PSD File

A digital file created in Adobe's illustration and photo manipulation software Photoshop. PSD files are used to edit images, create graphics, art, icons, images, among a plethora of other things.

More terms you might want to know

Thumbnail Sketch

A quick and rough sketch of what you are about to work on. Good for getting the ideas out of your head and onto the page while you're still in that creative phase.

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.

Die Cut

A type of print/design created with a metal stamp to create a shape out of paper using a die cutting machine. Die cuts can be used in apparel, home decor and promotional products.

Typography

The art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed.

Infinite Scroll

Generally used when a page has so much content that it would be impossibly long to load the entire page at once. Infinite scroll consists of an auto-generated list of items that constantly loads new items as they load off the bottom of the screen.

Bowl

In typography, a bowl is a curved shape used to control the area of white space.

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.

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.

UX Audit

A discipline that analyses the usability of an application by assessing its interaction design and user experience.

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.

Problem?

Got a suggestion or found an issue with the glossary?
Let me know!