Dictionary

Above the fold

Content visible without scrolling.

CTA

Call to Action: the button you want people to click.

Hero

The large banner section at the top of a page.

Viewport

The visible area of a web page in the browser.

Responsive

Design that adapts to different screen sizes.

Breakpoint

Screen width where a layout changes (e.g., 768px).

Grid system

12-column layout framework for alignment.

Z-index

Stacking order of overlapping elements.

Semantic HTML

Using meaningful tags like nav, main, article, instead of generic divs for everything.

Accessibility

Making content usable for people with disabilities.

Mobile-first

Designing for small screens first, then scaling up.

White space

Empty space that gives content room to breathe.

Landmark

A region of a page, like nav, main, or footer, that a screen reader can jump straight to.

Cookie

A small piece of data a site stores in your browser to remember you between visits.

Third-party cookie

A cookie set by a domain other than the one you're visiting, usually for ad tracking.

GDPR

The EU's data privacy law. Requires sites to disclose what personal data they collect and get consent.

Core Web Vitals

Google's three real-world performance metrics: LCP, INP, and CLS.

Lighthouse

A free tool built into Chrome DevTools that audits performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO at once.

Container query

A CSS rule that responds to the size of its own container, not the size of the browser window.

Neo-brutalism

A design trend using thick borders, hard offset shadows, and bold color instead of subtlety.

Modal

A dialog window that sits on top of the page and blocks interaction with everything behind it until closed.

Contrast ratio

A measure of the difference between text and background luminance. WCAG AA requires at least 4.5:1 for normal body text.

Touch target

The tappable area of an interactive element on a touchscreen. Should be at least 44×44px so it's easy to hit accurately.

DNS

The system that translates a domain name into the server address a browser can actually connect to.

Srcset

An img attribute listing multiple image sizes so the browser can pick the right one for the visitor's screen.

Lazy loading

Deferring offscreen images or content until they're about to scroll into view.

Canonical URL

A link tag telling search engines which address is the authoritative one when the same content is reachable at more than one URL.

Open Graph

A set of meta tags that control how a link looks when shared on social media or messaging apps.

Query string

The part of a URL after a question mark, carrying key-value data like a search term or a tracking reference.

Thumb zone

The area of a touchscreen a thumb can comfortably reach during one-handed use.

Semantic color

Using a color consistently to mean the same thing everywhere it appears, like red for errors or green for success.

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