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Information Technology Systems and Services

Web Design References

Web Design Glossary: C

C

"Click Here"
The phrase "click here" is a bad linking practice. It makes navigating the web difficult for both sighted and unsighted users. Link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context. For more information consult "Click here" don't use it...
Captions
Captions are synchronized visual and/or text alternative for both speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the media content. They are synchronized with audio or video. Captions include dialogue and, unlike subtitles, also identify who is speaking. They convey information about spoken words and non-spoken sounds, such as music or sound effects. Captions benefit people who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing, and anyone who cannot hear the audio (e.g., someone in a noisy environment). Captions are generally rendered graphically above, below, or superimposed over video. Captions can be closed or open. Closed captions are encoded or invisible and must be decoded or made visible. Open captions can't be turned off.
Card Sorting
Card sorting is a categorization method where users sort cards depicting various concepts into categories. You start with a list of all the items you want sorted. Write down each item on a separate index card. Give your user(s) the stack of cards and have them divide the cards up into piles, telling them that the cards should be grouped the way they (the users) best see fit. This technique is best used in the early stages of development. For more information consult Card Sorting.
Cascade
The CSS cascade assigns a weight to each style rule. When several rules apply, the one with the greatest weight takes precedence. You can think of some rules coming from "higher up" in the cascade; these combine with the rules at the next level down, and the result combines with the next level, and so on, until finally you have the actual rules to be applied to the document pooled at the "base" of the cascade. The cascade is the mechanism by which rules from different places are combined to create an über-stylesheet.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Style sheets refer to a set of rules that allow you to control how you would like your document to be rendered. It is a mechanism to primarily separate presentation from content. With the HTML and style sheets approach, structured content goes into the HTML document, and the appearance, or presentation information goes into a style sheet. CSS allow you to control the rendering of elements on a web page without compromising its structure. Before CSS , nearly all of the presentational attributes of an HTML document were contained within the HTML code; all font colors, background styles, alignment specification, boxes, borders, and sizes had to be explicitly described, often repeatedly, in the midst of the HTML code. CSS allows web designers to extract this information, resulting in considerably simpler HTML code, supplemented by an auxiliary style sheet written in the language of CSS . The structure and semantic markup is restricted to the HTML code, while the presentational markup is restricted to the CSS code. For more information consult Cascading Style Sheets.
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
The organization that originally developed the website accessibility checker Bobby. For more information, consult www.cast.org.
Child
In HTML, an element A is called the child of element B if an only if B is the parent of A.
ChromeVox
A screen reader extension for the Chrome browser.
Chunking
Chunking is the way that the brain deals with complexity. Humans short term memory can retain, at most, only about 7±2 things at one time according to George A. Miller. For more information consult Chunking.
Cognitive Disability
A disability involves a person's capacity for processing information and knowledge. For more information consult Cognitive Disabilities.
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough is a review technique where you construct task scenarios from a specification and get a user to role play the part of walking through the task. They act as if the interface was actually built and they (in the role of a typical user) was working through the tasks. Each step the user would take is scrutinized.
Color Contrast
Color contrast refers to how close hues are in value. The human eye requires good contrast for visibility and legibility. Contrast creates visual interest and helps deliver accurate information. It can make a big difference on a web page. Colors that are close in value tend to blur together, and their borders "melt." This can create legibility problems. For example, black text on a dark blue background is difficult to read.
Color Deficiency
Color deficiency is a lack of the ability to discriminate between colors. Designs that rely totally on color to convey essential information will be inaccessible to a small percentage of women and a larger percentage of men.
Color Saturation
Color saturation refers to the intensity of a color.
Composite Capabilities/Preference Profiles (CC/PP)
CC/PP profiles are a method that allows a description of device capabilities and user preferences to be delivered to the server, so that content can be adapted to the device according the preferences of the user.
Consistency
Consistency is the quality of an interface when it behaves in ways users expect. It means that users can apply the knowledge obtained in some previous experience to enhance current performance.
Content Management System
A content management system separates the content of a Web site from its code, allowing nontechnical users to update, approve and post content.
Controlled Vocabulary
A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms that have been specified explicitly. All terms in a controlled vocabulary should have a clear-cut, non-redundant definition.
Contextual Inquiry
Contextual inquiry is a structured field interviewing usability evaluation method. It involves conversation as well as observation. Contextual inquiriy requires a high degree of skill from the usability specialist, in order to ask appropriate questions without interrupting the participants' work flow or influencing their responses. Sometimes two usability specialists are used for a contextual inquiry project, one to conduct the interview, and one to observe and record participant behavior. You can discover unmet needs and understand existing behaviors in greater depth with this method.
Contextual Selector
In CSS a contextual selector is a type of selector that selects by the context in which an element or attribute occurs in the markup structure of a document.
Control Structures
In programming control structures are used to control the logical flow through a script.