List of terms and abbreviations that are used in complex systems and their user interfaces.
| Affordance | The property of the object that gives a preliminary understanding of how it behaves and which features are available, without prior explanations. For instance, the shape of the fork gives a clear description of its usage. |
| Clutter | Low visual or another signal-to-noise ratio that increases the cognitive load to understand the content and interrelations between content items. |
| Glass cockpit | The cockpit of the aircraft that uses digital displays rather than analog indicators to represent the information about the flight and aircraft systems. The same concept is used for other types of transportation, like cars and vessels. |
| GUI | Graphical user interface The term is mostly used for modern digital computer interfaces. |
| HMI | Human-machine interface The term is typically used in industrial automation and equipment, that combines both software and hardware. |
| SCADA | Supervisory control and data acquisition Industrial systems for gathering, analyzing, and presenting real-time data. Typically used in power-plants, manufacturing, oil refineries, vessel engine rooms, etc. |