Hick's Law

A well-known cognitive psychologist's principle that says that the time it takes to make a decision varies logarithmically according to the number of choices. As more options are presented, more decision time is required due to the mental work of comparing and contrasting each potential option.

More terms you might want to know

JPEG Image

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group, an international standards body that sets standards for creating and handling compressed digital images. The JPEG file format was designed to balance good visual quality and small file size, typically through lossy compression. The JPEG file format is widely used as a means of compressing digital images, particularly those produced by digital cameras.

Font Type

Most typefaces are classified into one of five basic classifications: serif, sans serif, script, monospaced, and display.

Grid

A system of columns and rows designers use to create layouts. It's used in graphic design and web development to align elements for easy use on the page. Grids are a key part of design because they help you create balance, rhythm, proportion and hierarchy in your layout.

Italics

A type of typographical contrast used to convey emphasis. Italics were initially developed for the printing press and are now widely used in print, web design, public signs and labelling systems.

Affordance

Affordances describe a relationship between the environment and an animate object, classified as either positive or negative.

Items, such as a car that leads to movement, have a positive affordance. Things like stairs that lead upwards have a negative affordance because they will not allow for any other form of movement other than up or down if used accordingly.

Left-aligned

Text that flows from left to right and is the default reading direction of a page with its content aligned on the left margin.

Analogous Colours

Colours that have a relation in their hue. A colour wheel can be used to help identify analogous colours. Analogous colours are typically found next to each other on the colour wheel.

System Font

A type of font that comes pre-installed in an operating system.

Opacity

The measure of how easily light passes through a material. It is a quantitative characteristic that can be represented as a number within the range of [0, 1], and in some cases [0%,100%], with lower numbers indicating higher transparency.

Mock-up

A non-functional first draft of a design.

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