Welcome to the design team glossary! If you hear a buzzword in the office, read some gibberish on Slack or get an instruction from the developers and you’re not sure what they are referring to, please visit this amazing page.

Here you can find:

• Terms that you encounter when working with your project team. Miscommunication sometimes happens inside project teams because different people use different names for the same things.
• Terms that PMs, Organizations team and your Team Leads use every day when scheduling and leading projects.
• The language of designers.
• The language of developers.
• Business and Sales terms.

💡  Use ⌘CMD+F to search for a specific term

Abbreviations

• API (Application Programming Interface) - Roughly said, an API is defined as a development specification of possible interactions with a software component. #dev #tech #projects
• CI (Corporate identity) - a brand or visual identity from a company or corporation. Usually comes with a set of strict branding guidelines. #design #marketing #projects
• CTA (Call to Action) - usually refers to a button or other UI element which prominently invites the user to take action on a website or in an app (i.e. buy, add to cart, etc.). #design #projects
• DP (Density Independent Pixels) - an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. #design #projects #android
• EOD (End of the Day) - usually refers to a deadline set by yourself or your project manager. #projects
• EOY (End of the Year) - usually refers to a project deadline or quarterly goal deadline. #projects #team
• FAT (Factory Acceptance Testing) - a form of user acceptance testing common in the industry. #agile #scrum #qa #projects
• FT (Full time) - eight working hours per day. #scheduling #projects
• HT (Half time) - four working hours per day. #scheduling #projects
• IoT (Internet of Things) - is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. For example smart home system and devices. #tech #projects
• KPI (Key performance indicator) - a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives (goals). #projects #management
• MVP (Minimum viable product) - a version of the product with just enough features to satisfy the needs of early customers and provide feedback for future product development. #projects
• OKR (Objectives and key results) - a goal-setting framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes. The intention is providing teams with visibility of goals with the intention to align and focus effort. #projects #team
• PM (Project Manager) - a member of the project team which has a responsibility of communicating with the client, following the budget and deadlines and keeping track of work delivered on the project. #projects #role
• PoC (Proof of Concept) - realization of a certain idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration with the goal of verifying that some concept or proposal has a great potential in the real world. #design #projects
• PR (Pull Request) - Pull requests are part of the usual development process. They let you tell others about changes you've pushed to a branch in a repository on GitHub. Once a pull request is opened, you can discuss and review the potential changes with collaborators and add follow-up commits before your changes are merged into the base branch. #dev #projects
• PX (Pixel) - A unit for measuring dimensions on a screen and is used when precise design is required. Move the card by 8px to the left. Increase the font by 2px. #design #typography
• QA (Quality Assurance) - a member of the project team which has a responsibility of testing the apps and websites, finding bugs and reporting to developers and designers what needs to be fixed tech-wise and UX-wise. #projects #role
• QT (Quarter time) - two working hours per day. #scheduling #projects
• RFP (Request for Proposal) - before we sign the official contract, the clients want to see a business proposal from our sales team. Usually our proposal includes time estimates, process overview and budget ballpark. Sometimes an RFP can also include a request for a few screens. Then, it becomes more like a pitch, where we need to show off our skills and expertise. #business #pitch #sales
• ROI (Return on Investment) - is a financial metric that is widely used to measure the probability of gaining a return from an investment. It's the ratio. between net profit and cost of investment, one way of relating profits to capital investments. #business #projects
• SDK (Software development kit) - a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They ease creation of applications by having compiler, debugger and perhaps a software framework. To create applications with advanced functionalities such as push notifications, photopay, OCR scanning etc; most application software developers use specific software development kits. #dev #tech #projects
• SS - just a screenshot. #design #everyday
• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) - a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of the business. #projects #discovery #marketing
• UAT (User Acceptance Testing) - high-level tests to verify the completeness of a user story or stories 'played' during any sprint/iteration. #agile #scrum #qa #projects
• UT (Usability Testing) - often refers to usability testing.
• UX (User Experience) - the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users. #design #projects
• WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) - a set of recommendations for making Web content more accessible, primarily for people with disabilities — but also for all user agents, including highly limited devices, such as mobile phones. #design #dev #projects

