The title, subtitle, or topic that stands at the top or beginning of a paragraph or section of text.
Heat maps
Color-based representations of areas of interest/focus points; generally associated with eye-tracking software.
Help text
Information incorporated into a web page that advises users how to perform an action or provides complementary information pertaining to the content.
Heuristic evaluation/Expert review
An inspection method for finding certain types of usability problems in a user interface design. Heuristic evaluation involves having one or more usability specialists individually examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles. These usability principles are the "heuristics" from which the method takes its name.
Hick's law (Hick-Hyman law)
The time it takes to make a decision increases proportionally to the number and complexity of choices.
Hierarchical drill-down
To move from high level or summary information to detailed content or data focusing in on a topic.
Hierarchical structures (in information architecture)
Sometimes called a tree structure where nodes have a parent /child relationship to each other.
High-Fidelity Prototype
An interactive prototype that simulates the real system or site's functionality and design details. [See also Low-Fidelity Prototype]
Hover help or Tool tip/Tooltip
Usually a smaller box with information that appears or pops up if a user puts their mouse over a designated graphical element or text.
Hub-and-spoke
Site structure where the user may navigate from the home page (the hub) to any number of pages (spokes) and back to the home page again.
Hues
The frequency of the wavelength of color; what we normally refer to as the "color" of an object.
Human Factors
The multidisciplinary study of human biological, physical, psychological, and social characteristics in relation to environments, objects and services.
Human Factors Engineering (HFE)
Applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. It can contribute to the design of any system with a human interface, including hardware and software.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
The study of interaction between people (users) and hardware, software, websites and mobile devices. It involves computer science, behavioral sciences, design and other fields of study.
Hybrid navigation model (hybrid structure)
A combination of navigation structures incorporates some combination of components possibly including sequential and/or hierarchical IA designs.
Hyperlinks
An element on a web page that navigates a user to another page or location within the same page. These are conventionally blue and underlined.