A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

ActionScript

ActionScript is the name of a scripting language used in the development of software, most of which run in Adobe Flash Player.

Active Server Pages (ASP)

Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's server-side script engine for dynamically generated web pages.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development tool, created by Macromedia.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program.

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash refers to both the Adobe Flash Player and to a multimedia authoring program used to create content for web applications, games and movies. The Flash Player is a client application available in most common web browsers. It features support for vector and raster graphics, a scripting language called ActionScript and bi-directional streaming of audio and video.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap and image manipulation graphics editor. It is considered the industry standard in most jobs related to the use of visual elements.

Adobe Shockwave

Adobe Shockwave was Macromedia's first and most successful multimedia player prior to the advent of Flash.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a way of promoting a web site through other sites, often those that get more traffic than one’s own. This may be free — in the form of Reciprocal Links — or may cost hard dollars. Search engines see affiliate marketing as beneficial. This is a good way to generate traffic and often allows for payment to the affiliate, only upon transactions.
Reciprocal Links is a formal or informal agreement for two web sites to link to one another. This enhances the credibility of each of the sites in the view of search engines.
Blog is a shorthand term use to describe a “weblog.” Blogs have become a viable source of affiliate marketing in the last year.

Analytics

Analytics is a relatively new discipline that allows the owner of the web site to measure performance in order to understand what is happening. This allows for corrective measures to be taken and performance to be improved through such steps as Search Engine Optimization and A/B Testing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The power of the web is enhanced when people who knew nothing of your web site find it by using a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo! When an owner of a web site authorizes SEO to be performed on his/her site, it is done with the goal of making it easier for search engines to find the site and for the site to come up higher on a list of found sites related to the topic being searched.
A/B Testing: The process of comparing two variable on a web site to see which one performs better. This may be used without a user knowing, because they only see one version of the web site. Certain treatments may more likely to stimulate conversion among users than others.
Conversion: The process by which a visitor become a customer by spending money or providing personal information. The danger in using tried and true techniques to stimulate conversion is that the web is always changing and what worked last week may not this week. Templates are not a good way of stimulating conversion; A/B testing and market research are the most important ways of knowing what will work with the users who actually come to a site.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

Authorization

Authorization certificate is a digital document that describes a written permission from the issuer to use a service or a resource that the issuer controls or has access to use.

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B

Back End

Back End refers specifically to the programming required to allow databases, content management systems, e-commerce, media asset management repositories and the like to function as specified and smoothly with the front end of a web site.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the size of the “pipe” that allows content to be transported across the web.
Narrowband: Another way of describing bandwidth that cannot handle large files, such as streaming media.
Dial-Up: In 2006, 22% of Americans on the Internet still used dial-up. This is using a regular phone line to access the web.
DSL: In today’s vernacular, DSL is an acronym for “digital subscriber line.” Typically, the download speed of consumer DSL services ranges from 256 kilobits per second to 24,000kbit/s, depending on DSL technology, line conditions and service level implemented.
T1: A T1 line is 1.54 Mbps. This is fast, and ushered in the potential of the broadband era.
Broadband: A common terms that describes bandwidth that can enable large files to transmitted quickly and streaming media to been seen and heard with little or no breaks.

Benefit

Benefit is the improvement to a user’s life that results from a feature on a web site (or a product or service of any kind).

Bitmap

Bitmap graphics correspond bit for bit with an image displayed on a screen; these cannot be scaled to a higher resolution without loss of apparent quality

Brand Promise

Brand Promise is the experience your customer comes to expect from your product or service. It Is what customers will remember about your value proposition. Most companies have graphic “identifier”, most commonly in the form of a logo, but no “covenant” with their customers about essential promises that their brand will keep. A logo should represent those promises and remind customers of what makes a product or service different, better and more valuable.
Turner DeVaughn Network suggests that the brand promise should stand as a marketer’s organizing principle and represent nothing less than a company’s reputation.

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C

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a markup language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document.

Client

Client is an individual, company or entity that has signed an agreement (that includes a Statement of Work) and paid a financial deposit to begin an engagement. If these conditions do not exist, the individual, company or entity does not have the privilege or right to dictate the terms of work to be performed by professional services organization.

ColdFusion (CFM)

ColdFusion (CFM) is an application server and software development framework by Adobe used for the development of computer software in general, and dynamic web sites in particular.

Content

Content can be seen, read or heard. In many web sites of the “Web 1.0” era, content such as images and text remained relatively constant. It is content that draws people to a site. This was the “read-only” era.” In the Web 2.0 era, dynamic, changing content keeps users coming back and enables them to create and post their own material, such as videos, sound files and text. We live in an era in which we can “read and write.” Content comes in forms known individually as a medium, such as television receives video and audio signals. Plural of medium is “media.”

