Here is a quick list of some of the terms that every interactive producer should know and what they mean:
..::Paperwork and Contract Terms::..
SOW – Scope of Work or Statement of Work. For a more indepth look at what an SOW entails, see this post on what an SOW is.
NDA – Non-disclosure agreement. This is something you should have signed by anyone whom you are sharing confidential information with about a project.
IMSA – Interactive Master Service Agreement. This is the agreement with all the legalese between the client (generally agency) and vendor (generally production company).
MSA – Master Service Agreement. Same as the above without the “interactive” identifier.
..::Design and User Experience Terms::..
Above the Fold – This is what the content of the site that the user will see without scrolling. Where the fold is depends completely on the device, screen resolution etc. and there can be many different folds. For computers made in the past several years, 1280 × 768 is the smallest common resolution. A full-screen browser window on such a computer is about 700 pixels high, depending on browser toolbars, etc.
UX – User Experience
UI – User Interface
Wireframes – The blueprints (not designs!) for a site, application, etc. Generally made by the UX Designer.
..::Development Phase Terms::..
Alpha – An alpha review or alpha release is generally to review a working website or application that may be missing some key functionality or still have bugs.
Beta – A beta review or beta release is when all major bugs have been fixed and all core functionality is included, but there still may be minor tweaks that need to be made.
Easter Egg – Features or other surprises that are hidden in the code by developers
PII -Personally identifiable information such as email address, credit card, etc.
..::Testing Phase Terms::..
QA – Quality Assurance. Critical component of development that is the process of testing the site or application for bugs.
Bugs – Bugs are coding errors that need to be fixed (Bug fixing)
UA testing – User Acceptance testing. Real users test the site or application to make sure it can handle real-world scenarios and that people understand how to navigate, etc.
Beta testing – A part of UA testing where users are using the beta release to provide real-world feedback.
..::Server Terms::..
Staging Server – This server is a copy of the production server. This is where you can test performance of any updates that will be made to the site or application before they are released onto the production server.
Production Server – The server where the live content lives.
CDN – Content Delivery Network. Often used to deliver heavy video files without slowing down the loading of a website.
..::Media Terms::..
K size or KB size – This refers to the Kilobyte size of a particular piece of media.
Rich Media– The term that most often refers to banner advertising that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other elements that increase the K size of a banner beyond what is accepted by the publisher to host.
Programmatic – A way of media buy that users automation to help make online ad purchases that reach a specific audience based on a number of criteria set – ie – show this creative to people in this city only when it’s above 70 degrees.
Please add a comment below if you think there are any terms that should be added to this list.