A

• Accessibility - Accessibility is the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone— however they encounter it. Accessibility laws exist to aid people with disabilities, but designers should try to accommodate all potential users in many contexts of use anyway. Designers usually need to keep an eye on: color contrast, font sizes and font legibility, screen ergonomics and element hit areas, haptic feedback, photosensitive content, etc. #design #dev #projects
• Agile - refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile is a time boxed, iterative approach to software delivery that builds software incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end. It works by breaking projects down into little bits of user functionality called user stories, prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short two week cycles called iterations. Usually it’s organized in two-week design sprints followed by development sprint. #projects #management #agile
• Alert - Alerts convey important information related to the state of your app or the device, and often request feedback. An alert consists of a title, an optional message, one or more buttons, and optional text fields for gathering input. Aside from these configurable elements, the visual appearance of an alert is static and can’t be customized. #design #dev #ios
• App environments - An environment is the application's mechanism for bringing together components with the agent that deploys them. Environments are typically modeled on some stage of the software project lifecycle, such as development, QA, or production.
  • Development (local)
  • Test - environment for QA testing. Doesn’t have anything to do with the final app.
  • Staging - web environment for testing and content before the official production release
  • Production - final environment that companies launch to the users
• Artboard - A name for a page (screen) in Sketch design software and Adobe products. On an artboard you design the screen elements and you can link them into prototypes. #design #projects

B

• Backlog - a list of tasks/requirements for a software product in development. If something is in the backlog it is usually low on the priority list. #dev #projects #agile
• Ballpark estimate - A ballpark estimate or figure is a number that is a guess, but one that you believe is near the correct number. #business #sales #projects
• Box model - In CSS, the term "box model" is used when talking about design and layout. The CSS box model is essentially a box that wraps around every HTML element. It consists of: margins, borders, padding, and the actual content. #dev #web

C

• Card - A UI element with a simple layout consisting of the background, an image and a few containers. These containers might hold an image, a CTA button, a title or subtitle. It is an interesting solution to designers when it comes to visually representing information in content heavy situations. #design #dev #projects
• Contrast - In WCAG, a contrast is a measure of the difference in perceived "luminance" or brightness between two colors (the phrase "color contrast" is never used). We check color contrast to make sure our designs are visually accessible to most of the people. #design #projects
• Copy (Text) - Content written in specific tone & voice for a certain magazine, service, app, website, advertisement, etc. #design #projects #marketing
• Copywriting - the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. UX copy is written content that aims to increase usability and engagement and ultimately persuade a person to take a particular action. #design #projects #marketing

D

• Decision maker - a person, usually from the client team, responsible for making key decisions that move the project forward. #projects #role
• Dialog - Dialogs inform users about a task and can contain critical information, require decisions, or involve multiple tasks. There are four types of dialogs: Alert, Simple, Confirmation, Full-screen. The alert style is the only style supported on iOS. #design #dev #android

E

• Edge case - a use case or a situation which can rarely happen, and is often unexpected or overlooked while designing or programming. While designing, you need to make sure you cover all edge cases. #design #dev #projects #qa
• Em - a unit of measurement that originates from the world of printed type. Using this as a unit in typography, this measurement is equal to the currently specified point size. For example, one em in a 16-point typeface is 16 points. This unit is the same for all typefaces at a given point size. When you see 1.5 em, that would make it 24 pixels. Using em and rem units gives us flexibility in our designs, and the ability to scale elements up and down, instead of being stuck with fixed sizes. #design #typography #web

F

• Feature - in software development features are the “tools” you use within a system to complete a set of tasks or actions. Functionality is how those features actually work to provide you with a desired outcome. #design #dev #projects
• Font - In metal typesetting, a font was a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font was a matched set of type, one piece (called a "sort") for each glyph, and a typeface consisting of a range of fonts that shared an overall design. In modern usage, with the advent of digital typography, "font" is frequently synonymous with "typeface". Each style is in a separate "font file"—for instance, the typeface "Bulmer" may include the fonts "Bulmer roman", "Bulmer", "Bulmer bold" and "Bulmer extended"—but the term "font" might be applied either to one of these alone or to the whole typeface. #design #typography
• Font Weight - The weight of a particular font is the thickness of the character outlines relative to their height. #design #typography
• Frame - A name for a page (screen) in Figma design software. With frames you design the screens, screen elements and link them into prototypes. #design #projects
• Framework - A software framework is a concrete or conceptual platform where common code with generic functionality can be selectively specialized or overridden by developers or users. Frameworks take the form of libraries, where a well-defined application program interface (API) is reusable anywhere within the software under development. The purpose of software framework is to simplify the development environment, allowing developers to dedicate their efforts to the project requirements, rather than dealing with the framework’s mundane, repetitive functions and libraries. A good example of framework is ant.design. #design #dev #projects
• F-shaped pattern - The F-Pattern describes the most common user eye-scanning patterns when it comes to blocks of content. ‘F’ means fast. That’s how users scan content on the web. This pattern came out of an NN Group eyetracking study. Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This eye movement forms the top part of the ’F.’Next, they scan a vertical line down the left side of the screen, looking for points of interest in the paragraph’s initial sentences. When they found something interesting they read a line and this eye movement forms a second horizontal line of the ‘F.’ The second line typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. #design #projects #web

