Live Project Brochure Design
First Year Students 2010
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But for my Own Part, it was Greek to me
Personally, I’m not a fan of acronyms when used in formal writing. The moment I receive a cover letter with the abbreviations “BTW” or “FYI” I cringe. But online it’s a different ball game. It’s TMB (Tweet Me Back) while I LOL (Laugh Out Loud) in every conversation. With social networks growing at the rate that they are, grammatical faux pas are becoming more and more acceptable. Perhaps it’s time to rehash the subject on “web speak”. The result of which is that our once treasured vocabulary is being hijacked by web villains left, right and centre. Not to mention that many terms we used a decade ago have utterly different meanings online. To really understand what web designers are talking about, read on.
Let’s check out some common ones, so you know just where to mind your P’s and Q’s: “Ajax” is no longer Cape Town’s favourite soccer team but a technique used in web application development,”Bounce Rate” is the percentage of initial visitors that “bounce away” from a web site rather than continue to browse the site and it is not our ability to move on from a breakup. “Resolution” is not goal setting but describes the quality of a pixel based image and “Nesting” is not making our homes pretty but another programming technique. “Inheritance” is now a web term used to describe how styles are applied – yes, nothing to do with an unexpected windfall. “Breadcrumbs” describe a trail to take you back to a home page, and not what the ants are dining on on your kitchen counter. “Dither”is not taking your time but a colour technique in online images. “Element” has absolutely nothing to do with Fire or Water and “Navigate” is not finding your way around the bush with only a compass and a bottle of water. Not to mention a “Hit” certainly doesn’t hurt anymore.
Caption: The jargon that one encounters in the field of web design or whilst browsing social networks can really be overwhelming, but don’t delay in trying it out or you could miss out.
That said, the pro’s of “web speak” certainly outweigh the cons. Now we can find long lost family on Facebook, simply by posting as your status RULKNG4YRDADNAMDPIETVNDWYK? Make sense? If so, welcome to a world where full sentences are also no longer needed. More time, quicker results. Instant gratification. There are still some who don’t know what a “blog” is and snigger at the term “blogroll”, but that won’t last for much longer: there are new web dictionaries splattered all over the internet for those amongst us who are a still a little slow on the uptake. Take a quick look at this dictionary www.smashingmagazine.com, try “Graceful Degradation” for a start.
Caption: “Nesting” and “Navigation” mean something else to a web designer, images Smashing Magazine.
So, my friends, let us ponder the possibly very serious side effects of the loss of the english language on the generation to come… should we worry about being reduced to three letter grunts? At least we’ll never have worry about word count, splling, or evn grmmr!! CV’s will become 1pgers b/c we need no effrt, prspective bosses won’t LOL nemore @ our pathetic spling, in fact, IMHO, all they hav2 do is IM intrview us and praps evn keybrds will b convrted?? Jst imgne!!! OMG, itz np that we wont evn hav2 go2 skool nemore, and FYI, BTW wnt b consdred rude nemore eithr!
BRB – but next month!
Yours in Design,
Éva
Double Page Spread i-Jusi
First Year Students 2010
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Double Page Sread and cover design
First Year Students 2010
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