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

Legibility

How well or poorly something can be read.

Bottom Navigation

One of the most common types of navigation in UI design. It's usually a system of one or more horizontal buttons placed at the bottom of the screen, directing users to other parts of an app or website. Bottom navigation is often used as an alternative to scrolling or tabbing through links on a page.

Thumbnail

A small, non-preview image that accompanies a larger image. It provides an immediate sense of the content while not necessarily revealing it in its entire scope.

Leading

All available space (line-height) between two consecutive lines of text; this measurement should be adjusted for either ascenders or descenders. In hand typesetting, leading referred to thin strips of lead inserted by hand between lines of type in the composing stick to increase vertical distance.

Pica

A unit of measurement that equals 1/6 of an inch, or 1/72 of a foot.

Complementary Colours

Colours that directly across the colour wheel, like blue and orange. When you put these colours next to each other, they make a great contrast together. Complementary colours are often found in nature.

Layout

Layout is a defining characteristic of design. It dictates the positioning of content and design elements. Layouts can range from the simple, such as a four- or two-column layout, to more complex designs like grids with multiple hierarchy levels.

Pilcrow

Also called a paragraph mark, a paragraph sign or section marker, is a typographical character for separating paragraphs. It looks like a "ΒΆ".

Cap Height

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

RGB

Red, green, and blue. These colours can be used to form a wide variety of colours in different devices such as computer monitors and televisions.

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