Pictures: Still images that come in vector or bitmap form.
.jpg .gif .png: File formats that are used to display pictures online.

Video: A sequence of images that are contained on tape, DVD or in digital form. This generally also contains audio that synchronizes with the moving images.
.mpg: A standard format for video when displayed online.

Audio: A mechanism to store and replay sounds.
.mp3: A common format for audio when shared online. An iPod is an mp3 player of audio. Podcasts are audio files.

Streaming Media: Video and audio content that is transported across the web in smaller pieces. This uses less bandwidth.
.flv: Adobe Flash format for online video streaming.
.wmv: Microsoft Window’s format for online video streaming.

Textual Content: Words that can be displayed in lists, prose, or matrices.
.doc: A suffix (at the end of the file name) that represents the format of Microsoft Word. These .doc files are good for displaying prose and lists.
.xls: A suffix that represents the format of Microsoft Excel. These .xls files are displaying a matrix (with an x and y axis). They also allow complex financial relationships to be displayed.
.pdf: A suffix that represents the format of Adobe “portable document format” files. These can be created from a number of different applications, and are good at displaying both textual and still image content.

Content Management System (CMS)

Content Management System (CMS) is a backend function — invisible to the end-user — that enables the webmaster or client to update their site on a frequent basis. There are a number of systems available, and should all be considered in context of how you will develop the site, how many people will have access and a number of other factors.

Costs

Costs include both the price point of a product or service, as well as the inconvenience or extra effort associated with learning new behavior and developing new skills needed to use the product.

Customer Advocacy

Customer Advocacy is way of thinking about your products, services or your organization by which you develop a profound understanding and appreciation of a customer’s point of view. A customer advocate sees the world of products and service more through the eyes of the people to whom he sells and less through the lens of his product offerings. Customer advocates think of themselves primarily as “chief customer officers” and secondarily as “chief marketing officers”. Customer advocacy is the organizing principle and central tenet of Turner DeVaughn Network.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a discipline that has evolved over the past decade that allows businesses to create a systematic approach to maintaining a relationship with a customer, through all interactions a company has with its customer. It includes methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an organization manage customer relationships in an organized way. It has enabled outsourcing on a global scale.

Customer Value

Customer Value is defined by Carlson and Wilmot in “Innovation” as at the following: When selecting any product or service, customers factor in both its benefits and costs, expecting more value than the cost required. Therefore, Customer Value = Benefits − Costs.

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D

Database Marketing

Database Marketing targets specific people who have either provided their personal data or contact information, or it has been provided by a third party. This is a part of Direct Marketing. This can be less expensive than traditional advertising, because it targets the people who are most likely to respond. It is very well-suited for the internet.
Permission-Based Marketing: The process of obtaining the consent and acceptance of a user providing their information, and in turn receiving content or promotional offers.
Opt-In: Another way of describing Permission-Based Marketing.
Customer Incentive: A offer that encourages a user to opt-in.
Cookies: A term used to describe a script for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts.
Privacy Policies: Every web site that has a Back End should post privacy policies. The site must act in manner consistent with those policies.

Demo

Demo is a shorthand way of describing a “demonstration.” It is also a shorthand way of describing a prototype that is developed only to be shown and not to be used in reality. Some professionals also call this “Proof of Concept.”

Development Site

Development Site is a private web site that is only accessible by the Project Team to validate and see updates to the project.
Validation: The process of confirming that each feature and function works as specified and allows the client to declare satisfaction.
Quality Assurance: The process of making sure that the web site works in a reasonably consistent manner across different platforms and browsers.

Document Object Model (DOM)

Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform- and language-independent standard object model for representing HTML or XML and related formats.

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E

E-commerce

E-commerce refers to business transactions conducted over the Internet.

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F

Features

Features are specific parts of the user experience that should make it competitively superior. If so, it can be described in terms of its “benefit.” There is temptation to add what are, in fact, needless features that render a web site more complicated. In other cases, certain features may be “nice to haves,” but non-essential to completing an assignment on deadline and within budget. Some features may seem like they would be easy to add -- but rarely are. Each feature should be carefully and rigorously considered.

File size

File size is a shorthand way of describing the number of bytes contained in a file. This is important because it impacts the bandwidth required to transport content over the web and because the file size also impacts the time it takes and the server capacity.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to connect two computers over the Internet so that the user of one computer can transfer files and perform file commands on the other computer.

Front End

Front End is a combination of the User Interface and Programming that makes it possible to navigate around. Front End programming can be hooked up with Back End Programming or stand alone.
Storyboard: A series of visuals and text descriptors that are used to show how a story will flow. This has traditionally been used in TV advertising and movies, but is becoming more common with web sites, motion graphics and Flash animations.

