At Toxic Creative our speciality is in creating the very best first impression and communicating correctly with website visitors. All our cutting edge designs are built upon the foundations of sound marketing knowledge and technical expertise.
We have created a web design glossary as an information guide.
Web Design Glossary
Adobe Photoshop: A desktop photo editor and graphic design tool used to create rich graphics and designs for websites.
ALT text: This “alternative text” describes a link or image to a screen reader.
Background: The area behind the website’s content, typically decorated with a color or image.
Banner Image: An image that is typically longer than it is wide, or wider than it is long, used for advertising or promotion.
Blog: Abbreviated form of “weblog.” Refers to a website that posts a series of articles on a given topic, or a given person’s life, on a regular basis.
Blog Archive: All old blog posts in one centralized location.
Blog Categories: The categories that describe the content of a blog post.
Blog RSS: A syndicated feed of all content posted to a blog, used within RSS reader applications or other utilities.
Blogroll: A list of links to other blogs, generally those of friends or professional resource.
Browse: To navigate and pursue the Internet, generally in search of very specific content.
Browser: The application that allows for browsing of the Internet.
Bullet: Indicates a list of items.
Clickable: A design element that reveals more information when clicked on by the user.
Column: A vertical area of images or textual content.
Copyright: Dictates the rights to a website’s content. Generally placed in the footer.
Creative Commons License: A license used to promote fair distribution, sharing, and credit, for creative works like web designs, graphics, and photography.
Crop: Removes a user-selected portion of an image.
Domain Name: The URL to a website, registered with an official registrar for a period of years.
Embed code: A non-HTML code used to embed HTML elements into blog posts or forum posts.
FAQ: An acronym for “Frequently Asked Questions” about a product or service.
Favicon: A small icon, visible in the browser address bar, that represents a website.
Fold: Alternatively referred to as a scroll line; indicates the division of content between that which is seen when a page loads, and that which must be seen by scrolling down.
Font: A typeface used to control the appearance of text on a page.
GIF: A compressed image format, sometimes used for animated graphics on websites.
Header: The area of content at the top of a page, generally for logos, banners, and navigation.
Heading style: Defined by the < H > tag in web designs.
Highlight: To emphasize content with a background color or pattern.
Homepage: The first page of website.
HTML: The markup language used to create a website, generally in the form of XHTML or HTML5.
Index page: Another way to refer to the first page of a website.
JPEG/JPG: A compressed image file used to store images for use on the web, generally used for large photographic images that require rich color depth.
Link: A way to take visitors to other content on the website, or content offered at a different domain.
Live site: A website that is currently available for the public to see and use.
Log in: To use credential sin order to sign into account and use it.
Margin: The space between content and the edge of a page or document.
Menu: A list of pages, options, or settings, which can be used by visitors.
Navigation: Allows users to browse different sections of a website using centralized links.
Online Store: A store that sells its products online to consumers.
Orientation: The horizontal and vertical position of a site, device, or image.
Outbound link: A link to a third-party website.
Page: Refers to an individual collection of posts and other content within a design.
Page layout: The columns, rows, and visual elements, which define a page’s appearance.
PDF: The “Portable Document Format” developed by Adobe, used to transfer important documents that cannot, or should not, be copied or modified by the user.
Pixel: The smallest bit of an image file or screen resolution.
PNG: Used to create a compressed image with mostly flat image colors or transparent elements.
Post: Content published to a blog.
Publish: To submit content for the public to read at their leisure.
Refresh: A button used to ensure the most current version of a site is loaded into a browser.
Resolution: The number of vertical and horizontal pictures in an image or on a screen.
Screen resolution: The maximum number of pixels that will fit on a computer’s screen.
Sidebar: Less important site content stored to the left or right of main content.
Sitemap: Shows the structure of a website as determined by content, pages, and posts, created by the designer or website owner.
Stock photography: Photos taken by others that can be licensed for use on a website for any purpose.
Stylesheet: Dictates the appearance of images, text, and design elements, throughout a website by using a central document.
Subdomain: A domain that is within a top-level domain, i.e. subdomain.domain.com.
Tags: Keyword-based descriptions of blog posts and content.
Text Box: Allows for the input of large blocks of text, typically paragraphs. Used to create blog posts, post comments, and craft other content for a website.
Text link: A link within the site, or to another site, that uses text rather than an image, allowing visitors to click on it and go to the listed website.
Thumbnail: A smaller version of a larger image, generally used within large blocks of content or to reduce the amount of time it takes to load a website on mobile devices or slower connections.
Type size: The size of a font used within a site’s content, generally set in the stylesheet.
Traffic: The number of visitors that come to a website during any given period. This is generally shown on analytics websites and other tools that show a site’s performance with end users.
Two-column layout: A layout that involves a central content column, supplemented by a sidebar to the left or right side where less important content is featured. Generally, such a layout is controlled using < DIV > elements and a cascading stylesheet that allows for it to adjust to a browser’s overall width.
Upload: To place an image on a website.
URL: A website’s address, typed into the browser address bar. This address resolves through DNS servers that tell a domain name which website to load and which server to pull the content from.
Verification email: Used to verify an email as active and accurate, generally for the purposes of communication between the site owner and the visitor, or for making sure that they are not attempting to post spam to a website or forum.
Video clip: A short, online piece of video that is used to entertainment or instructional purposes on many of today’s most engaging website. Video clips are typically stored in Flash or HTML5 document formats, making them highly optimized and portable across different platforms.
Website Speed Test: One of many tools that can assess how quickly a website loads for end users on varying connection speeds. because most search engines rank websites based on how fast they load for end users, these tools are a key part of designing a site and making it live on the web. They can also offer suggestions for improving load times.
Widget: Design elements placed into a website, typically within the sidebar, by major content management platforms. Usually can be dragged and dropped freely by the administrator.
WYSIWYG: “What You See is What You Get.” This refers to drag-and-drop web design utilities that allow designers to create new designs without having very much XHTML knowledge.
XML sitemap: Generated for the purpose of enhancing search engine optimization. Content management platforms generally produce and submit these sitemaps automatically.
Author Chris Anderson
Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING
Graphic design Northampton – Web design Northampton – Marketing Northampton
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