Letterpress

A printing press that uses movable type and punches to make impressions on paper.

More terms you might want to know

DPI

The print resolution of a printer. It's a measure of how many dots per inch can be printed on paper. Higher DPI means more detail and smoother transitions between colours.

Fitts' Law

A prediction model used in human-computer interaction. It states that the time required to move to a target area rapidly increases as the distance to the target increases. The law was proposed by Paul Fitts, an American psychologist, in 1954 as a mathematical model of movement with limited cognitive capacity.

Fitts hypothesized that one would quickly select its first apparent target when reaching for an object before considering alternatives — a phenomenon called "target fixation." This tendency would increase progressively with increased distance between the subject and object until it eventually became exponential (i.e., too far away).

Small Caps

Small uppercase letters, generally about half as tall as regular uppercase letters.

User Research

A field of study that aims to understand the user experience of a product or service. Conducting UX research includes interviewing, observing, and surveying users. Understanding the user experience is important because it helps designers understand how to design a better product that will be more appealing and usable for people.

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.

Skeuomorphism

The use of design features that are shaped to resemble a familiar object or thing in order to facilitate user interaction.

PPI

PPI stands for Point Per Inch. PPI is the number of dots per inch in a printer's resolution or the number of pixels per inch in a monitor's screen resolution. The more PPI, the higher your image quality will be as it becomes sharper and clearer. The lower your PPI, the lower your image quality will be, and the more likely you'll see individual pixels in an image.

HEART Framework

A framework that helps a company evaluate any aspect of its user experience according to five metrics, which form the acronym HEART. These metrics are: 1. Happiness 2. Engagement 3. Adoption 4. Retention 5. Task success

Eye-Tracking

A tool that allows user experience designers, or people who design products and websites with consumers in mind, to track where users look on the screen. Eye-tracking can measure users’ attention and the duration of time they spend on different areas of a website. With this information, websites can create user experience solutions such as buttons with varying colours designed to catch the eye.

Crop

A portion of an image where the remainder is discarded.

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