SAP Web Glossary A-G

A B C D E F G [ H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ]

Version 1.0, 03/18/2003 – Updated 03/21/2005

The following glossary lists and explains general Web terms as well as SAP Web terms. The information was taken from several sources and adapted to the needs of this glossary. Among the sources are: www.whatis.com, the book authored by Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood "Software for use: a practical guide to models and methods of usage-centered design", the book authored by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Reddish "User and Task Analysis for Interface Design", information contained in articles and guidelines in the SAP Design Guild, own contributions (a.o. photos and graphics).

In this version, some ISO definitions have been added.

Note: There is some overlap with the SAP Usability Glossary. See there for topics more related to usability in general.

Accessibility

In the world of electronic and information technology, "accessibility" refers to the possibility for everyone to access and use technology and information products. A piece of software or a Website, for instance, is fully "accessible" if it can be accessed by people with any of the following types of disabilities: Sensory impairments (vision or hearing), mobility impairments, and cognitive impairments

See Section 508 for US legislation regulating accessibility. See also Software Accessibility for Users with Disabilities (Section 508) in the SAP Design Guild for links relating to accessibility.

Anchor

In Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), an anchor is the establishing of a term, phrase, image, or other information object as being either:

• The target of a hypertext link within a document, coded like this:
  <a name="enduser"></a>End User
  Note that any HTML file name is automatically an anchor or target that can be linked to. The anchor tag shown here is only for anchors or places you want people to be able to link to within a file.
• Or a reference (a link you can select) to such a target, coded like this if it's another HTML page:
<a href="index.html#enduser">E</a>
  or coded like this if it's a link to an anchor or target within a document:
  <a href="#enduser">E</a>

Brainstorming

Approved creativity method used with groups for gathering important information about the users who shall use a Website. An important point is that criticism has to be deferred until all ideas have been collected and consolidated.

See Resources -> Brainstorming Sessions in the SAP Design Guild for more information.

Browser

A browser is a program that lets users look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. Technically, a Web browser is a program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user.

Today there are two major browsers in use, the Netscape Navigator, and the Microsoft Internet Explorer. (Adapted from www.whatis.com)

Cascading Style Sheet, CSS

A cascading style sheet (CSS) is a collection of style definitions derived from multiple sources with a defined order of precedence where the definitions of any style element conflict. The Cascading Style Sheet level 1 recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is implemented in the latest versions of the Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers, specifies the possible style sheets or statements that may determine how a given element is presented in a Web page. CSS gives more control over the appearance of a Web page to the page creator than to the browser designer or the viewer. (Adapted from www.whatis.com)

Content

That's what a Website, report or information is about. Currently, many authors stress the importance of content for Websites. Following their arguments, information design (or information architecture and information architects) will become more and more important in the future.

CSS

See Cascading Style Sheet.

Customer

The company or person who orders the creation of a Website from a Web design company. Also the owner and often the maintainer of the Website. In some cases the customer designs and/or implements the Website on his own.

DHTML

See Dynamic HTML; see also, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript

Dynamic HTML, DHTML

Dynamic HTML (DHTML) is a collective term for a combination of new Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags and options (Cascading Style Sheets, CSS), and programming (see JavaScript) that will let you create Web pages more animated and more responsive to user interaction than previous versions of HTML. Much of dynamic HTML is specified in HTML 4.0. Dynamic HTML can allow Web documents to look and act like desktop applications or multimedia productions.

The features that constitute dynamic HTML are included in the two major Web browsers, the Netscape Navigator (version 4.0 and higher) and the Microsoft's Internet Explorer (version 4.0 and higher). While HTML 4.0 is supported by both Netscape and Microsoft browsers, some additional capabilities are supported by only one of the browsers. There are currently also considerable differences between the object models and DHTML implementations of these two browsers. The biggest obstacle to the use of dynamic HTML is that, since many users are still using older browsers, a Website must create two versions of each site and serve the pages appropriate to each user's browser version.

Both Netscape and Microsoft support:

• An object-oriented view of a Web page and its elements
• Cascading style sheets and the layering of content
• Programming that can address all or most page elements (see JavaScript)
• Dynamic fonts

(Adapted from www.whatis.com)

Extranet

An Extranet is a private network that uses the Internet protocol and the public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses. An Extranet can be viewed as part of a company's Intranet that is extended to users outside the company. (From www.whatis.com)

See also World Wide Web (WWW).

Flow Logic

Frames, Frameset

In creating a Website, frames is the use of multiple, independently controllable sections on a Web presentation. This effect is achieved by building each section as a separate HTML file and having one "master" HTML file identify all of the sections. When a user requests a Web page that uses frames, the address requested is actually that of the "master" file that defines the frames; the result of the request is that multiple HTML files are returned, one for each visual section. Links in one frame can request another file that will appear in another (or the same) frame. A typical use of frames is to have one frame containing a selection menu in one frame and another frame that contains the space where the selected (linked to) files will appear.

Frames, originally created by Netscape as an HTML extension and now part of the HTML 4.0, specification are defined with HTML FRAMESET and FRAME tags. Sites that use frames need to create an alternative scheme of pages for requests from browsers that don't support them and possibly for users that prefer a non-frames version. (From www.whatis.com)

Goal

Typically the users' goals are considered. As Alan Cooper notes, these may be different from the customer's (Website owner's) goals. A typical user goal might be to find information fast and easily.

Graphic Design

Comprises all the graphical and aesthetic aspects of Website design like graphics, diagrams, text presentation, colors, backgrounds etc.