Are you new to tech and feel you can’t follow what people are talking about? Or have you already broken into the industry but feel like a fake because there are still so many terms to tackle?
Tech phrases and expressions can be tough to decipher – even with the most frantic of Googling! But sometimes all you need is a short and simple explanation to get your head around a concept and remember it the next time it comes up when you’re learning to code or in a meeting at work.
And that’s exactly what I have for you here – jargon-free, plain-English definitions of the fundamental terms you need to know to make your way in tech.
I bet you’ll find more than a few you’ve always wondered about. So, you can scratch them off your “What the heck is that?” list right away. Plus, you can bookmark this list to come back to whenever you run across another word that baffles you.
And, if you’re ready to go from understanding tech concepts to making a great career with them, join us for a Skillcrush Blueprint. It’s the perfect way to get the tech skills you need in everything from web design to web development or WordPress to Ruby on Rails – and our next session will be starting SOON!
Social Media
CONTENT CURATION
Choosing online content to share
ENGAGEMENT
How many people use and interact with social media
Example: liking posts on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, viewing pins on Pinterest
EMBEDDING
Putting social media content on a web page
Example: including a YouTube video in a blog post
IMPRESSIONS
How many times a piece of social media content is seen
INFLUENCER
Person who affects opinions and behavior through social media
MENTION
Referring to a person or account on social media
Example: @mention on Twitter, +mention on Google+
MICROBLOGGING
Using social media to share content like text, photos, videos, etc.
Example: Twitter, Facebook, Google+
ORGANIC
Content that ranks highly because people have liked it or viewed it, not because companies have paid to promote the content
REACH
How many people see social media content
SOCIAL GRAPH
Network of relationships between Internet users
USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)
Social media content created by users, not by companies or organizations
Online marketing
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Using other people or organizations to bring in customers via ads or content on their website. Marketing affiliates can get payments or discounts for the customers they bring in
BOUNCE RATE
Percentage of website visitors who leave a website quickly without really looking at it
CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
Text or image on a web page that asks a visitor to do something like read more content, join an email list, sign up for a webinar, buy a product, etc.
CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR)
Percentage of people who click on links on web pages or in marketing emails
FUNNEL
Series of events or actions a person takes in moving from being a potential customer to an actual customer
Example: visit a website, then sign up for a newsletter and then buy a product
IMPRESSION
Number of times people see a certain piece of web content
KEYWORD
Word or phrases used to search for online content
MARKETING AUTOMATION
Using software or online services to automates and measure marketing efforts with things like marketing emails, customer relationship management, social media, reporting and analytics
Example: HubSpot, MailChimp, Act-On
MULTICHANNEL
Using different marketing platforms
Example: using website banner ads, Facebook ads and marketing emails
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)
Advertising on search engines
Example: AdWords, Bing Words
SEO
Search Engine Optimization
Making a website or web page rank high in online search results
TRAFFIC
Amount of people who visit a website
Growth hacking
A/B TESTING
Presenting two different versions of online content, like a web page or marketing email, to see which one users respond to better
CONTENT MARKETING
Using online content, like e-books, videos, blog posts, etc, to get more users or customers
CONVERSION
Turning a potential customer into an actual customer
DATA MINING
Going through large amounts of data to find new, useful information
EMAIL MARKETING
Using direct emails to communicate with current and potential customers
GROWTH HACKING
Creatively using technology, analytics and strategy in combination with product development to increase a company’s growth
OPTIMIZATION
Developing a website to convert visitors to customers
Graphic Design
COLOR VALUE
Way to define colors
Example: hexadecimal color code (#000000), color name (black), RGB code (0, 0, 0)
COLORY THEORY
Characteristics of colors and the relationships between them
GRID SYSTEM
Set of columns and rows that can be used as guidelines to arrange content on a web page
PPI
Also called “density”
How many pixels per inch on a device display with higher ppi giving sharper images and text
Example: 326 ppi of iPhone 6
RASTER
Image made of pixels so it can be styled more but loses quality when made bigger
Example: photo
RESOLUTION
How many pixels can be shown on a device’s display with higher resolution meaning more information can be shown
Example: 1334 by 750 pixel resolution of iPhone 6
RETINA DISPLAY
Term trademarked by Apple for an electronic device display with density so high (usually over 300 ppi) that people can’t see the individual pixels
VECTOR
Image made up of lines calculated mathematically so it can’t be styled as much but doesn’t lose quality when it’s made bigger
Example: logo
User Experience
MOOD BOARD
Collection of content showing the visual style for a website including color palette, images, icons, fonts, etc.