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H

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document — by denoting certain text as headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on — and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.

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I

Information Architecture

Information Architecture is the structure that must be defined and agreed upon prior to initiating the design of the User Interface / Front End or programming of the Back End. This structure must include a complete site map, wireframes as well as block flow diagrams and specifications.

Site Map: The visual relationship between ALL pages that will appear on the web site. It defines hierarchy, such as primary, secondary and tertiary levels of pages.

Wireframes: Outlines that show what each area on a web page will contain. It must define all of the elements and relate to the site map and block flow diagrams.

Block-flow: When users interact with a web site, they often make choices that take them down different paths, much like a decision tree. A block-flow diagram visually represents this process and ties in with the technical specifications required to begin the process of programming. The specifications define in detail what must be done, leaving no room for interpretations.

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J

Java Server Pages (JSP)

Java Server Pages (JSP) is a Java technology that allows software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML or other types of documents in response to a Web client request.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language based on the concept of prototype-based programming. The language is best known for its use in websites as client-side a script.

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M

Media Assets

Media Assets are content treated as property, or as an asset that has value, and must be managed.

Media Asset Management

Media Asset Management: The discipline and tools used to catalogue and distribute content. It may include transactions. Repository: A media asset management database for content.

Merchant accounts

Merchant accounts allow a business to accept credit cards, debit cards, gift cards and other forms of payment cards. This is also widely known as payment processing or credit card processing.

Metadata

Metadata is “data about data.” It can generally be thought of as information that describes, or supplements, the central data.

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N

Navigation

Navigation is the route or routes that people use to find their way around a web site.

Primary Navigation: The first level of structure the helps the users find their way around into sections that contain like-information. All web pages on a site must contain primary navigation.

Secondary Navigation: When a section contains more than one page within it, this requires some way to access those pages. This comes in many forms, such as drop-down menus within that section, links embedded within text or a list on the left or at the top of a page.

Tertiary Navigation: For large sites, there are pages that exist at a deeper level, past the secondary navigation. The decision to have tertiary navigation should be made very carefully, and only after all other options have been exhausted. Unless the site is designed specifically to accommodate this level of depth, users are unlikely to go that deep and will have a difficult time finding their way back if they do.

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O

Online Advertising

Online Advertising is hottest new area of advertising because of its extraordinary effectiveness and measurability.
Contextual Advertising: Placing content that may not appear to be an ad near related content.
Click-Through Rate: An important measure of online advertising. The higher the rate, the more effective the ad.
Impression: The number of people who see an ad.
CPM: The “Cost per Thousand” people who read a publication, watch a TV show or visit a web site. This is used to calculate the budget for a media placement (advertising).
Cost-Per-Lead: This is the cost to get traffic to your site, but not necessarily to convert to being a customer.
Customer Lifetime Value: It may cost $1,000 to get 1,000 people to come to a Web site. Of those 1,000, only 100 may sign-up for free newsletters. If only 10 out of that hundred make purchases in a given year and the average purchases during a year is $50, then you have the basis to calculate the lifetime value. If you believe that your site will be in business for 10 years, and their average purchase is $50, then their lifetime value is $500. Those ten people add up to $5,000 of lifetime value, based on $1,000 invested. Under this calculation, brand loyalty is important.

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P

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a reflective programming language designed for producing dynamic Web pages and remote application software.

Platform

Platform is a framework on which applications may be run. Two common platforms are PCs and Macs.

Pre-qualifying

Pre-qualifying is process by which a professional services firm is assessed by a prospective client for compatibility with and suitability for a specific task. Before providing a Request for Proposal to such a firm, a process of assessment must be completed in advance, to follow standard industry practice. For a complete “assessment form,” please contact business@turnerdevaughn.com.

Project Plan

Project Plan is a document to which all parties who are involved in a project refer as the source of guidance on how to proceed with web development, product development or software development. In web development, this includes a strategy overview and information architecture. It is signed after the actual engagement for web development begins. For a sample project plan, please contact business@turnerdevaughn.com.

Product Development

Product Development is a complex, multi-dimensional effort that requires strong grasp of the objectives and specifications set forth in the project plan and thorough knowledge about the customer or user who will interact with it. Prototyping or a demo is required for testing before the actual product can be produced for mass distribution.

Project Team

Project Team is the people who work together to produce a given project. The typical team for a web site consists of a designer, programmer, content author and client. There are a number of other people who also support those key roles.

Designer: Generally works on the user interface. Some designers also develop motion graphics and video. The user interface is part of the Front End.

