* WEB DESIGN UPDATE. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. NOTE: As a navigation aid for screen readers, all headings begin with an asterisk and end with a full stop. All items are also numbered in the contents and throughout the issue, with numbers appearing immediately after the asterisks. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. [Issue starts.] * February 5, 2003. * Volume 1, Issue 32. * What's new at the Web Design Reference site? New Links In These Categories: 1: ACCESSIBILITY. 2: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 3: COLOR. 4: DREAMWEAVER. 5: EVENTS. 6: FLASH. 7: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 8: MISCELLANEOUS. 9: NAVIGATION. 10: PHP. 11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 12: USABILITY. 13: XML. SECTION ONE: New references. * 1: ACCESSIBILITY. Getting Started: Making a Web Site Accessible By Judy Brewer This page has been recently updated. Making Educational Software and Web Sites Accessible Design Guidelines Including Math and Science Solutions "NCAM has just released these long-awaited guidelines, and they are well worth the wait. Curriculum developers and designers of on-line educational materials will greatly benefit from the information contained in these guidelines. While accessible software and Web sites help meet the needs of deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and visually impaired users, these guidelines effectively advance the theory that non-disabled users always gain from accessibility enhancements. While this information if crucial for students and faculty in higher education, they will benefit K-12 at one end and working professionals at the other end." Accessibility Checking... With Just A Browser! By Ian Lloyd * 2: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS 2.1 working draft The W3C CSS working group has published an updated CSS 2.1 working draft. Much (most) of the feedback on the previous draft has been incorporated. There are still a few unresolved issues (which is why this isn't a last call draft) mostly surrounding overflow and "shrink-wrapping". Try CSS media types to build printer-friendly pages By Shawn Morton Quick Draw MacFly By Al Sparber "There is no doubt that CSS layout is in vogue. Clean, efficient, and quick-loading pages can be had if you just take a little time to learn the fundamentals. There are not many places where you can learn fundamental CSS techniques that can be deployed in a real-world web site without lots of study, trial, error, and occasional acid indigestion. The goal here is to show you a CSS layout you can unwrap and put on today..." * 3: COLOR. Barrier-free presentation that is friendly to colorblind people By Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito Examples of what others see. (charts, images, diagrams, side by side) Palettizer By Markup.co.nz CSS Color Contrast Picker. Select font/background color contrasts via optional web safe color palettes. Palettes include basic 8, 140 named colors, 256 non dithering and CSS system colors. * 4: DREAMWEAVER. Record Store: Building Your First Web Application in Dreamweaver MX By Matt Brown * 5: EVENTS. EDUCAUSE 2003 Annual Conference November 4-6, 2003 Anaheim, California U.S.A. International Web Standards Meetup International Web Design Meetup International PHP Conference 2003 May 8-9, 2003 Amsterdam, The Netherlands * 6: FLASH. Top 10 Tips For Usable Flash By Stephanie Reindel "When used wisely, Flash can be an effective tool. When used incorrectly, Flash becomes a nuisance." * 7: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. The Future of Information Architecture: Part IIÊ By Peter Morville (Please note that this is an acrobat PDF file. If you do not have acrobat you can download the acrobat viewer from . This download is for people who do not have Acrobat installed on their computers. It allows you to open and view a PDF file. Additional Adobe free tools are available to assist visually impaired users at ) * 8: MISCELLANEOUS. An interview with Christopher Schmitt By Craig Saila "When people bring up 'form vs.function' what they usually mean is 'visual design vs. backend programming'. And when it's taken in those terms, the discussion is rather pointless. The meaning behind 'form follows function' is that something should look like what it does." How to run a design critique By Scott Berkun * 9: NAVIGATION. Linking and Searching By Bob Bailey Are There Users Who Always Search? By Jared M. Spool Search: Visible and Simple By Jakob Nielsen People Search Once, Maybe Twice By Jared M. Spool * 10: PHP. Easy Application Configuration With patConfiguration By Vikram Vaswani * 11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. A Corporate Redesign - Part I By Stephen Taylor "In this article we will be completely redesigning the Microsoft website to show the power of the tools we have. Making it 100% usable, valid, and table-less. The new design will maintain all of the functionality of the real site." * 12: USABILITY. Designing for Learners, Designing for Users By Dave Smulders No Silver Bullet for Web Content By Gerry McGovern "There is no magical formula, no sleek software, that will take away the pain of badly written, badly organized content." The Bloodhound Project: Automating Discovery of Web Usability Issues By Ed H. Chi, et al. (Please note that this is an acrobat PDF file. If you do not have acrobat you can download the acrobat viewer from . This download is for people who do not have Acrobat installed on their computers. It allows you to open and view a PDF file. Additional Adobe free tools are available to assist visually impaired users at ) Devilish Details: Best Practices in Web Design By Larry L. Constantine "Visual and interaction design for successful e-commerce Web sites and Web-based applications requires meticulous attention to detail. Because the smallest matters can ruin the user experience, an orderly processÑsuch as usage-centered designÑ guided by robust principles is needed; iterative testing and repetitive redesign is inadequate to find and address all the diverse matters needing attention. This paper reviews basic principles and then surveys best practices in the detailed aspects of Web design in three broad areas: details of architecture or organization, details of interaction design, and details relating to commercial activity, especially shopping. Specific recommendations in each area are offered as examples of best practices based on usage-centered principles." * 13: XML. XHTML Web Design for Beginners - Part 1 By Nigel Peck Doing More with XML Schemas (part 3) By Harish Kamath [Section one ends.] * SECTION TWO: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. Association Information. Book Listings. Cascading Style Sheets Information. Color Information. Dreamweaver Information. Evaluation & Testing Information. Event Information. Flash Information. Information Architecture Information. JavaScript Information. Miscellaneous Web Information. Navigation Information. PHP Information. Sites & Blogs Listing. Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. Tool Information. Typography Information. Usability Information. XML Information. [Section two ends.] * SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription only. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: * SIGNATURE. Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]