We designers often struggle to communicate with our clients, having to parse technical language in order to be understood clearly. Wouldn’t it be terrific if clients had an understanding of basic design terminology? I stumbled across this brilliant glossary that would be helpful to any business wanting to work with designers. By no means is this glossary complete—but I’ve found it to contain much of today’s design terminology.
Courtesy Ginny Soskey
A team of graphic designers at San Francisco design studio Mule had had enough of obfuscating corporate jargon, and decided to demystify those annoying phrases, allusions and metaphors commonly heard by anyone working in a “cube farm” (Unsucked: an office containing many cubicles). Unsuck-It.com works like any online dictionary. Enter a phrase, such as “idea shower” (Unsucked: using your imagination), “dog’s breakfast” (mess), or “low-hanging fruit” (easy goal), and it is instantly “unsucked” in simple English.
If your phrase is not in the database, a “you define it” button appears allowing you to be the douchebag jargonist and provide your own definition, and of course, you must use it in a sentence. I searched for “paper tiger,” which is frequently abused by the tech industry. Alas, it was not in the database, so I unsucked it. It means, “something that appears threatening but is not,” or more commonly, “its bark is worse than its bite.” Used in a sentence: “Organizations often make investment decisions on the basis of tight budgets and business cases that are actually paper tigers.”
I urge you to share the Unsuck-It link with all your d-bag friends.
