Development

Deciphering Developers: Commonly Used Terms You Need to Know

Get a grip on web developer lingo.

young african american man works on a desktop computer

Anyone who has gotten into a long conversation with a developer knows that it can sometimes feel like they’re speaking a foreign language. From technical terms to industry information, there are plenty of words that people outside of web development may find puzzling. Whether you’re getting a website made by us, or just want to brush up on your vocabulary, here are the five developer terms that you need to know:

Image Optimization

Image optimization is act of reducing your image’s file size, without sacrificing the quality, to keep your website’s load times low. Just because you want a large photo on your homepage doesn’t mean the file has to be large. When very large files are used, they decrease your website’s speed, meaning that your readers are less likely to stay on the page as it loads and Google is less likely to suggest it.

Aspect Ratios

An aspect ratio essentially describes the shape of an image. It is a number that represents the proportional relationship of an image’s width and height. For example, a square’s aspect ratio is 1:1 because the width and height are even. For a portrait-style image, the aspect ratio would be written as 2:3. Having these dimensions helps designers plan out how your website will look.

Responsive Design

Responsive design is a way of creating web pages with flexible layouts and images that can be easily viewed on a desktop, phone or tablet. The goal is for the page to be able to fit any screen size or orientation without sacrificing the user experience or the page’s appearance.

High Resolution Images

High resolution, also sometimes called hi-res, photos are high-quality images. Every photo on the web is made up of pixels and their resolution is based on how many pixels they contain. An image that contains 500 pixels and one that has 3,000 pixels may both look the same at a glance, _but_ the one with more pixels will actually appear more detailed and better quality.

Browser Caching

Browser caching is when your web browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox, stores information from the websites you visit. These stored assets may be images, HTML or some other data displayed by the website. Your browser cache is a different area of storage from your history or cookies, so even if you’ve cleared those out you still might have a full browser cache. If you can’t see updates you’ve made to your website, then clearing your browser cache may be the answer.

Need to know more than just the terminology of programming? Learn how our team of talented developers and designers can help build the website your business needs. Contact us today to set up a no-commitment free consultation.

Hayley

About Hayley

When Hayley isn’t knocking out website copy behind her laptop, she’s in the kitchen — a (non-snobby) foodie and committed vegan, she brings her passion for cooking into the office with pies and treats she’s made herself. Hayley polished her skills, both culinary and literary, at Cooking Light digital and MyRecipes.com, where she worked as a food writer before joining us here at Infomedia. She’s great at writing SEO-rich copy, drafting a catchy headline and utilizing digital tools to give her writing serious online impact. To unwind, Hayley likes watching horror movies, sweating the day away in hot yoga, traveling with her husband, Peter, and coming home to their two cats, Momo and Otto.

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