Programmer: The specialist in using code to prompt the web site to function is a way that is described in the specifications (part of the Information Architecture). Programming can apply to both the Front End and Back End.

Author: The responsible for and often credited with the idea to develop content, whether it be textual, images, video or audio.

Client: The person or people who pay for the work to be done, provide guidance and declare satisfaction when complete.

Media Buyer: A person or organization who purchases advertising. This role is evolving to include the web. Some media buyers specialize in the web only. This is generally tactical. Media Planners are generally more strategic.

Proxy server

Proxy server is a computer that offers a computer network service to allow clients to make indirect network connections to other network services.

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R

Request for Proposal (RFP)

Request for Proposal (RFP) is a document commonly prepared by the prospective client. In the case of solicitations for proposals from web development firms, the quality of the RFP will determine the quality and accuracy of each proposal. Rarely, however, does the RFP represent of the actual project. It can be useful and instructive to help a professional services organization understand the nature of the assignment and assess whether they are a good fit. It can also be instructive to a company in comparing the approaches taken by different firms. It is inappropriate to ask a firm to prepare a proposal to produce a web site without firm meeting to pre-qualify each other. In the case where a meeting is impossible by virtue of distance, each organization should pre-qualify the other to assure that time is worth the investment. An RFP should never be used as to pre-qualify a development firm. For a list of “Requirements in an RFP,” please contact business@turnerdevaughn.com.

Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Ruby on Rails (RoR) was extracted by David Heinemeier Hansson from his work on Basecamp, a project-management tool by the web-design company 37signals.

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S

Scope Creep

Scope Creep is a project management term common to many industries. It occurs when the size of the project expands from the original Statement of Work and Project Plan. It sets the stage for failure because there never are the financial resources, time or personnel available to accommodate the new requirements. To avoid such a predicament, a clear Project Plan must be willingly agreed upon by client and agency

Shopping cart software

Shopping cart software is software used in e-commerce to assist people making purchases online.

Statement of Work

Statement of Work is a document that mutually defines the scope of work required for a project, such as a web site. It should contain a list of deliverables, timeframe, basic technical specifications and budget. If it is complex enough, a firm should be paid to prepare this document. It is signed before the actual engagement for web development begins.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

Structured Query Language (SQL) is the most popular computer language used to create, retrieve, update and delete data from a database.

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T

Tag

Tag is a type of metadata involving the association of descriptors with objects.

Treatment

Treatment is a specific way of showing an idea that could be shown in other ways, with the same underlying function. In the case of a treatment of a web site, this is often used as part of a demo, to show how a particular user might find their way around the web site if it were to be build.

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U

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a technical, Web-related term used label the “Web address” or “Domain name”.

User Interface

User Interface is the part of the web site that users see and interact with. A good User Interface (UI) makes it easy for people to find their way around and enhances the experience of finding content or conducting transactions.

User Experience

User Experience is what the people who visit a web site look at, see and feel as they come to each page and find (or lose) their way to information, products or media of the most interest to them. It is also a term that describes the synthesis of disciplines that often do not intersect in large web development firms: user testing, user interface design, analytics and back-end development. It complements the way of thinking associated with Customer Advocacy and is the primary focus of Turner DeVaughn Interactive.

User Requirement

User Requirement is a definition of what a user needs to function in the way that they need to in order to accomplish what they want to on the site. Technology people often forget that a real person, sometimes with requirements, will be using the site.

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V

Value Factor Analysis

Value Factor Analysis is defined by Polizzotto as a tool that helps estimate the customer value of a product or service when compared to others. When you divide benefits by costs, it sharpens the focus between two or more products: Customer Value = Benefits / Costs.

Value Proposition

Value Proposition is the benefit that a product or service creates for its customers, “what it will do for me.” It should be equal to or less than the cost to purchase or adopt usage of the product or service. To develop a customer value proposition many organizations will choose one of three “disciplines” articulated by Treacy and Wiersema in “The Discipline of Market Leaders” operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy.

Vector

Vector graphics are the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics.

Vertical Prototype

Vertical Prototype (also known as Structural Prototype or Proof of Concept). See Demo.

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W

Web browser

Web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the Web or a local area network.

Web Development Firm

Web Development Firm is category of service provider organization that creates and produces web sites. A wide variety of firms fall within this broad category. When evaluating them, it is important that you consider how they solved problems for clients past and present. Some firms only deliver sites in a specific development environment, such as ASP, JSP or PHP. Others develop sites that work on desktops or laptops, but not mobile devices. They may not raise these issues when they describe their experience, but such details are fundamental predictors of how these vendors would approach your problem.

Web server

Web server is a server to which clients connect to send commands and receive responses along with data contents.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web.

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X

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language that supports a wide variety of applications

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