Navigation Glossary

Browse 8 navigation terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

8 Navigation Terms

Breadcrumb: A navigational element that shows where a user is within a hierarchy and how to move back through parent pages or sections. In design and debugging culture,...
Code Labyrinth: A code structure so twisty, layered, and indirect that understanding it feels like trying to escape a maze. In engineering slang, code labyrinth implies...
Code Navigation: The ability to move through a codebase efficiently using tools such as go-to-definition, symbol search, call hierarchy, or reference lookups. Good code...
Dead Reckoning: Working out the next move by inference and approximation rather than by reliable fresh signals or ground truth. In engineering slang, dead reckoning often...
Deep Link: A URL that opens a specific screen within a mobile app rather than the app's home screen. Universal Links (iOS) and App Links (Android) handle the URL at the...
Deep Linking: A technique that uses URIs to link to a specific page or content within a mobile app or single-page application, rather than just launching the app's home...
Information Architecture: The structural design of shared information environments — the art and science of organizing, labeling, and structuring content on a website or app so users...
Turbolinks: The predecessor to Turbo Drive, Turbolinks was a Ruby on Rails library that sped up page navigation by intercepting link clicks, fetching the new page via...