x-height

The distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Nearby descenders (such as j) and ascenders (such as q) usually extend slightly below or above this height.

More terms you might want to know

RAW Image

A digital image captured by a digital camera or scanner that has not been processed in any way by the camera software.

Onboarding Flow

The process of a new user being brought in to a new product. The design for this process aims to have an effective, efficient, and engaging user experience.

Type Properties

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

Hamburger Menu

A well-known UI element in computer applications. It's an expandable menu of context-specific commands typically launched from the application's main menu.

Fishbone Diagram

Also known as an Ishikawa diagram, is a widely used technique in project management. The diagram provides a means of evaluating the cause-and-effect relationship between the various activities necessary for completing a project by visualising all activities in the project as bones that interconnect on an anterior and posterior spine, with causality flowing from one to another.

Information Architecture

The art and science of arranging information so that it's intuitive to find, easy to navigate, presents a cohesive design, meets accessibility guidelines, looks attractive on any device or screen size and ultimately drives behaviour change.

Hex Code

A way of expressing colours on digital media. To specify a hex code, you need to consider the three primary colours: red, green and blue. The hex code is always six characters long and looks like this: #RRGGBB and their values range from 00 to FF.

Clickstream

A sequence of user actions on a website. In UX design, it's important to note the order in which users interact with your site so you can redesign it for optimum usability.

Brutalism

A style of architecture and design that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Brutalist buildings are typically characterised by durability, simplicity, and an emphasis on form following function. Brutalism is not a single style but an umbrella term for architecture with a stark and futuristic look.

Typography

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

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