Glossary » Website Design

scope notes

text associated with a link, such as a brief description or keywords, that helps a user determine the scope of the content that is accessed through that link. Other scope information might include representative sublinks, or a number indicating how…

search

the mechanism that enables users to find things in large information spaces. Search issues fall into 3 common categories: how people specify their search queries, what determines a “relevant” match, and how search results are displayed.

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search engine

a tool that allows a person to enter a word or phrase and then lists web pages or items in a database that contain that phrase. The success of such a search depends on a variety of factors including: the…

shopping cart

a common metaphor used in web-based ordering systems. Users search for products, then add them to an abstract shopping cart. The entire list of items in the shopping cart is listed when they go to an order page to finalize…

shortcuts

any means of providing a faster method to accomplish a task than the general-purpose method, such as assuming typical default values. Shortcuts can be provided for experts that novices might have difficulty using, such as inconsistent methods for common tasks,…

similarity matching

a technique for identify conceptual categories. Users are given a set of topics, and they are asked to rate the similarity of pairs of topics (on some scale, e.g. 1 to 10). These ratings can them be combined with a…

sitemap

a representation of the organization of a website, usually including links to all the pages on the website. Used to help users find and get to pages on the site and help them build a conceptual understanding of the site…

skip link

a link on a web page which, when clicked, skips down to a place lower on the page (i.e. a page link). The deliberate intention of a skip link is to enable a user to skip unimportant, uninteresting, or redundant…

spamdexing

efforts to fool search engines into providing a high relevance ranking for the pages of a website, even when the website may not be an appropriate match for a given keyword. This is undesirable because it interferes with users attempts…

spider

a program that downloads web pages and follows links to explore every web page it can find, usually with the goal of indexing every web page for a search engine, but also used to do other forms of research and…

splash page

or splash screen; a website homepage that is used for emotional impact and has very little navigation or information. Instead, it typically just displays a large and stunning graphic or a simple typographic message to intrigue the viewer and lure…

spot graphic

an image used as an illustration or decoration on a page or on the screen, generally without a functional purpose other than its visual appeal and dynamics within a layout.

stickiness

the quality of a website that it retains visitors, by keeping them at the website and by getting them to return regularly.

structural links

links made available to navigate an information space by its structure & not necessarily specifically related to the content of the page they’re found on.

tabs

an interface metaphor for navigating between screens or between different panes within a window, based on the idea of tabs on folders in a file drawer.

term rotation

in an index (such as for finding information on a website), listing multi-word terms under each significant word in the term. Thus, “information architecture” would also be listed under “architecture, information” and “graphical user interface” would also appear under “user…

thesaurus

a collection of synonyms defined to help handle the wide variety of terminology people may use in indicating the same objects or commands, especially useful in search engines.

tiering

a way of taking the tasks to be performed and putting them in several tiers . The most important are readily available; the less important tasks are on subsidiary levels. Designers used to put all tasks on the menu bar…

trail

a sequence of documents that form a coherent message within a hypertext or web collection. Each document points to the next and previous documents along the trail.

URL

Universal Resource Locator; an address used to indicate where documents and other services are available on the internet. This address is universal in the sense that it works for a wide variety of internet services, including web pages (http:), ftp…

virtual terminal

A virtual terminal defines a set of capabilities that an application working over a network can assume that a user has at the user’s local site. It responds to a network protocol that allows the specification of interactions with the…

vortal

vertical portal; a website that organizes a set of links to other sites within a given domain (vertical industry).

VRML

Virtual Reality Markup Language; a simple notation for describing 3-dimensional spaces and links between different sites, allowing 3-D spaces to be browsed like websites and other hypertext.

waypoints

pages within a website that act as landmarks and navigational hubs.

web browser

software that enables people to access, view, and move between documents on the web, especially those prepared in HTML. Example browsers include Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Opera, Mosaic, and lynx. One of the most challenging aspects of website design is…