April 2007
Speak Geek: Web Industry Lingo for Normal People, Part 1
Okay, so you're trying to get a website made or you want changes made to an existing page, and the designer starts going off about "navigation" and "css" and "architecture" and yada yada yada... You have no idea what he just said and you can't understand why it's going to take 10 hours to move two words three inches to the left. Does this sound familiar?
Web designers and developers speak a language of acronyms and other strange terms uncommon to the general public. In this article we'll beef up your industry vocabulary to help you effectively communicate your needs and understand the relatively undiscernable mumbo jumbo.
Our hope is that this information will help alleviate any confusion as well as save you time and money as it relates to the development and maintenance of your online presence.
Let's talk design...
Look & feel - When a designer refers to look & feel he/she is talking about the general ambience and mood of the website. A site can look plain jane, stuffy old fashioned, refined and elegant, corporate, fun and flashy, cute, artsy, cluttered, industrial... The possibilities are endless. A website is a designer's virtual canvas. When discussing look & feel, be ready to talk about color schemes, style, and functionality.
Site Architecture - A well organized web page is key. If you organize your pages well, your visitors will find your site a joy (or at least tolerable) to visit and will most likely come again and dig deeper into what you have to offer.
Navigation - This is a fancy term that refers to how your visitors will move around or navigate through your website. The navigation and your site architecture should be bosom buddies and help your visitors find what they need quickly and hopefully within 3 clicks.
Mockup - Constructing a web page can be a painstaking and time consuming process. To save time (and money), designers often create flat image mockups of what a web page might look like. Mockups are much easier and faster to manipulate, change, and fine tune. A mockup should be understood as a GENERAL visual representation and not a final product.
Experience has shown us that some clients misunderstand the concept of image mockups and as a result spend lots of time analyzing every single iota of detail and then sending us feedback on typos, punctuation, grammar, or other minutia. Mockups are meant to gather feedback on the overall structure and feel of the site. Rest assured that we will break out the fine-toothed comb and magnifying glass when it comes to translating the mockup to a real life web page.
Lorem ipsum... - Since we're talking about mockups, this is an opportune time to introduce you to lorem ipsum. Have you ever seen these words on a mockup and thought to yourself, "Excuse me, I specifically asked for my website to be in English!". Don't fret, we didn't go off the deep end. Lorem ipsum is simply a block of text meant to serve as a textual placeholder in order to give the designer a visual idea of what a page might look like when it is populated with text.
Lorem ipsum is useful, especially for people like me who are naturally detail oriented and want to proofread everything. The point of the design phase is to, as stated in the explanation of Mockups, create a general representation of the web page. After the look & feel is finalized, we can integrate the real content.
Content - This is the meat of your web page. This can be text, images, video...basically whatever you want your visitors to focus on. If the purpose of your website is to market or sell a product, make sure to include lots of pictures and make them prominent. Customers like to know what they're paying for!
Integration or Content Integration - This phase of development happens after the designer has translated the approved mockups into an actual web page. At this point the web page is nothing but an empty shell and the content needs to be integrated or added into the web page. Once the content has been integrated, let the proofreading process begin!
SEO - Search Engine Optimization is taken into consideration when integrating and fine tuning the primary content and other text on the site. Having a well optimized site will improve your search engine rankings and bring more people to your site.
Redesign - Occasionally, a client will come to us saying:
I don't want a redesign. Just the top image.. the look of the navigation...the main content... oh, and the navigation on the side and the bottom area.
I hate to break it to you, but that is a redesign! Anytime there is a moderate to significant change to an existing site, that is considered a redesign.
Web Application - In the early days of the internet, the majority of web pages were static. A static web page never changes; the web page is informational only. Today, sites are much more dynamic and allow more interactivity. A web application is a tool or software that resides on a website and can be used anywhere a internet connection and a compatible web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox) is available. Some examples of web applications are Google Maps or your online banking website.
CMS - A Content Management System is a web application that gives the site owner the capability to make his/her own updates on all the pages of the site.
CRM - A Customer Relationship Manager is a web application that can help a company keep track of current and potential clients. A CRM can handle contact information; track client contact including letters, emails, and telephone calls; track business process from a lead to a client; and other important information.
Statement of Work - This is a document that outlines in detail the roles and responsibilities of the web designers, developers, and the client. The development team will explain its understanding of the scope and requirements of the project; it is the responsibility of the client to agree or clarify gray areas before beginning the project. This will help avoid any confusion or setbacks in the development process.
Often times, delays in development are a result of miscommunication and a pile of unknowns. For
a humorous example of what we mean, check out this funny article from a fellow web design firm in
Australia: If Architects Had to Work like Web Designers!
Next Month: We'll talk programming and web applications!
We hope you found this tip useful! To read more Tools and Tips to help your business grow and succeed online click here.
Best Wishes!
Your santex-net team