Website Design Short Descriptions of Tech Terms
Website Design Terms for Businesses (A-Z)
A list of relevant website design terms from A-Z for each letter of the alphabet, along with brief definitions for each term.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Accessibility: Designing websites to be usable by people with disabilities, ensuring that content is available to all users.
- API: An interface that allows different software systems to communicate with each other, useful in web development for adding features.
- Avatar: A graphical representation of a user in the virtual world, often used in user profiles.
- Adaptive Design: A web design approach that uses fixed layouts that adapt to different screen sizes.
- Authentication: The process of verifying a user’s identity, commonly through a username and password.
B
- Branding: The practice of creating a unique identity for a website, including logos, colors, and style.
- Backend: The server-side part of a website responsible for handling data, user requests, and delivering content to the front end.
- Bootstrap: A popular open-source framework for building responsive websites quickly with prebuilt CSS and JavaScript components.
- Browser Compatibility: Ensuring that a website functions properly across various web browsers.
- Breadcrumbs: A navigational tool that shows users their location on a website and how to return to previous pages.
C
- Content Management System (CMS): Software used to create and manage digital content, such as WordPress or Joomla.
- Cache: A temporary storage area for frequently accessed data to speed up website load times.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A language used to style and layout web pages, including colors, fonts, and spacing.
- Content Strategy: Planning, creating, and managing content to meet business goals and user needs.
- Call to Action (CTA): A prompt that encourages users to take a specific action, like “Sign Up” or “Buy Now.”
D
- Domain Name: The web address used to access a website, such as “example.com.”
- Dropdown Menu: A navigation menu that reveals additional options when a user hovers or clicks on a menu item.
- Debugging: The process of identifying and fixing bugs or errors in website code.
- Design Mockup: A visual representation of a website’s design, used for planning layouts and user interfaces.
- DNS (Domain Name System): A system that translates domain names into IP addresses so browsers can load websites.
E
- eCommerce: The buying and selling of goods or services online through a website or app.
- Encryption: The process of securing data, ensuring privacy and preventing unauthorized access.
- Exit-Intent Popup: A type of pop-up window that appears when a user attempts to leave a website, often used for offers or to capture email subscriptions.
- External Link: A hyperlink that points to a page on a different website.
- End User: The final user who interacts with a website, typically the customer or audience the site is designed for.
F
- Flat Design: A minimalistic design style that emphasizes simplicity and usability without extra textures or gradients.
- Font: A set of characters with a specific style and size, essential for setting a website’s typography.
- Footer: The bottom section of a webpage, often containing links, contact information, or disclaimers.
- Frontend: The part of the website that users interact with directly, including layout, design, and functionality.
- Favicon: A small icon associated with a website, typically displayed in the browser tab or bookmarks bar.
G
- Grid Layout: A system of rows and columns used to organize content on a webpage consistently.
- Graphic Design: The creation of visual content to communicate messages, essential for creating engaging website visuals.
- Google Analytics: A tool used to track and analyze website traffic and user behavior.
- GIF: A file format for simple animations and images, often used for adding visual interest to websites.
- Gutenberg Editor: A block-based editor in WordPress used for creating and managing content visually.
H
- Header: The top section of a webpage, typically containing the logo, navigation menu, and key links.
- Hosting: A service that stores website files and makes them accessible on the internet.
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The standard language used to create and structure web pages.
- Hero Image: A large banner image, often displayed prominently at the top of a webpage.
- Hover State: A visual effect applied when a user hovers over a website element, like a button or link.
I
- Interaction Design: The process of designing interactive elements, like buttons and forms, to enhance user experience.
- Infographic: A visual representation of data or information, often used to convey complex concepts quickly.
- Inline CSS: CSS styles applied directly within an HTML element, often used for quick styling changes.
- Icons: Small graphical elements that represent functions or actions, such as a magnifying glass for search.
- IP Address: A unique string of numbers identifying a device or domain on the internet.
J
- JavaScript: A programming language used to create interactive features, like sliders and dropdown menus.
- JPEG: A common file format for images, known for balancing quality and file size.
- Jumbotron: A large, attention-grabbing section often used as the main feature area on a website.
- JSON: A lightweight data format often used for exchanging data between a server and a client.
- JQuery: A JavaScript library that simplifies tasks like event handling and animations.
K
- Kerning: The spacing between characters in text, important for improving readability and design aesthetics.
- Keywords: Words or phrases that users type into search engines, critical for SEO optimization.
- KPI (Key Performance Indicator): Metrics used to evaluate the success of a website or specific goals.
- Knowledge Base: A section of a website dedicated to providing answers to common user questions.
- KYC (Know Your Customer): A process for verifying user identity, especially important in financial or eCommerce websites.
L
- Logo: A visual symbol or mark representing a brand, often placed in the website header.
- Landing Page: A standalone page designed to drive specific actions, such as signing up or purchasing.
- Lazy Loading: A technique where content loads only when it comes into the user’s view, improving performance.
- Lightbox: A feature that overlays images or videos on the current page when clicked, often used in galleries.
- Line Height: The vertical space between lines of text, important for readability.
