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Glossary entry

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Legibility

Glossary entry in Core concepts. Definitions, checks, and evidence for Legibility.

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Quick takeaways

How understandable a system’s actions, reasoning, and ownership are to the people affected by it.

Definition

How understandable a system’s actions, reasoning, and ownership are to the people affected by it. Legibility complements explainability for accountability and transparent design authority so people can find who decided, why, and how to respond. Legibility is discoverability of who/why/what-next; it does not guarantee the system can be changed.

Structural
Scope
A. Core concepts. These terms define the Ethotechnics discipline itself and set expectations for moral system design.
Genealogy
Moves transparency from disclosure to actionable understanding for the people impacted.

Adjacent terms

transparency governance users

Related concepts

Also tagged: Structural

Ethotechnics Moral Behavior (of Systems) Ethical Load Path Ethotechnic Audit Conviviality Ethotechnic Maturity

Example corpus

  • Residents receive a plain-language notice that names the office, rule, and appeal path behind a zoning decision.

References

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Version

v1.1.0

Last updated

Jan 9, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Legibility. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/legibility

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Legibility." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/legibility.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Legibility." Ethotechnics glossary. Jan 9, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/legibility.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_legibility,
  title={Legibility},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/legibility},
  version={v1.1.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Legibility
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/legibility
ER  -

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: research@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Jan 9, 2026
  • Version: v1.1.0
  • DOI: Pending Zenodo deposit

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title + version, and link to the glossary permalink.

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Changelog

  • v1.1.0 · 2026-01-09 — Expanded scholarly metadata, operational tests, and provenance notes.
  • v1.0.0 · 2025-12-03 — Initial glossary release with stable permalinks.