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.

More terms you might want to know

Design Thinking

An iterative process that designers use to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine the problems to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.

Hero Image

The primary graphic that appears at the top of a webpage, designed to grab people's attention.

Cap Height

The distance from the baseline to the top of a capital letter, number, or other upper-case glyphs.

Colour Theory

The study of how colours are related to one another. It is about how we see colour, mix and modify it (according to our needs), and put colour together to achieve the desired mood or atmosphere.

Eye-Tracking

A tool that allows user experience designers, or people who design products and websites with consumers in mind, to track where users look on the screen. Eye-tracking can measure users’ attention and the duration of time they spend on different areas of a website. With this information, websites can create user experience solutions such as buttons with varying colours designed to catch the eye.

Balance

The principle of both sides of an object having a sense of symmetry. It ensures that the weight and visual mass are distributed evenly on both sides of a surface. Balance is more important than symmetry because people don't often notice when something is asymmetrical, but they will always see if something is unbalanced.

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.

Calligraphy

The art of decorative writing practised by many different people in many different cultures. Calligraphy is sometimes used to add a personal touch to wedding invitations, special event invitations, and other projects.

Monochrome

Designs that are created in one colour. It can be any colour, but the whole design will range from light to darker shades. As the name implies, it is typically a single hue, with black and white also being typical combinations for this type of design.

Crop Marks

Also called trim marks, are markings on artwork that tells the printer where to cut the page.

Problem?

Got a suggestion or found an issue with the glossary?
Let me know!