DDSN 360: Glossary 1

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

— Lao Tzu

User Interface Design – Fall 2019

Glossary 1

• ISP: Internet Service Provider – These are companies that provide software to users to access the internet. Examples would be Comcast, Verizon, or AT&T.

• HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol – This is essentially the language that the internet uses to communicate information. Information is transferred across platforms by following commands defined by Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

• DNS: Domain Name System – These are “names” or addresses of websites such as google.com. This essentially is the phonebook of the internet. No two websites can have the same address.

• URL: Uniform Resource Locator – This is the larger “address” or location of a website, which includes the protocol used to access a resource on the internet, plus the location of the server (which could be the IP address or domain name.)

• GUI: Graphical User Interface – This is the mode in which a user can interact with a device through the use of images, icons and visual indicators. This could be a screen on a phone which displays an icon of a phone as the active button to press to open the phone app on your device. Or the use of the Microsoft Windows icon as the “start” button on your desktop.

• FTP: File Transfer Protocol – Much like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the File Transfer Protocol is the manner in which files are transferred on a network between servers and computers. It is built on a client-server architecture model.

• CMS: Content Management System – This is computer software or an application that has access to and uses a database. WordPress is an example, and the most widely used version of a CMS.

• W3C: World Wide Web Consortium – This is the international community that manages the standards and overall organization for the World Wide Web. Led by Web inventor and Director Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C’s mission is to lead the Web to its full potential.

• HTML: Hypertext Markup Language – This is the language, or code, used to create web pages and websites. It was the first language, or code, that gave life to the internet, and is now assisted by other languages like CSS and JavaScript to make websites more dynamic and interactive. In 2019 HTML5 is the most evolved version of the basic website language.

• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets – CSS is one of the main languages used in the creation and development of the World Wide Web. Others are HTML and Java Script. While HTML provides the content for websites, CSS can provide larger structures and design. It is also responsive to the various screen sized and orientations that people use daily.