Web Design & Development Glossary: Terms and Definitions

Web Design & Development

Common Terms

Web Design

Is the act or practice of determining how a website looks.

Web Development

Is the act or practice of determining how a website works.

Navigation

Is the act of using and finding things on a website.

CSS

(Cascading Style Sheets) is a simple language that decides how a web page looks.

Coding

Is the programming language that makes up a website.

Visibility

Is how easily people find a website using search engines, based on how many other websites link to it.

Usability

Is how easy it is for a person to use a website.

Content

Is the material on a web page, including text and graphics.

Appearance

Is how a web page looks.

Functionality

Is the ability of different elements of a website to work together.

Programming Languages

C

Is a programming language that is used to program operating systems.

C++

Is a programming language that adds object-oriented programming capabilities to C.

Java

Is an object-oriented programming language.

C#

Is a programming language that was invented as an alternative to Java.

Assembler

Is a program that transforms an assembly language file to a binary file.

BASIC

(Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a high-level programming language that was invented in the 1960s and is declining in popularity.

Compiler

Is a program that transforms code for the CPU to understand.

Linkers

Take the machine code created by a compiler and make it into an executable file.

Machine Code

Is made up of the instructions that a CPU can process.

Computer Hardware & Software

CPU

(Central Processing Unit) is the part of a computer that does most of the processing of files and data.

Multi-Thread

Is used by the computer to execute many threads at the same time.

Color Matching

Is the ability to create colors as you see them on the screen.

Mac

(Macintosh) is a type of computer from Apple.

PC

(Personal Computer) refers to a computer that runs a Windows operating system.

Processing Speed

Is a measurement of how quickly a computer can perform tasks.

Microsoft

Is the company that produces the Windows operating system among other products.

Windows

Is the operating system created by Microsoft that is used on many PCs.

OS X

Is an operating system from Apple for Mac computers.

Other Terms

Prepress

Is the process of preparing a document, magazine, or book to be printed on a large scale.

Typography

Is a computer's use of typefaces.

Customize

Something is to change it to meet your individual needs and purposes.

Video Subsystems

Is the part of the computer that presents the visuals on the screen.