Glossary

This SANE glossary serves as a reference to name things well.

In the field of digital technologies, at the intersection of communication/marketing, research, design and industry, some terms are sometimes used in different ways, derived, reinvented.

"Historical sensibilities, cultural preferences and strategic stakes explain this relative diversity of vocabulary, to designate what, however, might well constitute a single discipline." - (Translated from french) - Stéphane Vial, Design Researcher, about "Digital Design" - external link

"People use them often without having any idea why, what the word means, its origin, history, or what it is about. " Don Norman inventor of the term "User Experience (UX)" - external link

For this reason, we are feeding this word database in French - external link and English, from sources that seem safe to us. We use the terms defined by ISO as a priority, and when they exist, we also add the CCS Concepts - external link of the Association for Computing Machinery [wiki - external link].

Glossary

User experience

User’s perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product or service.

Accessibility

Extent to which products, systems, services, environments and facilities can be used by people from a population with the widest range of user needs, characteristics and capabilities to achieve…

Human-centered design

Approach to systems design and development that aims to make interactive systems more usable by focusing on the use of the system and applying human factors/ergonomics and usability knowledge and…

Ecodesign

Systematic approach that considers environmental aspects in design and development with the aim to reduce adverse environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product.

Interaction design

Outcome of design that describes how interaction sequences serve each of the tasks within an interactive system.

Flow

State of mind an individual enters when completely involved or focused on any challenging and/or enjoyable activity.

Immersion

Experience and participation in a particular environment.

Presence

Psychological sense of being in a particular environment.

Augmented reality (AR)

Interactive experience of a real-world environment whereby the objects that reside in the real world are augmented by computer-generated perceptual information.

Mixed reality (XR)

Merging of the real world and virtual worlds to generate new environments where physical and synthetic objects co-exist and interact.

Human Computer Interaction

Exchange of information between a user and an interactive system via the user interface to complete the intended task.

User interface (UI)

Set of all the components of an interactive system that provide information and controls for the user to accomplish specific tasks with the interactive system.

Interactive system

Combination of hardware and/or software and/or services and/or people that users interact with in order to achieve specific goals.

User

Person who interacts with the system, product or service.