G

• Gamification - the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an digital marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service. #design #projects
• Grid - a grid is a structure (usually two-dimensional) made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) or curved lines (grid lines) used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature or framework on which a designer can organize graphic elements (images, glyphs, paragraphs, etc.) in a rational, easy-to-absorb manner. #design
• Growth hacking - Growth hacking is a relatively new field in marketing focused on growth. It started in relation to early-stage startups who need massive growth in a short time on small budgets, but has since then also reached bigger corporate companies. The goal of growth hacking strategies is generally to acquire as many users or customers as possible while spending as little as possible. A growth hacking team is made up of marketers, developers, engineers and product managers that specifically focus on building and engaging the user base of a business. #projects #business #marketing

H

• Heading - a title at the head of a page or section of a book. #design #projects #web
• Hex code - A color hex code is a hexadecimal way to represent a color in RGB format by combining three values – the amounts of red, green and blue in a particular shade of color. For example #D8262C. #design #projects
• Highlight Text - The ability to change colors and highlights of individual words opens a lot of possibilities for your content. It can bring life to an otherwise monotonous tagline. It can also be used to emphasize branding points that are important to you and your audience. #design #projects #web
• Hit area - touch target; a touchable area of an interactive element such as a button or an input field. The bigger the hit area, the better for the user. #design #dev #projects
• Hover - A hover state in an interactive element communicates when a user has placed a cursor above an interactive element. #design #projects #web

I

• Icon - a graphic symbol on a computer display screen that represents an app, an object (such as a file), or a function (such as the command to save). #design #dev #projects
• Illustration - a picture, drawing or diagram that helps make something clear or attractive. #design #projects
• Input field - text fields which allow user input. Input can be free text, a number stepper, etc. #design #dev #projects

J

• JavaScript - JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at — displaying timely content updates, interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, etc. — you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved. It is the third layer of the layer cake of standard web technologies, among HTML and CSS. Don’t ever mix JavaScript with Java! #design #projects #web

K

• Kerning the spacing between letters or characters in a piece of text to be printed. #design #typography

L

• Layout (hr. prijelom) - A design layout refers to the way in which we arrange the elements on a page which makes up the content of a design. The aim of layout is both to convey the message correctly and to present information in a logical, coherent way making the important elements stand out. #design #projects
• Leading - the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies. In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to increase the vertical distance between them. #design #typography
• Library - A software library generally consists of pre-written code, classes, procedures, scripts, configuration data and more. Typically, a developer might manually add a software library to a program to achieve more functionality or to automate a process without writing code for it. #dev #projects
• Ligatures - Two or more letters combined into one character make a ligature. In typography, some ligatures represent specific sounds or words such as the AE or æ diphthong ligature. Other ligatures are primarily to make type more attractive on the page such as the fl and fi ligatures. #design #typography
• Lining figures - Lining figures are commonly offered in two spacing formats, proportional and tabular. Proportional lining figures are the preferred style for all-cap settings, such as headlines, titles, and such. They are also effective anywhere that additional emphasis is desired for the figures, even in running text. Tabular lining figures are the preferred style for columns of numbers, such as tables, price lists, financial data, and listings. #design #typography

M

• Margins - Margin is a page layout term used in both print design and Web publishing. In print, "margin" typically refers to page borders, while on the Web it describes the spacing between elements on a webpage. #design #projects #web
• Modal - In user interface design for computer applications, a modal window is a graphical control element subordinate to an application's main window. It creates a mode that disables the main window but keeps it visible, with the modal window as a child window in front of it. Users must interact with the modal window before they can return to the parent application. #design #dev #projects

