Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
183 results found in research methods.
- Think-Aloud Protocol (Think Aloud, Verbal Protocol Analysis)
- A usability research method in which participants verbalize their thoughts, reactions, and decision-making processes while interacting with a system or performing a task. Think-aloud protocols provide…
- Throughput (Throughput (Fitts), Pointing Throughput)
- In human-computer interaction, throughput is a combined speed-accuracy metric derived from Fitts's law that measures the efficiency of aimed pointing movements, expressed in bits per second (bps). It …
- Topic Modeling (LDA, Latent Dirichlet Allocation)
- A machine learning technique that automatically discovers abstract themes or topics within a collection of documents by analyzing patterns of word co-occurrence. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is t…
- Trouble-Indicating Behavior (TIB, Trouble Source-Repair)
- Verbal or nonverbal behaviors that signal confusion, misunderstanding, or difficulty in communication. In research on dementia and human-robot interaction, TIBs are categorized into types including: r…
- TrueSkill (TrueSkill Bayesian Rating)
- A Bayesian skill-rating algorithm developed at Microsoft Research (Herbrich et al., 2007) that models each player or option as a normal distribution with a mean skill μ and uncertainty σ, updating bot…
- Upper Baseline (Gold Standard, Reference Standard)
- In accessibility evaluation research, an upper baseline is a high-quality reference stimulus used to establish the best achievable performance against which other systems are compared. For sign langua…
- Usability Testing (Usability Evaluation, User Testing)
- A research method in which representative users attempt realistic tasks with a product or prototype while researchers observe and collect data on effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. In access…
- User Participation (User Involvement, Participatory Research, Co-production)
- The active involvement of end users in the design, development, and evaluation of products, services, or systems that affect them. In accessibility contexts, user participation means including people …
- User-Sensitive Inclusive Design (USID)
- A design methodology that adapts user-centered design principles for contexts where the target user population is highly diverse and where individual differences — including those related to disabilit…
- Video Elicitation Study (Video Elicitation Method)
- A research methodology in which participants view video demonstrations of interactions, interfaces, or technologies and then provide feedback, preferences, or reactions based on what they observed. Th…
- Viewability (Video Viewability)
- A subjective measure of how watchable and consumable a video is for a particular viewer, encompassing factors like ability to focus on content, level of distraction, information comprehension, and ove…
- Vulnerable population research (Research with vulnerable groups)
- Research involving participants who may have diminished capacity to provide fully informed consent or who are at elevated risk of harm, including older adults with cognitive decline, people with demen…
- WEIRD Bias (WEIRD Problem)
- The overrepresentation of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations in research, including HCI and accessibility studies. WEIRD bias means that findings, design guide…
- Web Mining (Web Data Mining, Web Content Mining)
- The application of data mining techniques to extract and discover useful information from web data, including web content, structure, and usage patterns. In accessibility evaluation, web mining can be…
- Within-Subject Design (Within-Subjects Design, Repeated Measures Design)
- An experimental research design where each participant is exposed to all conditions being compared, rather than assigning different participants to different conditions. In accessibility user studies,…
- Within-Subjects Study (Within-subject study, Repeated-measures design)
- An experimental design in which every participant experiences every condition being compared, so each person acts as their own control. Within-subjects studies increase statistical power with smaller …
- Wizard of Oz (WOz, Wizard of Oz Study, Wizard of Oz Method)
- A research and prototyping technique in which a human operator (the "wizard") secretly performs functions that participants believe are being handled by the system. This allows researchers to study us…
- Wizard of Oz Study (WOZ Study, Wizard of Oz Method)
- A research method in which participants interact with what they believe is an automated system, but which is actually operated in whole or in part by a human "wizard" hidden from view. The method is u…
- Wizard-of-Oz Prototype (WOz Prototype, WOz Method, Wizard of Oz Study)
- A research and design method where a human operator secretly simulates the behaviour of an interactive system that has not yet been built, allowing participants to experience and evaluate the concept …
- Wizard-of-Oz Study (WoZ Study, Wizard of Oz Protocol)
- A research method in which participants interact with a system they believe is autonomous, but which is actually being partially or fully operated by a human researcher (the "wizard") behind the scene…