Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
25 results found in user research.
- Accessibility Persona (Disability Persona, Inclusive Persona)
- A detailed, realistic description of a hypothetical user with specific disabilities, assistive technology configurations, and usage contexts, used during design and evaluation to help teams consider a…
- Best-Worst Scaling (BWS, Maximum Difference Scaling, MaxDiff)
- A survey methodology for efficiently collecting ranking judgments from participants over a large set of items. Instead of asking participants to rank all items at once (which becomes cognitively overw…
- Content Wants (Information Wants, Content Preferences)
- The specific types of information that a user desires or needs from a piece of content, as opposed to information needs imposed by an external system or standard. In image accessibility research, cont…
- Contextual Inquiry (CI, Contextual Interview)
- A user research method in which a researcher observes and interviews a participant in their natural work or living environment while they perform their typical tasks. The researcher adopts an apprenti…
- Deployment Study (Field Deployment, In-the-Wild Study)
- A research method where technology is placed in users' real-world environments for an extended period to observe natural usage patterns, adoption behaviors, and long-term experiences. Unlike controlle…
- Experience Sampling Method (ESM, Ecological Momentary Assessment, EMA)
- A research methodology that collects data about participants' experiences, behaviors, and states in real time and in natural settings through repeated brief surveys or prompts delivered at predetermin…
- Extreme Users (Lead Users, Edge Cases)
- A design methodology that focuses on a small set of users with unusual, demanding, or outlying needs rather than statistically representative users. Developed by Pullin and Newell (2007), the approach…
- Focus Group (Focus Group Discussion, Group Interview)
- A qualitative research method in which a small group of participants (typically 3-10) with shared characteristics discuss a topic guided by a moderator, allowing researchers to explore perspectives, o…
- GenderMag (Gender-Inclusiveness Magnifier, GenderMag Method)
- GenderMag (Gender-Inclusiveness Magnifier) is an inclusive design inspection method for finding and fixing inclusivity bugs in problem-solving software. It uses five facets of problem-solving style th…
- In-situ Study (In-situ evaluation, Field study)
- A user study conducted in the real-world setting where the technology would actually be used (a museum floor, a corridor with passersby, a commuter train), rather than in a controlled lab or via remot…
- Older Adults (Seniors, Elderly, Aging Population, Senior Citizens)
- People typically aged 65 and above who may experience age-related changes in vision, hearing, motor control, and cognition that affect how they interact with technology. Designing for older adults req…
- Persona (User Persona, Design Persona)
- A fictional but research-based representation of a user group that captures key characteristics, goals, motivations, and needs. In accessibility work, personas are used to represent the diverse experi…
- Persona (User Persona, Design Persona)
- A fictional character created to represent a type of user who might interact with a product, service, or website. Personas are grounded in research data and typically include details such as name, age…
- Problem-Solving Style (Problem-Solving Facets, GenderMag Facets)
- Problem-solving style refers to the characteristic ways individuals approach technology-mediated problem-solving tasks. In inclusive design, particularly in the GenderMag method, problem-solving style…
- Retrospective Protocol (Retrospective Think Aloud, Retrospective Verbal Protocol, Post-Task Protocol)
- A usability evaluation method in which participants complete tasks first and then describe their thought processes, decisions, and experiences immediately afterwards, rather than verbalising concurren…
- Scanpath (Gaze Path, Eye Movement Path)
- The sequence of fixations and saccades (rapid eye movements) that represent how a person visually explores an interface or document. In accessibility and usability research, scanpath analysis reveals …
- Sentiment Analysis (Opinion Mining)
- A natural language processing technique that identifies and extracts subjective information from text, classifying it as positive, negative, or neutral. In accessibility research, sentiment analysis c…
- Surrogate Users (Proxy Users)
- Individuals who stand in for actual end users during design and evaluation processes, typically used when direct user involvement is impractical, ethically problematic, or insufficient. In accessibili…
- Tactile Ideation (Tactile Design Workshop, Non-Visual Ideation)
- A design methodology adapted for people with visual disabilities that replaces visual ideation techniques (such as sketching, post-it notes, and ideation cards) with tactile and auditory alternatives.…
- Technology Acceptance (Technology Adoption, TAM)
- The process by which individuals evaluate, adopt, and integrate new technology into their routines, often modeled through frameworks like the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which emphasizes perceiv…