Web Dev Terms You Should Know

Web developers use coding languages to create the websites we use every day. But have you ever clicked on a link only to be greeted by a confusing “Error 404” message? Or perhaps you’ve heard people use terms like “CSS,” “301 redirect,” or “CTA,” and felt a bit lost?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Despite our reliance on websites, many of us aren’t familiar with the technical jargon of web development. 

An introduction to some of the more common web development lingo can be pretty useful though. Understanding these terms can help you communicate better with our developers and make navigating your site a breeze! Here’s a look at some of the key terms you’ll likely encounter when working with our team—many of which will come in handy even when your project is complete.

Content-related terms

• Content Feeds: A stream of content dynamically displayed in any area of the website. This feed can be sorted, filtered, and/or searched. The most common use of this is on a standard blog or news page.
• Post Types: The categorization of related content, often displayed as a single detail page or content feed. The most commonly used are: posts, pages, and attachments (anything uploaded to the media folder).
• Custom Post Types (CPT): Post types that are implemented by the developer to organize the different types of content within the site. Depending on sitemap requirements, CPTs can be displayed within independent feeds or included with other content feeds.
• Content Fields: Each post type and custom post type contains designated areas which allow content editors to update content that is displayed on the front-end of the website. The most common and standard content fields include: title, general content editor, permalink, featured image.
• Taxonomies: These are more granular categorization terms that can be assigned to content within one post type or custom post type. Most commonly used are: tags, categories. Custom taxonomies can also be developed to provide extended content organization.
• Advanced Content Fields (ACF): These are custom content fields that live outside of the general content editor. These are added using a plugin of the same name which gives us more flexibility and control over how content appears on your site.”
• Migration: The transference of content from an existing website into the new website.
  • A standard migration is limited only to the standard content fields.
  • Any advanced custom fields, content wrapped in shortcodes, content added via third-party plugins, and/or attachments within content editors (i.e, images, documents, etc.) cannot be natively transferred and typically require additional scope in order to accomplish.

Backend terms

• Theme: In WordPress, a theme is a set of template files and style sheets used to define the appearance and presentation of a site’s content. This could be loosely referred to as the site design.
• Plugins: Feature-specific software components that can be added to a website’s content management system (CMS) or platform to extend its functionality or add new features. Plugins are often created by third-party developers and are designed to integrate seamlessly. We generally discourage heavy plug-in use. Most basic functionality can be developed within the theme of the project, which prevents backend conflation and reduces code complexity.
• Custom CSS: Allows for overriding the color, font and spacing styles of the approved design for the website. This is disabled by default – any desired styling flexibility should be addressed in the scoping phase.
• Basic SEO: Basic search engine optimization is provided via the Yoast plugin. Requirements beyond this should be expressed in the scoping phase so we can put together the right service offering to support your needs.
• Users: In WordPress, users are assigned roles that define what they can and cannot do on a website. Each role includes a set of permissions—called capabilities—that determine the specific actions a user can take, such as editing content or managing other users. Roles and permissions help give users exactly the access they need, streamline the experience, and keep the site secure.
  • User roles:
    • Administrator: Has full access to the site, including adding and editing content, updating settings, and installing themes and plugins
    • Editor: Can update the site when themes or plugins fix security issues or add new functionality
    • Author: Can create content, such as posts
    • Contributor: Can contribute content, such as posts
    • Subscriber: Has limited access to the site
  • User permissions:
    • Capabilities: A list of permissions associated with each role
    • Access levels: Determine who can access different parts of the WordPress admin area

Frontend terms

• Design prototype: Design teams use prototyping tools to provide a visual and interactive representation of the website before actual development begins. This is important for helping to maintain design integrity and conveying things like functionality and user experience. Figma is our preferred tool of choice.
• Responsiveness: This refers to a website’s ability to adapt its layout, content, and design to look good and function well across different devices and screen sizes. Dev best-practices usually recommend mobile and tablet designs are implemented before desktop in order to address the most common type of user. Accurate spacing and arrangements should be reflected in the same way as in the desktop representation.
• SCSS/CSS: The styling language used to implement the approved design.
  JavaScript/JQuery: The programming language used to implement any user-interaction and functionality throughout the approved design.
• Animations: Dynamic interactiveness of content areas and site components are implemented using a combination of the aforementioned styling and programming languages.

Functionality

• Site Features: A feature consists of one or more components behaving in a desired way in order to achieve a specific outcome or goal. This behavior (or functionality) is directly influenced by the interaction of the end user.
• User Stories: A user story is an informal, general explanation of a function or feature written from the perspective of the end user (e.g., website visitor). In this case we only need to define the “Action” and “Expectation” of the intended feature or functionality as the “persona” or end-user will always be a website visitor. User [does this]; expects [this to happen].
  • Example of a user story: User selects the date filter; expects to see posts sorted starting with the most recent post.
• Feature model: A respective outline that explains all intended capabilities of the feature. This is not a user story.
  • Example of a feature model: Date filter should be able to:
    • Filter posts starting from most recent post date
    • Toggle between different sorting options
    • Reset and clear sorting options to default state

Third-party plugins & libraries

We use external resources like third-party plugins and libraries to add things like maps, analytics, forms, or chat tools to your site.

These cannot be manipulated or updated by the development team unless access is explicitly provided by the originating plugin/library creator. This typically includes, but is not limited to, scripts added by known companies such as Google, Hubspot, Intercom, etc.

Web jargon can be confusing, so no matter what, we’ve got your back. If you ever feel lost, don’t hesitate to connect with your project team. You can also have a look at our dictionary of other technical jargon terms for support. 

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