A "design" style by engineers who build interfaces that are characterized by functional minimalism, visual austerity, and an absence of emotional or sensory intelligence. They produce systems that are logically sound but clunky, and unmistakably lacking in experiential refinement.
The term plays on "terminal" in two senses: computational (evoking command-line terminals, where interaction is textual, flat, and unforgiving), and existential (suggesting a kind of design that is lifeless or hostile to organic experience).
The term plays on "terminal" in two senses: computational (evoking command-line terminals, where interaction is textual, flat, and unforgiving), and existential (suggesting a kind of design that is lifeless or hostile to organic experience).
by exploriter May 15, 2025