Web Design References
Web Design Glossary
W
- WAVE
- The WAVE is an accessibility tool originally written by
Dr. Len Kasday at Temple University. It helps people perform design
tasks that require human judgment (e.g. "Does this
alt text
provide a functional equivalent for this image?" "Does this
reading order make sense?". Consult the
WAVE
site for more information.
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- Started by the
W3C
and its members in 1997, this initiative addresses web
accessibility issues. Consult the
WAI
site for more information.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG)
- These are the guidelines built by the
W3C
WAI to address issues in building accessible web pages.
Consult the
Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
site and the
Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 site for more information.
- Web Standards
- The term "Web Standards" refers to the World Wide Web
Consortium's (W3C) recommendations. It means
the support of W3C recommendations such as
HTML,
CSS,
and the DOM/ECMA Script (among others like XML, SVG, and
MathML).
- Website
- A website is a related group of web pages published on
the World Wide Web.
- Well-Formed
- A well-formed XML document follows the rules set forth by
the
XML
specification, including having all tags closed, all
attributes quoted, a XML declaration, correct comments
etc.
- While Structure
- In programming, a while structure continues to loop while
an expression is true. It evaluates a Boolean expression. If
the expression is false, the code inside the braces is
skipped over. If true, the code within the braces is
executed. When the close brace } is reached, the test
condition is reevaluated, and if it evaluates to true, the
code in the loop is re-executed. This continues until the
condition is met. Note that the condition is only tested at
the beginning of each iteration, so even if the truth of the
condition changes during the middle of the code block, the
code will be executed to the end.
- White Space
- White space, also known as negative space, is the open
space between visual elements on a web page. The term
describes the unused areas. White space gives the eye rest.
Cluttered designs hinder clarity and tire the eye. Judicial
placement of white space can emphasis page elements and help
to direct the eye. You shouldn't use
HTML
to create whitespace. Use cascading style sheets for this
purpose.
- Wireframe
- A wireframe is a skeleton version of a website that
depicts navigational concepts and page content. It is a set
of cross-linked pages that acts like a functional prototype
of the final website without the graphics. A wireframe often
has only sketchy text content. It is often accompanied by a
tree diagram or flowchart of the website. It doesn't take
into account visual design or page layout. For more
information consult
Wireframes.
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- The W3C is an international consortium of companies and
organizations involved with the Internet and the World Wide
Web, responsible for maintaining web technology standards,
such as HTML
and CSS. It was
"created in October 1994, to lead the World Wide Web
to its full potential by developing common protocols that
promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability."
Consult the
W3C
site for more information.
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