You don’t need to know the ins and outs of design theory to make sure your website succeeds. But, it will help your project flow more smoothly if you’re able to communicate efficiently and effectively with your web designer.
This list of web design terms should speed up the project process—and save a few bucks along the way. After all, time is money!
UX Design
UX is short for “user experience” and refers to how well your website and digital tools engage your visitors. The essential question is, ”How smooth can I make the experience for people?” If the clickable items on your site drop people into confusing places, then they will be quick to leave and not come back.
Wireframe
Wireframes are an essential step in the web design process and refer to simple sketches of your website pages. They serve as a quick and simple project tool to help designers and clients solidify the vision before jumping into the design phase.
Sitemap
The sitemap organizes your website pages according to their priority and connection to each other. For instance, many businesses will use a main “Services” page with a simple overview and then create specific pages underneath. This is a helpful way to explain each individual service they provide.
Prototype
A prototype is a working rough draft of your website. Many of the small details are not yet finalized, but it provides a workable version for testing and review.
Analytics
Analytics refers to the statistical data collected from a website or digital app over time. It’s a broad term that includes things such as the number of visitors, new vs. returning, most-visited pages, and the number of conversions.
Brand
Your brand is what others say about your business. Effective brands build clear and consistent messages over the long-term. It’s vital to share who you are, what you do, and who your ideal client is. And, it’s most important to deliver on that promise and reinforce your brand promise.
Style Guide
A style guide is a must for every business and website client. This can be a simple or complex document, but it needs to be useful. It should clarify your brand identity and give guidance to your team and outside freelancers. Make sure to include your logo, brand colors, primary fonts, graphic style, and photography preference.
Visual Hierarchy
Specific sizing and spacing are used for each type of text on your site, to designate what the viewer sees first and last on a page.
Content
Some have said that “everything is content.” This might or might not be true, but it’s helpful to remember that your website content includes any type of media that will be viewed publicly. Written content is the most common type, but photos, videos, audio, and even graphic images are also considered types of content.
Scope of Work
A scope of work document outlines all of the work to be done on a project. This is a helpful place for you and your web designer to define what you actually want to accomplish.
Hamburger menu
A hamburger menu button is sometimes used to give website users the ability to open up a menu of key pages. It’s usually located in the top right of a responsive website and is quite effective for offering several navigation options. It prevents you from taking up valuable visual space on a mobile screen.
JPEG
Images might often be stored in JPEG format (joint photographic experts group) as it is likely the most common form
PNG
Website images are usually saved in the PNG (portable network graphics) to enable quick compression and website speed—without sacrificing image quality.
Files that need to be easily printed or viewed by others, without being modified, are often exported as a PDF document (portable document format).
Resolution
The level of clarity on your website images. With the arrival of retina screens, the ability of your images to wow visitors has taken a big jump up. But, make sure that you’re compressing and exporting images with the correct settings so it doesn’t slow down load speed on your website (Google frowns on slow sites).
Icon
Icons usually refer to a two-dimensional graphic element that users understand the type and context of the content related to it.
Typography
The style and treatment of any text. Planning effective typography for your site includes font colors, font-weight (stroke), kerning, and leading.
Weight (stroke)
The weight of a font describes the thickness of the letters on your design.
White Space
The empty area between design elements on a page. It isn’t always white.
Deliverable
Digital files that a web designer provides you at the end of a project. File types such as Photoshop, PND, JPEG, or PDF will likely be included.
Layout
The arrangement of content on a page.
Responsive
Websites built responsive features are able to adjust to various desktop, mobile, and tablet screen sizes. One website design is built to provide the same excellent user experience across all devices.
Landing Page
Landing pages are built for unique marketing purposes. Your homepage and/or services pages serve as landing pages if you’re using them as the first page for any viewers to enter on your website.
A step-by-step process for effective website strategy. Develop a simple marketing promise, choose your marketing strategy, understand the role of design, prep your content, and start your website project with confidence.
