A/B Testing

A statistical method in which two variants of the same activity are compared against each other (typically with several variants), one at a time, and the most effective variant is selected.

More terms you might want to know

Class

A selector that can be applied to any HTML element. Classes should be used when designing for multiple instances. For example, if you want all <h1> tags in the website to look blue, then you could use the class="blue-text" attribute.

Foil Stamping

The process of applying a thin layer of foil to paper coated with adhesive on one side.

Design Debt

A concept used in systems design to describe the negative consequences of making seemingly innocuous design changes. Shorthand for a product's delayed but inevitable need to be reworked due to earlier, seemingly trivial decisions not having been fully thought through in the original release.

Designers incur this "debt" by making quick and easy choices that save time in the present but cause more complex problems later on down the road when it becomes necessary to change or add something.

Small Caps

Small uppercase letters, generally about half as tall as regular uppercase letters.

Rule of Thirds

A rule of thumb used in photography to create more visually appealing images which states that an image should be composed so that the subject or focus of the image occupies one-third of the picture space, with two equal vertical lines dividing their composition into two.

Mock-up

A non-functional first draft of a design.

Pixel

A pixel, or a picture element, is the smallest addressable element in a display device.

Widow

The last line of a paragraph following the rest, or a single line in a paragraph that is out of place with the rest.

Tracking

The adjustment of all characters in a line by moving them closer together or farther apart.

Heuristic Evaluation

A usability assessment method that is used to evaluate a design against established usability principles or heuristics. It is based on the idea that designers can use their experience to find areas of poor design without extensive user testing.

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