N

• nnn - the sound of dissatisfaction. #mario #designteam

O

• Old style figures - Oldstyle figures (also known as non-lining, lowercase, hanging, or text figures) have varying heights and alignments, as opposed to lining figures, which are of uniform height and alignment. Oldstyle figures are similar to lowercase characters in that they share the same x-height and have ascenders (the 6 and 8) and descenders (the 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9). They also come in proportional and tabular spacing formats. #design #typography
• OpenGraph images/graphics - Open graph is a protocol first created by Facebook in 2010 for extracting the title, images, URL, and meta-information from a web page and displaying it in a social media post. The usual dimensions of an OG photo are 1200x630px. #design #web #marketing

P

• Padding - A page element's padding area is the space between its content and its border. #web
• Page - sections inside the design file that help in organizing different screen flows or other design sections into separate documents inside the file. #design
• Pitch - A presentation of a potential solution to a potential or existing client. Larger projects are usually advertised so that several potential cooperation partners can apply for the job. The various participants then prepare their concept and present it. There are different forms of pitches and representation possibilities. #business #sales #design #marketing

Q

• Quarter (hr. kvartal) - A quarter is a three-month period on a company's financial calendar that acts as a basis for periodic financial reports, team reports, employee feedback, etc. A quarter refers to one-fourth of a year and is typically expressed as "Q1” for the first quarter, “Q2” for the second quarter, and so forth. #business #management

R

• Raise a flag - Raise a flag means "bring something to notice". The phrase Raise a flag is originated from "raise a red flag" which means to alert someone about a potential danger or trouble ahead, the origin being that red flags are often literally used to warn people of possible peril. You should raise a flag every time you feel stressed out with projects or something goes wrong with clients, features, etc. #design #dev #projects
• Refactoring - In computer programming and software design, code refactoring is the process of restructuring existing computer code — changing the factoring — without changing its external behavior. Refactoring is intended to improve the design, structure, and/or implementation of the software (its non-functional attributes), while preserving its functionality. Usually, older projects need code refactoring. #dev #projects
• Rem (Root Em) - Using em and rem units gives us flexibility in our designs, and the ability to scale elements up and down, instead of being stuck with fixed sizes. With rems all typography units are based on the root element size we set (1rem). If we want to scale everything up, we just adjust the root element size. #design #typography #web
• Release - A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. #dev #projects
• Rollout - Rollout is an informal business term for the introduction and integration of a new product or service to the market. A rollout often refers to a significant product release, which is frequently accompanied by a strong marketing campaign, to generate consumer interest. #dev #projects

S

• Safe area - Safe area is a term used in television production to describe the areas of the television picture that can be seen on television screens. #design #motion #video
• Scope - It is a total amount of the web or mobile features included in the project. Each scope has its duration and budget. #business #sales #projects
• Screen - a part of the app or website flow; also refers to an artboard or a frame containing design elements. #design #projects
• Scrum - Scrum is one of the implementations of agile methodology. In which incremental builds are delivered to the customer in every two to three weeks' time. Many associate scrum sprints with agile software development, so much so that scrum and agile are often thought to be the same thing. They’re not. Agile is a set of principles and scrum is a framework for getting shit done. #projects #management #agile
• Sentence Case - Sentence case is the conventional way of using capital letters in a sentence or capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns. #design #typography
• Slicing - In fields employing interface design skills, slicing is the process of dividing a single 2D user interface composition layout (comp) into multiple image files (digital assets) of the graphical user interface (GUI) for one or more electronic pages. #design #handoff #dev #projects
• Smoke test - Smoke Testing is a software testing process that determines whether the deployed software build is stable or not. Smoke testing is a confirmation for QA team to proceed with further software testing. #projects #qa
• Snackbar - Snackbars provide brief messages about app processes at the bottom of the screen. #design #android #projects
• Spread - In printing and prepress a spread is the general description for a pair of facing pages, typically the left- and right-hand pages in a publication, such as a book, magazine or newspaper. #design #print
• Sprint - A sprint is a short, time-boxed period when a scrum team works to complete a set amount of work. Sprints are at the very heart of scrum and agile methodologies. #projects #agile
• Storyboard - A storyboard is a graphic organizer that plans a narrative. Storyboards are a powerful way to visually present information; the linear direction of the cells is perfect for storytelling, explaining a process, and showing the passage of time. At their core, storyboards are a set of sequential drawings to tell a story. By breaking a story into linear, bite-sized chunks, it allows the author to focus on each cell separately, without distraction. #design #projects
• System attributes - A concept in information architecture; Attributes are the details we use to describe something, such as describing a person by height, weight or gender. Information can have attributes that describe its packages or the objects within that package. These could be physical attributes such as the number of characters in a paragraph, or abstract attributes such as the appropriate context for displaying that paragraph. For an information architecture to work efficiently, attributes should be applied consistently to packages and their contents. The IA might also include logic for how attributes relate to each other. #design #dev #projects

