Are you new to tech and feeling like sometimes you can’t even follow what people are talking about? Or have you already broken into the industry but are feeling like a bit of 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 has you baffled.
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
1. Content curation
Choosing online content to share
2. Engagement
How much people use and interact with social media
Example: liking posts on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, viewing pins on Pinterest
3. Embedding
Putting social media content on a web page
Example: including a YouTube video in a blog post
4. Impressions
How many times a piece of social media content is seen
5. Influencer
Person who affects opinions and behavior through social media
6. Mention
Referring to a person or account on social media
Example: @mention on Twitter, +mention on Google+
7. Microblogging
Using social media to share content like text, photos, videos, etc.
Example: Twitter, Facebook, Google+
8. Organic
Content that ranks highly because people have liked it or viewed it, not because companies have paid to promote the content
9. Reach
How many people see social media content
10. Social graph
Network of relationships between Internet users
11. User-generated content (UGC)
Social media content created by users, not by companies or organizations
Online marketing
12. 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
13. Bounce rate
Percentage of website visitors who leave a website quickly without really looking at it
14. 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.
15. Click through rate (CTR)
Percentage of people who click on links on web pages or in marketing emails
16. 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
17. Impression
Number of times people see a certain piece of web content
18. Keyword
Word or phrases used to search for online content
19. 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
20. Multichannel
Using different marketing platforms
Example: using website banner ads, Facebook ads, and marketing emails
21. Search engine marketing (SEM)
Advertising on search engines
Example: AdWords, Bing Words
22. SEO
Search Engine Optimization
Making a website or web page rank high in online search results
23. Traffic
Amount of people who visit a website
Growth hacking
24. 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
25. Content marketing
Using online content, like e-books, videos, blog posts, etc, to get more users or customers
26. Conversion
Turning a potential customer into an actual customer
27. Data mining
Going through large amounts of data to find new, useful information
28. Email marketing
Using direct emails to communicate with current and potential customers
29. Growth hacking
Creatively using technology, analytics, strategy in combination with product development to increase a company’s growth
30. Optimization
Developing a website to convert visitors to customers
Graphic Design
31. Color value
Way to define colors
Example: hexadecimal color code (#000000), color name (black), RGB code (0, 0, 0)
32. Colory theory
Characteristics of colors and the relationships between them
33. Grid system
Set of columns and rows that can be used as guidelines to arrange content on a web page
34. 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
35. Raster
Image made of pixels so it can be styled more but loses quality when made bigger
Example: photo
36. 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
37. 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
38. 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
39. Mood board
Collection of content showing the visual style for a website including color palette, images, icons, fonts, etc.
40. Sitemap
Outline, or map, of the pages needed for a website
41. UI
User interface
How a website is laid out and how users interact with it
42. User flow
Map of the path users take from getting to a website through taking one of an action on the site
43. 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
44. User research
Investigating how users act and what they need and want to better design a website for them
45. UX
User experience
How people feel when they use a website
46. Wireframe
Simple sketch of the key information that goes on each web page
Typography
47. Font
Typeface at a certain size and weight
Example: 14pt bold Arial
48. Kerning
Adjusting the amount of space between characters
49. Leading (pronounced “led-ing”)
Vertical distance between lines of text on a website
50. Typeface or Font family
Group of fonts
Example: Arial
51. Type hierarchy
System of using different font sizes for text on a website to organize it and make it more visual appealing
52. 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
53. Front end
Part of a website that can be seen by users and includes HTML and CSS
HTML:
54. 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”
55. Element
HTML code made up of an opening tag, a closing tag, and information between them
Example: 〈p〉This is my paragraph!〈/p〉
56. HTML
HyperText Markup Language
Coding language used to put content on a web page and give it structure
57. HTML5
The most current version of HTML
58. Meta elements
Elements that give the browser more information about the whole web page
Example: title, link, meta
59. 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〉
60. 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: 〈img src=”http://example.com/myimage.jpg” alt=”My image”/〉
61. Semantic element
Element that gives the browser more information about the content in it
Example: em, abbr, s
62. Structural element
Element that helps organize the content of a web page
Example: h1, p, div, span
CSS:
63. CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Code to tell browsers how to format and style HTML for a web page
64. CSS3
The most current version of CSS
65. Declaration
CSS code inside pair of curly brackets which has property and value for the selector
Example: {font-size: 1.5em;}
66. Property
Characteristic of the HTML changed by CSS
Example: font-size, color, margin
67. Selector
Part of CSS code that tells which HTML element the styling is for
Example with p as selector: p {font-size: 12px;}
68. Value
Setting for a CSS property
Example: 1.5em, red, 20px
Backend development
69. API
Application Programming Interface
How computers and web applications share information with each other
70. Application
Type of software also called “app” and often used to refer to mobile device software
71. Back end
Part of a website or web service that makes it work and includes applications, web servers, and databases
72. Bug
Mistake or unwanted piece of code that keeps a website or program from working like it should
73. DevOps
Way of working to help development, operations, and quality teams understand each other and collaborate better
74. Framework
Collection of programs and components used in software development
Example: Ruby on Rails, Bootstrap, AngularJS, Joomla
75. 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
76. 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
77. Text editor
Software used to write plain text (with no formatting) that’s used for coding and programming
Example: SublimeText, TextEdit, TextWrangler, Notepad++
78. Version control
System to keep track of changes to code and files and allows going back to earlier versions
Example: Git
79. Web server
Computer that can be accessed through the internet or software that responds to server requests
Systems
80. Caching
When a web browser stores assets, like images and styles, so that the website will load faster on the next visit from the same user
81. Cloud computing
Storing and accessing information and services via the Internet
82. Firewall
System to protect a trusted computer network, like a home network, from security risks from an external one, like the Internet
83. Router
Device used to connect personal computers to the Internet via a network like cable or DSL
84. Uptime & downtime
How long a website, computer, or system has been working (uptime) or not working (downtime)
85. 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
86. 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
87. Big data
Massively large sets of digital information
88. Data architecture
How data is collected, stored, accessed, and used in companies and organizations
89. Database
Collection of electronic information, aka data
90. Data modelling
Determining what kind of data is needed and how it will be structured and organized
91. Data visualization
Using graphs, charts, tables, infographics, etc. to better tell about data and findings from it
92. Relational database management system
System for handling digital information using tables
Example: SAP, MySQL
Mobile
93. Hybrid app
Application that will work on different platforms and is a combination of a native app and a web app
94. IDE
Integrated development environment
Application used for software development
Example: Eclipse, Visual Studio, VIM
95. Native app
Application that’s been made specifically for a certain device platform
Example: Mail for iOS; Ingress for Android
96. 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
97. Responsive
Website that adapts gracefully to different-sized devices like phones, tablets, wearable devices, etc.
98. SDK
Software Development Kit
Set of tools for creating certain kinds of software
99. Web app
Website that looks and feels like an app
Also called “HTML5 app”