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Software Engineering vocabulary · Web, Mobile and Interface Development

Interaction design

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCore term

In software engineering, interaction design means: The part of design that decides how a product behaves when people use it: what happens when they tap, type, swipe or wait, and how the system responds.

In Turkish: etkileşim tasarımı

How it is used

Often shortened to IxD. Interaction designers think about states, transitions, feedback, animation and error handling. The word 'interaction' is also used on its own: 'the swipe interaction feels slow'.

Example sentences

  1. The visuals are done; now we need to work on the interaction design for drag and drop.

  2. Good interaction design tells users that their payment is still being processed.

Common collocations

  • interaction design pattern
  • interaction designer
  • interaction details
  • define the interaction
  • feedbackThe signal a system gives in response to a user's action, such as a button changing colour, a loading spinner or a success message, so people know what happened.
  • microinteractionA small, single-purpose moment of interaction with its own feedback, such as liking a post, switching a toggle or a field shaking after a wrong password.
  • affordanceA quality of an object or interface element that suggests how it can be used, for example a raised button that looks pressable or a handle that invites pulling.
  • componentA reusable, self-contained piece of a user interface, such as a button, modal or product card, with its own markup, styles and logic.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Web, Mobile and Interface Development

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