Cross-Cutting Concern)
- In software engineering, a crosscutting concern is a requirement or feature that affects multiple modules of a system and cannot be cleanly decomposed into a single component. Accessibility is a class…
- Gestalt Grouping Principles (Gestalt Principles, Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization)
- A set of principles from perceptual psychology that describe how the human visual system organizes individual elements into coherent groups and patterns. Key principles include spatial proximity (elem…
- Graceful degradation (Graceful degradation)
- A design strategy in which web content built with newer or advanced technologies continues to function and remain accessible when those technologies are not supported by a user's browser or assistive …
- Human-AI Interaction (HAI, Human-AI Collaboration, AI Interaction Design)
- The study and design of how people interact with artificial intelligence systems, including how AI communicates its outputs, uncertainty, and limitations to users. Key principles include making AI beh…
- Multi-Modal (Multi-Modality, Multimodal Interaction)
- An approach to presenting information or enabling interaction through multiple sensory channels simultaneously, such as combining visual, auditory, and tactile outputs. In accessibility, multi-modal d…
- Multi-Sensory Design (Multisensory Experience, Multi-Sensory Accessibility)
- Multi-sensory design is an approach to creating experiences, environments, or products that engage multiple senses—touch, hearing, smell, taste, and sight—rather than relying predominantly on vision. …
- Notification Fatigue (Alert Fatigue, Information Overload)
- Notification fatigue is a state in which users become desensitized to or overwhelmed by frequent alerts, notifications, or information delivery from a device or system, causing them to ignore or tune …
- Ocularcentrism (Visual Bias, Vision-Centrism)
- The privileging of visual perception and visual ways of knowing in the design of technologies, interfaces, and information systems. Ocularcentrism in technology design manifests when visual assumption…
- Opportunistic Accessibility (Opportunistic Accessibility Improvement)
- Opportunistic accessibility is an approach to improving digital accessibility in which enhancements are automatically applied to the maximum extent possible without causing negative side effects. Rath…
- Resilience (Psychological resilience, Dementia resilience)
- Resilience refers to the dynamic capacity of an individual to adapt positively in the face of adversity and to maintain or recover a satisfactory level of psychological and functional well-being. In t…
- Risk-Free Exploration (Safe Exploration)
- Risk-free exploration is a design principle for making touchscreen interfaces accessible to blind users by enabling them to explore the screen surface without accidentally triggering interface actions…
- Situationally Induced Impairment (SIID, Situational Impairment, Situational Disability)
- A temporary functional limitation caused by environmental or contextual factors rather than a permanent health condition or disability. Examples include difficulty using a phone while walking (reduced…
- Slow Design
- Slow design is a design philosophy that emphasizes thoughtful, reflective, and sustained engagement over efficiency and speed. Inspired by the slow food movement, it values deeper contemplation, longe…
- Story Completer
- A design role for generative AI in storytelling, proposed by Niu, Clements, and Kim (2026), in which AI systems complete and enrich stories authored by human creators rather than generating full story…
- Tactile Contrast
- The degree of perceptible difference between adjacent or co-occurring tactile elements, analogous to visual contrast in graphic design. In tactile graphics, sufficient contrast between neighboring reg…
- Trauma-Informed Care (TIC, Trauma-Informed Approach)
- A framework originating in social work practice that asks organisations and service providers to recognise the widespread impact of trauma on the people they serve and to integrate that understanding …
- Universal Usability
- An approach to technology design that aims to make systems usable by the widest possible range of people, including children, older adults, people with various impairments, people engaged in other tas…