Glossary of Terms for Webmaster Training
- Application Server
- A machine or its software that works in conjunction with a web server to deliver application services such as the dynamic creation of a webpage from content stored in a database.
- Compression
- A technique used to reduce the file size of an electronic file by employing an algorithm to eliminate redundant or non-essential information.
- Flash
- A technology used to create interactive animations, video and audio in a compressed state for web presentation.
- Information Architecture
- The art and science of organizing information to help people effectively fulfill their information needs. For a complete glossary on information architecture, visit the Argus Center for Information Architecture (ACIA) at Argus-ACIA.com.
- Learnability
- A term used to describe how easy it is for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the user interface.
- Legibility
- A term used to describe how easy it is to visually comprehend the letters of a word.
- Location Awareness
- The usability practice of ensuring users will understand where they are, how they got there and how they can go somewhere else.
- Memorability
- The ease of which a user can restablish a previous level of proficiency with a user interface.
- Readability
- A term used to describe how easy it is to read a passage of text.
- Robots.txt
- A file placed in a folder/directory of a web server that is meant to be consumed by web crawlers or spiders which index websites. Intended as a guide to these agents and not as a security measure, it politely suggests that the indexing agent be allowed to index only certain files and directories. See - creating a robots.txt file.
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator. This is the address of a web page.
- User Agent
- A more formal term used to identify a software application that requests URL's.
- User Interface
- The design employed to present and facilitate interaction with the elements of a website.
- Web Server
- A machine or the software it runs which returns a web page to a web browser when the web browser requests it. Examples are Internet Information Server (IIS) or Apache.
- Web Page
- An (X)HTML file that presents text, hyperlinks, images, colors and other electronic media in a single browser window or tab.
- Web Browser
- A software application that is capable of requesting, interpreting and displaying a web page.
- Query String
- A URL encoded with a list of variables that the web server receives and delegates to an application server.
For a more ample IT reference list please visit the W3C Dictionary and Glossary.