T

• Tabular figures - Tabular lining figures are the preferred style for columns of numbers, such as tables, price lists, financial data, and listings. Tabular affects the character spacing. Each glyph is equally wide and therefore convenient for tables, because you can compare the amounts vertically. #design #typography
• Text area - an element which allows users to input text containing multiple lines. It is useful for creating a form field for visitors to leave comments or messages. #design #dev #web #projects
• Text box - Alternatively referred to as a text field, a text box is a section or object on a page that allows a user to enter text. It can be one line text box and text area. #design #dev #web #projects
• Title Case - Title case is any title or heading text where the first letters of major words are capitalized. #design #typography
• Toast - (blueprintjs) A toast is a lightweight, ephemeral notice from an application in direct response to a user's action. Toasts can be configured to appear at either the top or the bottom of an application window, and it is possible to have more than one toast onscreen at a time. #design #web #projects
• Top-up - an additional or extra amount or payment that restores something to the level that is required. Often used in telecom projects. #design #projects
• Typeface - A typeface is the design of lettering that can include variations, such as extra bold, bold, regular, light, italic, condensed, extended, etc. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. #design #typography
• Type foundry - A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. #design #typography
• Typesetting - Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical types or the digital equivalents. #design #typography
• Typography - Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. #design #typography

U

• UPPER CASE - If letters are in upper case, they are written as capitals; opposed to lowercase letters. #design #typography
• Usability - the degree to which something is able or fit to be used. #design #dev #projects
• Usability benchmarking - UX benchmarking refers to evaluating a product or service’s user experience by using metrics to gauge its relative performance against a meaningful standard. #design #projects
• Use case - A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behavior as it responds to a request. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user’s goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled. #design #projects
• User flow - User flow is the path taken by a prototypical user on a website or app to complete a task. The user flow takes them from their entry point through a set of steps towards a successful outcome and final action, such as purchasing a product. #design #projects
• User story - In software development and product management, a user story is an informal, natural language description of one or more features of a software system. User stories are often written from the perspective of an end user or user of a system. They are often recorded in project management software such as Jira. Depending on the project, user stories may be written by various stakeholders including clients, users, managers, or development team members. #projects #agile

V

• Vendor - A vendor, or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services to another company. For example, Infinum can be a software development vendor to a big corporation like a bank or telecom. #business #projects
• Versioning - With version control systems, file versions are stored in a special database (usually called a repository). The fact that the history of a file is stored separately from the file itself adds extra safety: even if the file becomes corrupted, you can always restore any of its other versions from the history. If you’re using Sketch then Abstract tool can do version control for you. If you’re using Figma, versioning can be done inside the tool. #design #projects

W

• White-label apps - White-label apps are applications built by a white or private label app development company, re-branded and resold by other businesses. White-label app services are solutions wherein an application is ordered from Re-seller Company by their business client but actually built by third-party service provider Company. If you’re designing a white-label app that means you have to design a styleguide flexible enough to cover different business and branding cases. #business #projects
• White space - White space is the area between design elements. It is also the space within individual design elements, including the space between typography glyphs (readable characters). Despite its name, white space does not need to be white. It can be any color, texture, pattern, or even a background image. White space can cause problems between designers and clients. Design theory promotes the use of white space for elegance and ensuring a quality user experience. Sadly, many clients and managers consider white space wasted space. They think it could be used to house more information or other visual elements. On the contrary, white space is a great tool to balance design elements and better organize content to improve the visual communication experience. #design #projects
• Widget - a small software application that is designed to provide a specific piece of information (such as news, weather, or traffic updates) or a specific function (such as taking notes or controlling another application) on demand. #design #dev #android

X

• X-height - In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lower-case letters in a typeface. One of the most important dimensions of a font, x-height is used to define how high lower-case letters are compared to upper-case letters. #design #typography

Y

• Yoast - is a search engine optimization (SEO) plug-in for WordPress platform. #dev #web #marketing

Z

• Z-shaped pattern - A z-pattern design traces the route the human eye travels when they scan the page— left to right, top to bottom. First, people scan from the top left to the top right, forming a horizontal line. Next, down and to the left side of the page, creating a diagonal line. Last, back across to the right again, forming a second horizontal line. When viewers’ eyes move in this pattern, it forms an imaginary “Z” shape. #design #projects #web