For anyone learning how to create a website, you definitely have to learn some of the terminology. I’ve put together 24 common web design terms to help you on you way.
24 Common Web Design Terms
HTML – Hypertext Markup Language
PHP – Hypertext Preprocessor. This is a server-side scripting language.
CSS – This is short for Cascading Style Sheets. This type of markup is used in how the elements within a page will look like.
Javascript – This is a programming language that can be found in all sorts of computer software.
jQuery – JQuery is not to be confused with being the same thing as Javascript. It a part of the Javascript library in making it easier for client side coding of HTML
Content Management System – This is software that you can install and manage an entire site. You can also add dynamic functions with plugins or modules and more.
Division Layer – Also commonly called a div for short.
Embed – This could meaning inserting a special document type like a presentation, an audio, or a video that outputs a display that is user-friendly on the user-end side.
Markup – Code
Anchor – This is another term for link.
DOCTYPE – When a web page is labeled with a DOCTYPE, this tells the browser the markup compatibility in order to best display the website.
HTML tags – These are elements in a web page’s code that make up the basic infrastructure.
class – This is an attribute for an area that may be repeated in other parts of the same page.
id – This is an attribute for an area in a web page that will not be repeated within the same page.
Head – This is the area between the <head>and </head> that normally contain meta tags, your website’s title, stylesheet, and dynamic scripts.
Body – This is where the content markup of the site goes <body> and </body<
PNG – type of image format
GIF – type of image format
JPEG – type of image format
Margin – Margin moves the image top, bottom, left, or right within another HTML element. This is used in CSS.
Padding – This gives the element an extra area or buffer from another HTML element either top, bottom, left or right.. This is used in CSS.
Font – refers to text
Img Src – This is short for the term image source. Markup in its simplest is as followed: <img src=”” />
Form – this is for forms that allow you to submit or generate information.
I hope this list has helped you become more familiar with HTML.
What other terms do you believe people should know that are common web design terms?
Justin says
October 8, 2013 at 11:04 amThanks for laying this out these website abbreviations Nile, I actually forgotten what most of them stood for 🙂
Alex says
October 8, 2013 at 3:47 pmGood post Nile. People should know about html 5 its becoming common day by day.
Ali Mashuri says
October 8, 2013 at 10:05 pmthank you you information about Web Design Terms, I also follow the development of Web Design Terms article, to raise the ranking of a web page I
Veronica says
October 9, 2013 at 6:13 amHey Nile,
Such an informative post. Thanks for sharing. This will help every web designer specially new comers.
Mark Ford says
October 9, 2013 at 9:52 amThanks for this Nile.
I spend so much time trying to explain some of these things to customers and you’ve just done it in a single sentence!
vishvast says
October 10, 2013 at 9:26 amhi thanks for this article the common web design terms were quite interesting
Karen Woodham says
October 10, 2013 at 12:44 pmThanks for these Nile, after all these years of working on websites and I didn’t now what “div” was short for, yes I know, I am ashamed 😉
Hamza Sheikh says
October 12, 2013 at 1:51 pmIt is great to learn some basics about the terms we use on daily basis. Personally, I have never learned about these terms. I just automatically uses them whenever I need them. I am kinda born developer 😀
syed Aly says
October 14, 2013 at 9:19 amgreat Nile!!!! informative post for us as we are designer are always forgotten terms we used to learn in starting career.
Hamza says
June 23, 2014 at 1:00 pmNice list, but it would be great if you could add “Typography” and some terms related to responsive web-design. And yes thanks for the list 🙂
Valerie says
October 15, 2016 at 7:36 amDon’t forget ‘rel.’ This was one of the questions on an interview screening. I use this one automatically, considering it is almost like an ‘alt’ tag.
Nile Flores says
October 16, 2016 at 12:39 amrel is not really that common when it comes to web design, and is mostly dealing with SEO.. and even in SEO, it’s something to teach as a 201, rather than basic when it comes to linking.