A Peek at Some Common Design Terms

March 16th, 2016

Our spotlight this month is on our design team, so we've provided a primer on some of the most common design terms! Designing your website doesn't have to involve endless amount of jargon and Google searches, especially when you're lucky enough to work with our designers and project managers.

 

Fonts are typefaces in a particular style or size – e.g. Arial is a typeface, and Arial size 14 bolded is a font.

 

Serifs are typefaces that have small lines attached to the ends of letters, and sans-­serif typefaces do not have these embellishments. Arial is a sans-­serif typeface, while Times New Roman is a serif typeface.

 

WYSIWYG is pronounced “whiz-­e-­wig”, and stands for “What you see is what you get”. This refers to any interface, usually an editor, where you can see editing changes in real time.

 

Responsive web design is a style of design that is aimed at creating sites that look good on all screen sizes — 24” desktops and laptops all the way down to small tablets and smartphones. All new Edlio websites and redesigns include responsive design!

 

UX (User Experience) Design is the process of designing products that are easy­-to-­use, pleasing to the eye, and easily accessible for users of all capabilities. The user flow is the path that someone takes to complete an action using your product or website. This is usually visualized using a flow chart.

 

Above the fold is a term that comes from newspaper journalism, and it refers to everything visible on your site’s homepage before scrolling down. Content above the fold should be eye-­catching and engaging!

 

A raster image is made up of tiny pixels (squares of color) – this means that it can be incredibly detailed but that it can become blurry if enlarged. A vector image is composed of points and lines connected via mathematical equations. As a vector image expands, the shape expands with it, so it is less likely to become blurry.