Table of Contents
Glossary plays an important role in identifying and understanding the various technical jargon as you get set to foray into the web designing industry.
Like any other industry, there are specialized terminologies used to refer to various aspects of web design and here we make an honest attempt to share and discuss a few of them.
A
AJAX
Acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, AJAX is generally used for the development of dynamic web applications and allows for asynchronous data retrieval without having to reload the page a visitor is on. Here, the JavaScript on a given page handles most of the basic functions of the application, while making it perform more like a desktop program instead of a web-based one.
B
BACKLINK
They are links from other sites back to your own. Sometimes also referred to as “trackbacks” (mainly on blogs), backlinks do have a huge impact on your sites search rankings. In fact, studies have revealed that lots of backlinks from high-ranking sites can greatly improve your search engine results, especially if those links use keywords in their anchor text.
C
CASCADING STYLE SHEETS (CSS)
Simply referred to as CSS, Cascading Style Sheets are used to define the look and feel of a web site outside of the actual HTML file(s) of the site. Interestingly, CSS in the recent times has been found to have replaced tables and other HTML-based methods for formatting and laying out websites. While there are several benefits of using CSS, some of the most important ones include the simplification of a site’s HTML files and the ability to entirely change the style of a site by changing just one file, without having to make alterations to content.
D
DITHER
There is a limited color palette used for each image in GIF and certain other image formats. This results in not being able to present all colors in an image. Here we use Dither to approximate these colors by combining pixels of different colors alongside.
E
EMBEDDED STYLE
This refers to a CSS style written into the head of an XHTML document. While in an embedded style sheet will override styles from the linked CSS file, it only affects the elements on that page instead of site-wide as a separate CSS file does.
F
FAVICON
Favicons are tiny customizable icons, generally 16×16 pixels (though some are 32×32 pixels), displayed in the web address bar in most browsers next to the web address. They’re either 8-bit or 24-bit in color depth and are saved in either .ico, .gif or .png file formats.
G
GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
Commonly known as GUI, a graphical user interface generally uses an input device (like the mouse) and visual representations of how the user is able to interact with a web application. In short, it’s all about the front-end stuff you get to see on a web application and its purpose is to allow you to interact with a web application without entering code.
H
HTML
Acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is the primary language used to write web pages. Also, it is basically intended as a way to provide content on websites (with CSS handling the layout and stylistic options), though it can also be used to determine how that content is displayed.
I
IMAGE MAP
This is used in XHTML to allow different parts of an image to become different clickable elements. Also, it can allow some portions of the image to have no clickable element.
J
JAVASCRIPT
This is an interpreted programming or prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed, and has first-class functions.
L
LOREM IPSUM
One of the most popular placeholder or dummy text used by designers in preliminary designs to flesh out the page layout, typography, colors, etc. This is in fact a form of scrambled Latin text that mimics the flow of words, sentences, and paragraphs in English and other languages.
M
MARKUP
This refers to the coding applied to a text document to change it into an HTML, XML, or other Markup Language document.
N
NESTING
It refers to putting one HTML element within another element; and when this is done, the elements have to be closed in the reverse order from how they were opened.
O
OPEN SOURCE
This refers to the source code of a computer program being made available to the general public. Open source programs are generally free or very low cost and are developed by teams of people; while open source software includes both web-based and desktop applications.
P
PLUG-IN
This is in fact a bit of third party code that extends the capabilities of a website. Most often used in conjunction with a CMS or blogging platform, plug-ins is a great way to extend the functionality of a website without having to redo the core coding of the site.
R
RESOLUTION
Resolution refers to the physical number of pixels displayed on a screen (such as 1280×1024). Display resolution (unlike in print) does not refer to the number of pixels or dots per inch on a computer screen, as this can be changed by changing the resolution of the screen. Although the resolution of an image is often referred to in terms of pixels per inch, this has in fact very little effect on how the image is displayed on screen.
S
SCHEMA
Schema is an XML document used in place of a DTD to describe other XML documents.
T
TEMPLATE
A template is a file used to create a consistent design across a website. Templates are often used in conjunction with a CMS and contain both structural information about how a site should be set up, but also stylistic information about how the site should look.
U
UI
User Interface (UI) is all that is designed into an information device with which a human being may interact. This includes the display screen, keyboard, and mouse, as well as how an application or a Web site invites interaction and responds to it.
UX
User Experience (UX) deals with how a person feels about using a product, system or service. It includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system along with highlighting the pragmatic, eloquent and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership.
V
VECTOR GRAPHICS
This refers to the use of basic geometric elements such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons, based on mathematical expressions, to represent graphical images. Vector images are typically made up of paths, or strokes and can be scaled up or down without loss of resolution or pixilation.
W
WEB DESIGN
Web design is a multidisciplinary quest pertaining to the selection and coordination of elements to create the layout and structure of Web sites, including technical development, information structure, visual design, and network delivery. The quality of the design can affect not only how visitors find the site courtesy SEO, but how long visitors use the site i.e. Site Stickiness, how often visitors are set to return (Repeat Visitors) and most importantly, how often visitors buy or register i.e. Conversion Rate.
X
XHTML
Acronym for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, XHTML is basically HTML 4.0 that has been rewritten to comply with XML rules.
Z
ZOOM
This is user interface functionality where users can change the scale of the viewed area in order to see more detail or less. You will also come across Zoomable user interface (ZUI), which is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) where information elements appear directly on an infinite virtual desktop. Here, users can pan across the virtual surface in two dimensions and zoom into objects of interest.
