+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 1, Issue 47, May 16, 2003. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 47 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 02: DREAMWEAVER. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: FLASH. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: PHP. 09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 10: TOOLS. 11: TYPOGRAPHY 12: USABILITY. 13: XML. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Zen Garden By Dave Shea This site is a "...demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSSÐbased design....There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation." Some nice designs, but I found his font vs background colors somewhat lacking in contrast. http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/ +02: DREAMWEAVER. DMX Template Repeating Regions and Tables By Brad Halstead & Murray R. Summers "Just what are the differences between Repeating Regions and Repeating Tables as related to Dreamweaver Templates and while yer at it, why not provide some examples, will ya!?" http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com/tutorials/tutrepeat.cfm Template Parameters & Expressions Explained By Brad Halstead & Murray R. Summers "One of the most difficult things to wrap the 'ole cranium around is Dreamweaver MX Template Parameters and Expressions. This article will try to explain them to you in a way that makes sense and can be easily retained and applied." http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com/tutorials/tutexprparams.cfm +03: EVALUATION AND TESTING How Many Users Does it Take to Change a Web Site? By William Hudson http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/articles/howmany.htm +04: EVENTS. A Human Factors International Free Webcast: Web Design Standards: 10 organizational secrets May 22, 2003 3:30 to 4:30 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (U.S.) "Dr. Eric Schaffer, CEO of Human Factors International, discusses the practices and processes that facilitate the organizational development needed to create a successful Web design standard." http://www.humanfactors.com/training/webcaststandards.asp WevDev Share 2003: Making Waves October 5-9, 2003 Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana U.S.A. http://webdev.Indiana.edu/2003/ Two Usability Seminars in Minneapolis Practical Usability Testing June 9-10, 2003 The Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design June 11-13, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota U.S.A. http://www.humanfactors.com/training/minnjune2003.htm Online Learning 2003 September 22-24, 2003 Los Angeles, California U.S.A. http://www.onlinelearningconference.com/ Seybold September 8-12, 2003 San Francisco, California U.S.A. http://www.seybold365.com/sf2003/ Comdex November 15-20, 2003 Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A. http://www.comdex.com/fall/ +05: FLASH. Reading Order in Flash By Bob Reagan "One of the most common accessibility issues in Flash is a poor reading order. Flash uses an equation to (roughly) approximate the reading order." http://www.markme.com/accessibility/archives/002423.cfm +06: JAVASCRIPT. Forms & JavaScript Living Together in Harmony By Jeff Howden "Have you ever created a form-based web page, using JavaScript, that didn't work properly on your browser? If so, this is where Jeff jumps in to help you out with tips on how to use your JavaScript responsively when dealing with forms." http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/553 +07: NAVIGATION. From Thinkers to Clickers: The World Wide Web and the Transformation of the Essence of Being Human By M.O. Thirunarayanan "In the age of the Web the essence of being human has been redefined. The essence of being human can now be best defined by the statement, 'We click therefore we are.' I for one would like to move away from being described by the statement 'I click, therefore I am,' and get back to being described by the statement 'I think, therefore I am.'" http://acm.org/ubiquity/views/m_thirunarayanan_8.html +08: PHP. User Authentication with patUser, Part 1 By icarus Need to add authentication to your PHP-based Web application? Get it done in a jiffy with patUser, a PHP class which makes it possible to rapidly add powerful user management capabilities to your Web application. http://tinyurl.com/asy3 User Authentication With patUser, Part 2 By icarus In this second part, find out how you can use the patUser API to view, add, edit and delete users (and user attributes) from your user database. http://tinyurl.com/asy8 User Authentication With patUser, Part 3 By icarus A discussion of the PHP patUser authentication class Abstract: In this concluding article, find out about how to use patUser to identify users and groups by different criteria, track a user's clicks, maintain user statistics, and gracefully handle errors. http://tinyurl.com/baah +09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Case Study in a Successful Standards-Based Migration By Jeremy Stanton "This case study outlines the steps we took in correcting these issues through application of standards-based coding practices. While full validation was not a project requirement, by making heavy use of the HTML 4.01 and CSS standards, we were able to create a site that was stable, with page weight reduced on average by 20%, and that looked and functioned exactly the same on over 40 browser/OS combinations. Moreover, migrating the site toward standards compliance made the site much easier to maintain. What was most striking about this project was the realization that, through use of standardsÑand a short program of research, design, and prototypingÑthe actual implementation took very little effort." http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2003/media-farm/ Designing with Web Standards By Jeffrey Zeldman Ê Ê Two sample chapters of Jeffrey Zeldman's new book "Designing with Web Standards" can be downloaded from this page. Chapter 8 is XHTML by Example. Chapter 10 is CSS in Action. http://tinyurl.com/ba2e +10: TOOLS. WatchFire Flips The Bird By Jason Lefkowitz Jason Lefkowitz reviews Bobby version 5. He discusses WatchFire's removal of the HTML generated accessibility reports and the licensing changes. http://www.jasonlefkowitz.net/blog1archive/000292.html Image Rotator 1.5 By Hiveware This tool randomly rotates images on any site that has PHP installed on the server, and is free. http://hiveware.com/imagerotator.php +11: TYPOGRAPHY Pet Peeve: Small Body Fonts are User-Hostile By Kynn Bartlett "Small font sizes for your main body text is user-hostile." http://www.maccessibility.com/archive/000558.php +12: USABILITY. The Persistence of Usability Myths By John Knight and Marie Jefsioutine This article looks at "the myths surrounding the field, and how pundits and designers view them." http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article1070.asp Usability Tip: Setting Expectations By 37signals "One of the things I don't hear enough about from many usability professionals/pundits is the importance of specific interface elements setting expectations." http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000193.php +13: XML. XHTML 2.0 Considered Hopeful By Tantek Celik "Just because XHTML 2 can break backward compatibility, doesn't mean it should." http://tantek.com/log/2003/05.html#L20030508t1620 Digging into the Web: XML, Meta Data and Other Paths to Unstructured Data By Robert Blumberg and Shaku Atre "While the Web is widely recognized as an amazing source of unstructured data, much of this data is rather difficult to search and navigate. In fact, the Web was organized along a model meant for human consumption, not for optimizing machine searches." http://www.dmreview.com/master.cfm?NavID=193&EdID=6638 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription only. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN) STANDARD. As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN Standard information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGNATURE. Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]