Yeah, just to let you know, I haven't been ignoring your question for I find it very interesting. It's just that I like a bit of reasoning before a give an answer. I cannot pass up a thread with this title, so I'm definately apart of it, since I viewed this from the start. Other people just tend to answer before me so far...
But it can be days before I respond in some threads because it frequently just means that I'm just searching for an answer. I don't randomly guess and I'm too prideful to ask for hints in a trivia section. I want to find an answer on my own, so that it can't be said that I "had help" getting it.
Now, I have looked in many sites about game mechanics and elements. I didn't find an element with a word for word match to your defination, but this one comes by far the closest to what you're asking. It could very well be incorrect, it just comes close, is all I'm saying.
Is it Graphical User Interface? This is the definition of that one, so if it's wrong, at least you can see why I thought it might be right.
A graphical user interface (GUI, IPA: /ˈgu¢?ɪ/) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.
So yeah, I've been trying really hard, just nobody can actually tell until I find a lead. Anyway, if I'm wrong, as I do tend to be in trivia questions, I'll look until I or someone else can find it. Just please don't take my absense as quitting, since I really don't like doing that with questions from a theme I love that I started on with a definate answer out there somewhere. I'll await your response. Later!