12 Web Design Tech Terms Defined
Have you ever had a conversation about web design either with another business owner or a designer and left the conversation feeling a bit…WTF? Trust me when I say, you are not alone! Web design lingo can be super techie and when words are thrown around that you have no idea what they mean, it can make you feel confused or even like you’re somehow behind.
So let’s clear up the confusion and decode what some of these web design tech terms mean…in simple language.
Host - A hosting company (aka “host”, “web host”, “web hosting”), is the company that holds all of the files of your website. If the platform (ex: WordPress) that you build your site on is like the foundation of a home, the hosting company is the home itself. All websites need a host in order to function and appear on the internet.
Domain - Your domain name is the URL for your website, also known as the web address. It's the www.yourdomainname.com that people go to in order to view your website. If the hosting company is the house, your domain name is the address to get to your house.
Sitemap - A listing of each page on your website. There are a few different kinds of sitemaps (just to make things more confusing) and they all have different uses. One type of sitemap is used by designers to plan the website project, listing out objectives of each page. Another type of sitemap, sometimes called an XML sitemap, is created for the search engine bots to understand what is important on your site and the overall structure. A third type of sitemap is for users on a website to see a hierarchical view of each page of the website.
Wireframe - These are typically used by designers when creating design concepts. A wireframe is a basic layout of a website page, usually using placeholder boxes where images will go and placeholder text to get an idea of what the overall layout will look like.
Navigation - Navigation refers to any component of the site that helps a user find certain pages or features. Navigation often refers to the menus on a website that link to the different pages. Menus can appear at the top of a website, on a sidebar or at the bottom of a website. Navigation can also include text links throughout the content, search bars or buttons.
Header - The top section of a website that appears on every page where you typically find the company logo and a navigation menu.
Banner - Banners can appear above or below the header on a website, and are typically a call out to something important. Banners might contain just text with a link, or they could be large spaces with an image, text and button. Sometimes banners refer to an advertisement on a website as well.
Hero Image - This term is usually used to describe a type of banner on a website that appears at the top of a page and spans across the entire page for an eye-catching call out. Personal brands usually use a photo of themselves with a statement about who they are and what they do. Companies might use a hero image to showcase a featured product or service.
Footer - The bottom section of a website that appears on every page containing a variety of information like the logo, navigation menu, legal policies, contact information, location of the company, and copyright.
HTML - Standing for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is code that is used to structure a website page with things like text paragraphs, lists, and images. HTML was used a lot in the early days of website design but today, you can build a website without touching this code because it’s been built into most website platforms. It still happens behind the scenes but you don’t have to write the code yourself.
CSS - Standing for Cascading Style Sheets, CSS is a type of coding used to style website pages with things like font selections, colors, sizing and spacing of text, as well as decorative features. CSS is often used by designers to achieve some of the custom elements that may not be readily available in website builders or templates.
CMS - Standing for content management system, a CMS at its core is an application used to manage content. It allows for us to create, store and publish content on a website. CMS platforms are what we use to build websites on and two of the most popular CMS platforms are WordPress and Squarespace.
How was that? I hope this has helped simplify and decode some of the more technical web design language thrown around so readily in this industry. If you ever feel confused by the words your designer is using, do not hesitate to ask them to explain. It’s often a situation where we learned the lingo from our training and experience within agencies, but can forget that when speaking to clients who are not designers, it can be very confusing.
To your success!
Meghan