Web Design and Development: Glossary of terms
• iFrames
• Tags
• Browser
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• Dead Links / Dead End
• Doctype
• Flash
• Frames
• Javascript
• Meta elements
• Noframes
• Resolution
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
iFrames
With iFrames, we can insert a web page within another, in the same way as we insert a graph or a table. iFrame is an object that can be edited freely like any other element within HTML.
Considering the loading time, the user is presented a front page with the contents of the site, but loading the rest of the elements (including the iframe) the normal way.
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Tags
Tags are used to provide alternative text for images used on a website. Users who are unable to view images on a website make use of tags to represent an image. Tags are very important for images that carry the main information such as phone numbers or for images that contain certain details. Tags can also be used for search engine optimization by putting keywords in the tags to increase the importance of content on the website.
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Browser
A browser is a software program used to view a website and to surf the Internet. There are several web browsers available for free, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Some users can also use text browsers or screen readers to view web sites that have been designed specifically for users with visual disability.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
CSS is used by web designers to verify how documents are displayed in web browsers. CSS really is a basic programming language that lets developers define how specific aspects of a website are displayed to users. Elements such as fonts, colors, layout and couplings can all be controlled by CSS.
Dead Links / Dead End
Broken links of a website refers to when a user clicks on a link and it takes him to a page that does not exist, instead an error page comes up, or the browser doesn't undertake anything. A dead end of a website occurs when a user clicks on a link to a page that provides no way to return to the previous page or any other web site, so the user has reached a "dead end".
Doctype
Doctype is used to manifest the document type and identifies what of which type of document compiles a website. In simple terms, Doctype specifies which version of HTML has been used to create a web site. The code on this website must then use the standards defined by this Doctype and may not contain any features or programming elements of other HTML versions.
Flash
Flash is a design technique, developed by Macromedia, used generally with web sites. Its a graphic technique that often makes use of animations to display objects on the screen. Web pages designed entirely in Flash often seem very attractive but are incompatible with web crawlers of search engines, for which it is difficult to search the contents of text included in a page designed in Flash.
Frames
The use of frames still is a technique commonly used in the design and layout of web pages. Instead of deploying a single page in the browser window, frames are used to display multiple pages in a single window. When using frames usually there are three separate pages, one for the banner, one for navigation and one central frame that shows the main content of the website.
Javascript
JavaScript is a programming language that is often used in web design to generate more complex effects that can not be done with HTML. Javascript is used for a wide variety of funcions, but one of the most common applications is the creation of the navigation buttons that change color or appearance when the user moves the cursor over the button.
Meta elements
Meta Tags are part of the HTML code that is used to provide useful information to both web crawlers and also to web developers. Meta Tags are located within the first few lines of the code, but aren't displayed on the website, because they are irrelevant to a regular Internet user. The information contained within these tags may vary from a description of the webpage until who originally created this page.
Noframes
The use of frames in the design of a web page can cause problems for users and web crawlers. Older versions of browsers or text only browsers do not display multiple frames, while web crawlers find it difficult to index the content included in all frames deployed. Therefore an alternate content is used, which is a HTML feature known as Noframes. This feature enables users who can't view the frames of a web to see the content and also allows web crawlers to add these pages to an index.
Resolution
The term resolution is generally used in the context with display resolution, which describes the number of dots (pixels) that can be displayed on a screen at any time. For example, a screen resolution of 800x600 indicates it is capable of displaying 800 different pixels in 600 lines (a total of 480,000 pixels). Generally, the higher the screen resolution, sharper an image is displayed and more content can be shown on the screen.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search engine optimization is a technique used to ensure that a website is compatible with search engines and thus appears in the highest positions among all search results. SEO ensures that the content included in a web page is relevant to the terms entered by users in search engines and places keywords, meta tags and tags in the content. Nevertheless SEO doesn't guarantee the top position in search engines, but provides potential to appear among first results.
