Understanding Front-End Technical Terms for an Online Store
Part 1/5
Each post in this 5 part blog segment will focus on different technical terms – some of which will be the technical terms our developers use, put in layman’s terms for the rest of us. Let’s take a look at the vocab layout of your Ecommerce store, and talk about each term.
Header – A word, phrase, logo, etc., that is placed at the top of the page, and appears on every page of your website. (Does not include the Navigation menu). Often will showcase your Logo and/or any slogan associated with your company.
Footer – A line or block of text appearing at the foot of each page. (Copyright, Cart Powered by, etc.) May also include links or shortcuts to other areas of your website.
Security Seals – These can be found in the header or footer section. Security Seals let your customers know that their personal info and/or credit card info is kept safe, and that your store follows security requirements.
Navigation Menu – (Often confused as part of the header). A set of buttons or images in a row or column that serves as a control point to link the user to different sections on a website. May also be a single graphic image with multiple selections.
Pagination – The process of dividing a document into discrete pages, either electronic or printed pages. So for example, instead of having 100 items on one page it breaks them down to 25 items per page. Pagination reduces long lists into smaller sections. (i.e. products, content)
Mega Menu – A drop down interface that is triggered by the user hovering over a link or defined area. This drop down usually shows all options in one main, mega-panel. Often related topics will be grouped into categories.
Megamenu
Left-hand Navigation – The navigation bar on the left-hand side of your page gives you quick and easy access to detailed information contained in that area of the site. Titles shown within the navigation bar (breadcrumbs) display the stage of your journey as you navigate through the site.
Left-hand navigation
Shopping Cart – Software that provides online store owners the ability to sell their products through a checkout process.
Shipping Rates – A freight rate is a price at which a certain cargo is delivered from one point to another. The price depends on the type of cargo, the mode of transport, the weight of the cargo, and the distance to the delivery destination.
Live Rates – Store set up, when you go to buy something, the store directly communicates with a delivery carrier to get the total shipping cost from store to customer’s front door.
Banners – A heading or advertisement appearing on your web page in the form of a bar, column, or box.
Banner with CTA that is one slide of Carousel Sliders
Carousel Slider – (Hero Image) Displays a gallery of photos of a good or product. Large attention grabbing image – a focus point of the website.
CTA – (Call to actions) An instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as “call now,” “find out more” or “visit a store today.”
Dropdown – (Of a menu) Appearing below a menu title when it is selected, and remaining until used or dismissed.
Radio Button – Button shaped option arranged in groups of two or more, that only allow you to select one of a predefined set of options. Differs from Check Mark Box where multiple selections can be chosen.)
These are just some of the basic technical terms involved with your Ecommerce store layout.
Check back next Wednesday for our next post, which will focus more on Open Source and SASS, and where we we’ll go more into detail about our partners.
