Usability.gov is archived and no longer updated.

External links may not function and information on the site may be out of date. Visit Digital.gov for current information.

Glossary

  • Early adoptors
    A user who has a tendency to embrace new technology before the majority.
  • Editorial links
    A term for links that are dynamically positioned on top-level pages of a site depending on the promotional needs of the site.
  • Effective
    Measure or description of how accurately a goal can be accomplished.
  • Efficiency
    Measure or description of how quickly and easily a goal can be accomplished.
  • Embedded link
    A link that is found in the middle of prose or continuous text. Embedded links are often used to provide users with the definitions of terms or to lead them to supporting or related information.
  • End Users
    Refers to those people who use a website or those who are participants or subjects of research studies.
  • Engaging or Engagement
    Capturing the user's attention or interest or maintaining their interaction.
  • Entry field
    The entry field, which is also known as a data or text entry field, is employed when users are required to make text or data entries, including keywords, commands, quantities, etc.
  • Environmental profile
    A snapshot of the external circumstances of users that may impact the pursuit of their interaction goals.
  • Error analysis
    A part of task analysis that identifies the frequency and type of errors that occur for each specified set of task flows.
  • Error of commission
    An error in which a user attempts to complete a task incorrectly.
  • Error of omission
    An error in which a user misses a specific task or step.
  • Error rate
    Frequency in which errors occur in a given time period.
  • Error recovery
    The ability for a user to correct and continue to pursue their goal or complete a task.
  • Ethnography, or ethnographic research
    A holistic qualitative study of users in the context of their actual environment over a period of time.
  • Experience architecture
    Multidisciplinary approach to technology involving information architecture, interaction design and experience design practices that aim to provide a good user experience and benefit business.
  • Expert evaluation or Expert review
    See Heuristic evaluation.
  • External links
    Links that navigate a user to an external web page.
  • Eyetracking or Eye Tracking
    Specialized hardware & software which track users' point of vision on an interface to understand where their visual attention is focused while viewing an interface.