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.

More terms you might want to know

Diary Study

A technique for understanding people’s experience of a product or service. Participants are asked to keep daily records of their experience using the product, and these records are taken into consideration when designing the design.

Dark Pattern

A type of user interface design carefully crafted to trick people into doing things they might not want to do.

Miller's Law

An observation in Psychology that suggests that the number of mental objects the average person can keep track of is seven (plus or minus two).

Hard Return

When you need to break a line of text and start on a new line in a text box.

Pixel-perfect

A phrase that is used in reference to someone's work. The term pixel-perfect can be used to describe something as being flawless without any errors.

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.

Type Properties

The attributes of a typeface. Type properties include weight, width, colour and x-height.

Conversion Rate

The number of visits that result in a purchase or some other goal. It can measure any conversion event, such as download, registration, purchase, etc.

Crop

A portion of an image where the remainder is discarded.

Agile Design

A process that involves assigning people to work on different parts of the design and making sure that they focus on one area at a time. This method is an excellent way to release products more quickly and with higher quality.

The most common types of agile methods are Scrum, Kanban, XP and Agile Modeling. It can often be difficult for companies to make the switch because it requires significant changes in how product development occurs.

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