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

Body-storming

A UX design technique to explore and map out a service, product, or system through physical navigation, often completed at the start of a design process to provide designers with an understanding of how users will navigate the system. In addition, body-storming can be used in development to test functionality or measure ease of use.

Type Classification

A system used to describe and identify typefaces by their basic visual characteristics.

Warm Colours

Colours on the same side of the colour wheel as red, such as pink, orange and yellow.

Kerning

The process of adjusting the spacing between individual letters to improve or avoid particular visual distortions.

Typesetting

The process of arranging type to make written material readable. The arrangement of type involves decisions about individual letters and words (e.g. line spacing, letter spacing, and word spacing) and more significant page layout decisions (e.g., margins, headline position on the page).

ID

A selector that can be applied to any HTML element. ID should be used when designing for a single instance, such as using the id="main" attribute on an <h1> tag.

Stock Photo

A photograph that is purchased and licensed for exclusive use by an individual or business.

TIFF File

A Tagged Image File Format is a file format for storing images losslessly.

Scope Creep

Scope creep is when the scope of a project starts to grow without any agreement on how it's going to be paid for. Creep happens because items and features are tacked on top of the original scope of work agreed upon in the original contract.

Bold

A greater typographic weight than the standard typeface, often used to highlight text that the writer wants to emphasise or denote sections, headlines or quotes in printed material.

Bold type is a little heavier than the average type because of its higher contrast, making it more readable. The opposite of bold type is light type, also known as regular or book.

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