M
- Mockup: A visual representation of a website’s design, used for presenting layout and functionality.
- Metadata: Information about a webpage, such as its title and description, that helps search engines understand its content.
- Mobile-First Design: A design approach that prioritizes mobile devices when creating websites, ensuring responsiveness.
- Margin: The space around elements on a webpage, used to separate content and improve layout.
- Marketing: Marketing refers to the activities, strategies, and techniques a business uses to promote its products or services to target audiences. Different than branding
- Menu: A navigation tool that allows users to access different sections of a website easily.
N
- Navigation: The system that helps users move through a website, typically via menus or links.
- Namespace: A system used to organize and distinguish similar elements, especially in coding.
- Newsletter: A subscription-based email that keeps users updated about website content or offers.
- Navigation Bar: A horizontal or vertical bar with links to key sections of a website.
- Negative Space: The empty space around design elements, used to create a clean and organized layout.
O
- Optimization: The process of improving a website’s performance, including speed, SEO, and user experience.
- Open Source: Software with source code that is freely available for modification and use.
- Overlay: A semi-transparent layer used to highlight content or create pop-ups.
- On-Page SEO: Optimizing individual pages of a website to rank higher in search engine results.
- Orientation: The way a website layout adjusts based on the screen orientation (landscape or portrait).
P
- Parallax Scrolling: A design effect where background images move slower than foreground elements, creating depth.
- Plugin: Software that adds specific functionality to a website, commonly used with platforms like WordPress.
- Prototype: A working model of a website used to test functionality and design before launch.
- Pixel: The smallest unit of a digital image, often used to measure screen resolution.
- Page Speed: The time it takes for a webpage to load, crucial for user experience and SEO.
Q
- Query: A request for information, often used in databases and search functionality.
- Quality Assurance (QA): The process of testing a website to ensure it functions correctly and meets standards.
- Quick Links: A set of easily accessible links to key pages on a website, often in the footer.
- Queue: A sequence of processes or tasks waiting to be executed, such as image uploads.
- Quirks Mode: A browser mode that emulates outdated standards to display old websites correctly.
R
- Responsive Design: A design technique that ensures websites work well on devices of all sizes.
- RGB: A color model used for digital displays, combining red, green, and blue light.
- Resolution: The clarity and detail of a digital display or image, measured in pixels.
- Rich Media: Interactive multimedia elements like videos, animations, and graphics.
- Redirect: A method that automatically takes users from one URL to another.
S
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Strategies to improve a website’s visibility on search engines.
- SSL Certificate: A digital certificate ensuring secure connections between a website and its users.
- Slider: A carousel-like feature that displays multiple images or content slides in sequence.
- SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics): A graphic format that scales without losing quality.
- Site Map: A list of a website’s pages, often used by search engines for indexing.
T
- Typography: The style and arrangement of text on a website, crucial for readability and design.
- Tag: A keyword or label used to organize and categorize website content.
- Template: A pre-designed layout for building web pages quickly and consistently.
- Tooltip: A small pop-up box with additional information, shown when hovering over an element.
- Thumbnail: A small preview image used to represent content, like videos or articles.
U
- UI (User Interface): The layout and design of a website that users interact with directly.
- UX (User Experience): The overall experience users have when interacting with a website.
- URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The web address used to access a specific webpage.
- Usability: The ease with which users can navigate and use a website.
- Upload: Transferring files from a local device to a server or website.
V
- Viewport: The visible area of a webpage on a device’s screen.
- Version Control: A system for managing changes to a website’s code or content over time.
- Vector Graphics: Images created using mathematical formulas, scalable without loss of quality.
- Validation: Ensuring that web code meets standards and works correctly.
- Video Background: A design feature where videos play in the background of a webpage.
W
- Wireframe: A blueprint of a website’s layout, showing structure without design details.
- Widget: A small interactive component, like a search bar or weather app, embedded in a website.
- Whitespace: The empty space between elements, used to create a clean design.
- Web Hosting: A service that provides storage and access for websites on the internet.
- Web Fonts: Fonts hosted online, used to improve website typography and consistency.
X
- XML (eXtensible Markup Language): A markup language used for storing and transporting data.
- X-Frame-Options: A security header used to prevent clickjacking attacks on websites.
- XSS (Cross-Site Scripting): A type of security vulnerability in web applications.
- XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language): A stricter version of HTML.
- XSLT: A language used for transforming XML documents into other formats.
Y
- Yahoo!: A search engine and web services provider that was once a major player in website directories. People don’t use it anymore.
- YAML: A human-readable data format often used in configuration files.
- Yield: A term in programming related to pausing and resuming functions, sometimes used in web development.
- Yearly Archives: A feature that organizes website content by year, common in blogs.
- Y-Space: Vertical spacing in design, important for readability and balance.
Z
- Z-Index: A CSS property that controls the stack order of elements on a webpage.
- Zoom: A design consideration for how content appears when zoomed in or out on a screen.
- Zip File: A compressed file format often used for bundling multiple files for download.
- Zigzag Layout: A design layout that guides the user’s eye in a zigzag pattern for better content engagement.
- Zurb Foundation: A responsive front-end framework for creating websites and web apps.