Glossary
While we try and keep technical jargon to a minimum, we may sometimes use terms that you might not be familiar with. Here’s a quick primer on some of the terms we use.
A
Accessibility
Accessibility refers to how a website is designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. Building an accessible website makes it better for all users, not just users will disabilities. Some examples of ways to make your website more accessible include: selecting colours with care (paying particular attention to contrast), using easy-to-read fonts, including alt text for images, making the website keyboard accessible, and so on.
Admin (WP)
When we refer to the “WP Admin”, we meant the WordPress admin interface that allows you to edit your site.
B
Backlog
A list of new features or fixes that need to be made to a project.
Blocks
In WordPress, Blocks (or Gutenberg Blocks) are reusable content elements that are used to create page layouts in WordPress. We start thinking about Blocks for a given project right from the wireframing stage.
C
CDN
A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a group of geographically distributed servers. They provide content from a server closest to the user. The purpose is provide quicker website speeds.
Content Management System (CMS)
A Content Management System (CMS) is a web application that helps users create and manage content. Our CMS of choice is WordPress, a popular and easy-to-use tool for managing the content on your website.
G
Gutenberg
Gutenberg is WordPress’s block-based editor. It’s a visual way of creating a page. We try to use Gutenberg as much as possible.
H
Hosting Provider
Essentially web hosting is the server on which your website lives. Web hosts come in all shapes and sizes and your requirements will vary depending on how much traffic your website gets, where you are based geographically in the world, and more. Our preferred host is Kinsta, a host that specialises in hosting WordPress websites.
I
Information Architecture (IA)
Information Architecture is the process of organising, structuring and labelling content on your website. We’ll focus on this early on in a project to ensure the website is easy to navigate.
M
Mobile First
Mobile First is the practice of designing an experience for mobile before designing for desktop or any other type of device. Designing for mobile presents provides greater constraints and thus helps focus on the most important things. It is then easier to build up to a desktop version, rather than down to a mobile version.
MVP
Shorthand for “minimum viable product”. It can be a handy way of thinking about large projects. We often suggest building MVPs – that’s the simplest possible form of a website with it still being useful – in order to get it live quicker and gain additional insights before investing further.
P
Performance
Website site performance is refers to how long it takes for your website to load. There is plenty of research to show that making your website load as quickly as possible is important for SEO and conversion. Lots of things impact how long it takes for your website to load, but a few include how well your website is built, how many large assets are loaded such as images and videos, how many 3rd party scripts are included, and the quality and location of your website hosting.
Plugin
A WordPress plugin is a piece of code that enhances the functionality of your website. Plugins vary in complexity and cost. We generally recommend using as few plugins as possible and doing your research before installing them. Poorly coded plugins can impact the security and speed of your website.
S
Staging Environment
A Staging Environment is a test environment that we use when building your site or developing new features. We’ll use this as a playground for testing, bug fixing, and getting feedback. Once sign-off is given, it gets deployed to Production.
U
User Experience Design (UX)
User Experience Design (UX) refers to the process one uses to create websites that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.
W
Wireframe
A wireframe is used as part of the design process to indicate how the content of components of a website may fit together. A low-fidelity wireframe is often black and white and is more of a sketch to explore options. A high-fidelity wireframe using much more detail, including colour and even imagery.
