Useful terms explained
- Accessibility
- In the context of web design, accessibility relates to making a website available to as many users as possible irrespective of what computer equipment and software they are using or whether they have a disability. For further details please see Why should I care about accessibility?.
- Content management system
- A content management system-driven website is a dynamic website that stores the content of each page in a database and offers a user-friendly way for site owners to update the site themselves.
- Domain name
- Your domain name is the web address for your website. It can also be used for email addresses that tie-in with your websites's address. For example if you domain name is yoursite.co.uk, your web address would be www.yoursite.co.uk and you could have an email address for info@yoursite.co.uk.
- Ecommerce
- Ecommerce is the term used to describe selling directly through a website. Ecommerce systems comprise product listings, a shopping cart system and secure online payments.
- Operating system
- An operating system is the program that runs on a computer and controls all the tasks the computer carries out, allowing other programs to run. Home computers most commonly run a version of Windows (Windows XP being the current version), however Macs run a different operating system (currently Mac OS X) and some users have a version of the open-source operating system Linux.
- Search engine
- A search engine is a website that allows you to search for other websites by entering combinations of keywords. Popular search engines are Google, Yahoo!, Ask (formerly called Ask Jeeves) and MSN.
- Web browser
- A web browser is the programme on your computer that you use to view a website. Common browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari and Opera.
- Web hosting
- For a website to be available on the internet 24 hours a day it must be placed on a computer called a server that is constantly connected to the internet. When setting up your website you will sign up with a web host and arrange for the website to be stored on one of their servers.
- Web standards
- Web standards are a list of guidelines and rules followed by a web designer when creating a website. For details of the standards followed by Webfooted Designs and what the benefits of this are, please see Why should I care about web standards?. Further details about web standards can be found on the World Wide Web Consortium and Web Standards Project websites.
