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.

More terms you might want to know

User Interface (UI)

A type of graphical interface that allows the user to interact with the application on a screen, such as a computer monitor or smartphone, using various types of input devices.

AI File

An Adobe Illustrator vector format file. Files with the extension .ai are often used for artwork and illustrations as users can resize them without distortion. It is composed of several layers with objects and text on each layer. Users can import Illustrator files into many other programs like InDesign, Acrobat, Photoshop etc. If you design or print your t-shirts, you can create your designs in Illustrator and apply them to your t-shirt using a heat press.

Pagination

A technique used to sequentially present items in a list or other data set that are too long to display at one time.

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.

Onboarding Flow

The process of a new user being brought in to a new product. The design for this process aims to have an effective, efficient, and engaging user experience.

Wordmark

A logo which is usually a combination of text and graphic imagery that acts as the company's symbol.

CSS

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are a language for describing the look and formatting of HTML elements in a webpage.

Bleed

A printing term that describes how close an object is to the edge of a printed page. Bleeds are often used in graphic design for books, magazines, posters and other printed materials with photographs or illustrations.

Contrast

Contrast in design can be accomplished by placing two opposite colours adjacent to one another, creating a focal point within the design that dominates the composition.

Scale

The distance between two points of extrusion or an object. It can also be defined as the measurement of size.

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