Footprint Glossary
Accessibility
Accessibilty, from a web design perspective, refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
Application Framework
In computer programming, an application framework or application development framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment.
Content Management (CMS)
A Content Management System (CMS) is a web application used to manage the work flow needed to collaboratively create, edit, review, and publish website content.
CRM
Customer Relation Management systems are systems designed to allow businesses to control various activities relating to their client base. Example include sales lead tracking tools, issue ticketing systems, and client communication portals.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language.
Database
A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system.
Design Elements
Design Elements are the various distinct peices of graphic design or imagery that make up the design of a website. There might be banners, photographs, colour schemes, or typography.
Domain Registration
To secure a unique domain name on the World Wide Web (like www.footprint.gi).
E-Commerce
Electronic Commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services online.
Hosting
A web hosting service allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web.
Navigation
The method of finding and moving between different information and pages on a web site. It is governed by menu arrangements, site structure and the layout of individual pages.
PHP
PHP, or PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for website development, to produce dynamic web pages.
Presentational Website
A Presentational Website is a website who's main objective is to deliver information about services or products. You can think of these websites as marketing brochures presented online. They do not ordinarily entail complex programming tasks.
Product Brief
A Product Brief is a light-weight document designed to capture the essential requirements of a proposed website design project.
Release Process
Release process refers the the mechanism or method by which a website is published to the internet, or updated. A solid, well-defined and rigorously followed release process is essential to avoid mistakes.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is a marketing activity whos goal is to improve a websites placement in the various search engines available. This can be important for a business which intends to compete for market share, especially in aggresively marketed sectors.
Usability
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can use a particular piece of sofware (or website in this case).
Web Application
A Web Application is a software application that is accessed via the internet. This might be; a booking system, accounting software, a centralised job tracking system, or any other software tool you can imagine.
Website Specification
A website specification is a document which provide a detailed description of the function and appearance of a website.
Wireframes
Wireframes are the sketch-like design documents we use to specify and communicate the layout of all the various elements of a proposed website. These documents can be changed easily and quick, a must during the early stages of the design process when we are refining the website design.
Wordpress
WordPress is a free and open source blog publishing application. Ideal for publishing simpler websites that the client intends to update themselves.
XHTML
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the encoding scheme used to create and format a web document.
Zend
Zend is an open source, object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 5 and licensed under the New BSD License. It helps provide consistency and reliability, and significanly speeds up development times
