Glossary
You find what each term in Research Mate means, in plain words.
Team and research
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Organisation | Your team's space. Roles are owner, admin and member; owners and admins manage members. Members are shown by the name on their profile. |
| Project | One study: its documents, highlights, themes, insights and boards. |
| Archived | A project you have cleared off the Projects list without deleting it. It sits under Archived, with an Archived badge, and everything in it is still there. See Archive a project. |
| Document | A transcript or notes, pasted or uploaded (.txt, .md, .pdf, .docx). |
| Highlight / quote | An exact passage you marked. It is called a quote on boards and in Present. |
| Speaker | Who is talking in a transcript turn, read from lines such as P07: …. It shows beside the speech and on the highlight's card, and a quote stays within one speaker's words. See Speakers and turns. |
| Tag | A label on a highlight. Capitals don't matter: "Pricing" and "pricing" are the same tag. |
| Theme | A named group of quotes that say the same thing. A quote can be in many themes. |
| Insight | A written finding, in Markdown, backed by themes. |
| AI run | One pass of the AI: a step that adds quotes, themes or insights, or a board draft. Each ends with Keep, Review or Remove (a board draft has Keep and Remove), and the project overview lists the last ten under AI runs. See Let the AI suggest quotes, themes and insights and Draft a board with AI. |
| Report | The Report view in the tree: insights, then the themes behind each, then the quotes, read side by side or printed as a PDF. See Read the report and build a deck. |
| Deck | The Deck view in the tree: slides built from your findings or from one screen's evidence, shown in Present and exported as a PDF. It is built fresh each time and never stored. See Read the report and build a deck. |
Boards
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Board | A canvas in a project. There are five kinds. |
| Process diagram | A flowchart of steps, decisions, and start and end points. |
| Service blueprint | A process diagram with horizontal bands, such as Frontstage and Backstage. |
| Journey map | Steps on a grid of rows and columns. |
| Affinity board | Quote cards sorted into clusters. A cluster can become a theme. |
| Prototype | The clickable interface: frames, boxes, lines and text. |
| Band / divider | A band groups steps. A divider is a dashed line between bands: the line of visibility. |
| Cluster | A box on an affinity board that holds cards. Bound to a theme, it shows "THEME" and stays in step with it. |
| Note | An affinity card: a quote, or a blank heading you type. |
| Draft with AI | Typing what to make in the Ask AI panel (top right of every board, or Ctrl/Cmd+J). A Draft card adds a first draft beside your own work, from the sources you pick with Sources, and has Keep and Remove. See Draft a board with AI. |
Prototype
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Frame / screen | A container on a prototype. A frame at the top level is a screen. Frames nest. |
| Flex layout | A setting on a frame that places its contents in a row or a column, with padding, a gap and alignment. A shape's width and height are Fixed, unless a flex frame is set to Hug its contents, or a shape inside one is set to Fill the room. |
| Component | A reusable frame, drawn with a dashed purple outline around its master. |
| Master | The original in a component. Edit it and every instance follows. |
| Instance | A live copy of a component. You can override its label or colours. Reset reverts it; Detach makes it an ordinary frame. |
| Override | A change on one instance only. |
| Picture | An image you drop or paste onto a prototype, as PNG, JPEG or WebP. It moves and resizes like a box. See Add a picture. |
| Library board | A prototype board with Use as a library ticked. Its components can be used on any board in the organisation. |
| Interaction | A trigger on an element, such as a click, plus the screen it goes to. |
| Flow start | A screen you mark as where a journey begins. Present opens on the first one. |
| Guide | A snapping line that only you see, in this tab. |
| Canvas colour / dot grid | A board's backdrop colour, kept per board. The dot grid is a viewing choice per person, off by default. |
Connecting the layers
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Why / evidence link | A link from an element to an insight, theme or quote. |
| Logic link / Implemented by | A link from a screen to a process step. The step shows the screens that implement it under Implemented by. |
| Used in | Which elements cite a theme or an insight. |
| Coverage | What is missing: screens with nothing behind them, insights nothing uses, and themes that went nowhere. |
| Present | The full-screen, read-only showing. You move between Why, Interface and Process. |
| Share link | A link that opens one board's presentation for anyone, with no account. It shows the board as it was when you made it, and ends when it expires or you revoke it. |
Saving and deleting boards
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Version | A saved copy of a board that you can rename and restore. |
| History | Versions made automatically before changes, at most one every 10 minutes, kept for 30 days. Name one to keep it. |
| Before restoring “…” | The copy made automatically when you restore a version, named after the version you restored, so you can undo the restore. |
| Deleted folder | Where deleted documents, highlights, themes, insights and boards stay for 30 days before they are removed for good. Restore any of them from there. |