SITEMAP
Outline, or map, of the pages needed for a website
UI
User interface
How a website is laid out and how users interact with it
USER FLOW
Map of the path users take from getting to a website through taking one of an action on the site
USER PERSONA
Profile of an imaginary person who would use a website used to define who a site is for and what their needs are
USER RESEARCH
Investigating how users act and what they need and want to better design a website for them
UX
User experience
How people feel when they use a website
WIREFRAME
Simple sketch of the key information that goes on each web page
Typography
FONT
Typeface at a certain size and weight
Example: 14pt bold Arial
KERNING
Adjusting the amount of space between characters
LEADING (PRONOUNCED “LED-ING”)
Vertical distance between lines of text on a website
TYPEFACE OR FONT FAMILY
Group of fonts
Example: Arial
TYPE HIERARCHY
System of using different font sizes for text on a website to organize it and make it more visual appealing
SERIF
Small line added to letters of “serif” font families that aren’t a characteristic san serif font families
Example of serif font: Times Roman
Example of san serif font: Arial
Frontend development
FRONT END
Part of a website that can be seen by users and includes HTML and CSS
HTML:
ATTRIBUTE
More information about element contents that are in the opening tag and made up of the attribute name, an equal sign and a value in double quotes
Example: alt=”My image”
ELEMENT
HTML code made up of an opening tag, a closing tag and information between them
Example: 〈p〉This is my paragraph!〈/p〉
HTML
HyperText Markup Language
Coding language used to put content on a web page and give it structure
HTML5
The most current version of HTML
META ELEMENTS
Elements that give the browser more information about the whole web page
Example: title, link, meta
OPENING TAG & CLOSING TAG
Set of angle brackets with an HTML element character(s) that contains a piece of content or part of the structure for a web page
Example of opening tag: 〈p〉
Example of closing tag: 〈/p〉
SELF-CLOSING TAG
Opening tag that doesn’t have a closing tag but instead “closes itself” with a forward slash before the right angle bracket
Example: 〈imgsrc=”http://example.com/myimage.jpg” alt=”My image”/〉
SEMANTIC ELEMENT
Element that gives the browser more information about the content in it
Example: em, abbr, s
STRUCTURAL ELEMENT
Element that helps organize the content of a web page
Example: h1, p, div, span
CSS:
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Code to tell browsers how to format and style HTML for a web page
CSS3
The most current version of CSS
DECLARATION
CSS code inside pair of curly brackets which has property and value for the selector
Example: {font-size: 1.5em;}
PROPERTY
Characteristic of the HTML changed by CSS
Example: font-size, color, margin
SELECTOR
Part of CSS code that tells which HTML element the styling is for
Example with p as selector: p {font-size: 12px;}
VALUE
Setting for a CSS property
Example: 1.5em, red, 20px
Backend development
API
Application Programming Interface
How computers and web applications share information with each other
APPLICATION
Type of software also called “app” and often used to refer to mobile device software
BACK END
Part of a website or web service that makes it work and includes applications, web servers and databases
BUG
Mistake or unwanted piece of code that keeps a website or program from working like it should
DEVOPS
Way of working to help development, operations and quality teams understand each other and collaborate better
FRAMEWORK
Collection of programs and components used in software development
Example: Ruby on Rails, Bootstrap, AngularJS, Joomla
OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING (OOP)
Programming that allows the creation of objects that have specific and unique attributes and abilities
Example of OOP language: Ruby, PHP, Python
SOFTWARE
Program or set of instructions that tells a computer, phone, or tablet what to do and includes applications and system software like operating systems, drivers and utilities
TEXT EDITOR
Software used to write plain text (with no formatting) that’s used for coding and programming
Example: SublimeText, TextEdit, TextWrangler, Notepad++
VERSION CONTROL
System to keep track of changes to code and files and allows going back to earlier versions
Example: Git
WEB SERVER
Computer that can be accessed through the Internet or software that responds to server requests
Systems
CACHING
When a web browser stores assets, like images and styles, so that the website load faster on the next visit from the same user
CLOUD COMPUTING
Storing and accessing information and services via the Internet
FIREWALL
System to protect a trusted computer network, like a home network, from security risks from an external one, like the Internet
ROUTER
Device used to connect personal computers to the Internet via a network like cable or DSL
UPTIME & DOWNTIME
How long a website, computer, or system has been working (uptime) or not working (downtime)
VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM)
Software that makes it possible to use one computer operating system on a computer running another system
Example: running Windows 8 on a MacBook Pro
VPN – VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK
Network that allows the Internet to be used like it was connected to a private network (instead of a public one) and so can improve security
Data
BIG DATA
Massively large sets of digital information
DATA ARCHITECTURE
How data is collected, stored, accessed and used in companies and organizations
DATABASE
Collection of electronic information, aka data
DATA MODELLING
Determining what kind of data is needed and how it will be structured and organized
DATA VISUALIZATION
Using graphs, charts, tables, infographics, etc. to better tell about data and findings from it
RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
System for handling digital information using tables
Example: SAP, MySQL
Mobile
HYBRID APP
Application that will work on different platforms and is a combination of a native app and a web app
IDE
Integrated development environment
Application used for software development
Example: Eclipse, Visual Studio, VIM
NATIVE APP
Application that’s been made specifically for a certain device platform
Example: Mail for iOS; Ingress for Android
NFC
Near Field Communication
Technology that lets mobile and other devices communicate using radio waves when they’re very close to each other (about 4 inches or less) and is used for services like sharing files, pairing with accessories, or wireless payments
RESPONSIVE
Website that adapts gracefully to different-sized devices like phones, tablets, wearable devices, etc.
SDK
Software Development Kit
Set of tools for creating certain kinds of software
WEB APP
Website that looks and feels like an app
Also called “HTML5 app”
This article was written by Kelli Orrela and is reprinted by permission.
Image credit:CC by Curtis Palmer