Glossary
Plain terms.
A few specialized terms appear across this site. Here they are in plain language, so nothing needs a decoder.
- AgeTech
- Technology made with older adults, not only for them. Their feedback and co-design shape it, along with the family and caregivers around them.
- Co-design
- Designing with the people who will use a product, so their feedback shapes it from the start rather than at the end.
- UX (user experience)
- How a product feels to use, and whether it works for the person using it.
- Service design
- Looking at the whole experience around a product, including the steps, people, and handoffs that happen off the screen.
- AI governance
- The rules and checks that decide how an AI system is built, watched, and held to account.
- Responsible AI
- Building AI that people can trust, with attention to safety, fairness, and honesty about what it does and does not do.
- Human-AI interaction
- How a person and an AI system work together, and whether the person stays in control.
- Conversation design
- Shaping how a product talks with people, so the exchange is clear and useful.
- Usability testing
- Watching real people use a product to see where it helps them and where it gets in the way.
- WCAG
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. A shared standard for making digital products usable by people with a wide range of sight, hearing, movement, and memory.
- Prototype
- A working model of an idea, made to test and improve it before it is built for real.
- Fractional
- Part-time and ongoing. You get senior help a few days a month, without a full-time hire.
- ISO 42001 and ISO 42005
- International standards for managing AI responsibly. 42001 covers how an organization runs its AI. 42005 covers how to weigh an AI system’s impact on people.