+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 2, Issue 16, October 11, 2003. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 16 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: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: COLOR. 04: DREAMWEAVER. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: EVENTS. 07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: MISCELLANEOUS. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: TOOLS. 12: USABILITY. 13: XML. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Writing Accessible Forms By The University of Durham http://tinyurl.com/osvc Writing Accessible Data Tables By The University of Durham http://tinyurl.com/osvd +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Structure your menus by marking them up as lists By Jim Byrne "...A recent rash of articles and tools have appeared to demonstrate that the answer is a resounding yes; you can use CSS to style lists to look more-or-less any way you want..." http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=42 Accessible Image-Tab Rollovers By Dan Cedarholm Dan explains how to make accessible image-tab rollovers using CSS. No javascript is required. http://tinyurl.com/ph5k Bare Bones, No Crap, CSS Text Control Primer By Wendy Peck "This is a down and dirty, only the facts ma'am, very quick tutorial. Please understand that this is just the barest of surface scratching, but I am hoping it will kick start you to the concept. Once you have that, all the other info on the Web makes sense." http://wendypeck.com/css101.html CSS-P in Current Browsers By Joe Gillespie "Following on from last September's browser tests, this time they are a lot better. Apart from one, they all get top marks, or close." http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd1003.htm#feature Doctype & DTD By Joe Gillespie "If you don't tell the browsers what to expect, they have to guess and then you could be in for heaps of trouble!" http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd1003.htm#footnote +03: COLOR Dave Shea is running a series on color and color deficiency. These are the first two entries: Colour Bland: Value By Dave Shea In this entry Dave talks about color deficiencies and color values. Color value is defined as the lightness or darkness of a color. http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/09/29/colour_bland/ Colour Bland: Contrast By Dave Shea This entry is about color contrast. Color contrast refers to how close hues are in value. The human eye requires good contrast for visibility and legibility. Contrast creates visual interest and helps deliver accurate information. It can make a big difference on a web page. Colors that are close in value tend to blur together, and their borders 'melt'. This can create legibility problems. http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/10/01/colour_bland/ +04: DREAMWEAVER. Review: Dreamweaver MX 2004 By Joe Gillespie "The leading WYSIWYG editor gets improved CSS editing at last - but is it as good as it should be?" http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd1003.htm#review +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. Pitting usability testing against expert review By Kath Straub "Consider this scenario: You are managing the Intranet applications for a large company. You've spent the last year championing data- driven (re-)design approaches with some success. Now there is an opportunity to revamp a widely used application with significant room for improvement. You need to do the whole project on a limited dollar and time budget. It's critical that the method you choose models a user-centered approach that prioritizes the fixes in a systematic and repeatable way. It is also critical that the approach you choose be cost-effective and convincing. What do you do?" http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/sep03.asp +06: EVENTS. Ninth, Annual Conference on Web-Based Teaching and Learning October 18-21, 2003 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada http://naweb.unb.ca/ Integrating the Web Into Your Admissions Strategy January 23-24 2004 New Orleans, Louisiana U.S.A. http://tinyurl.com/prw2 +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Setting The Stage For Success By Judith Lamont "Information architecture earns performance kudos from customers - "Information architecture is the process of organizing and structuring information so that it is logical in design and presentation. It establishes categories and relationships among different pieces of information. It defines metadata schemes, navigation and search interfaces. Good architecture not only helps users find information, but also facilitates updating content by having clear rules for adding new information. And its effects show up on the bottom line with surprising speed when users can get what they need in just a few clicks." http://tinyurl.com/pm16 +08: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript: Playing the Numbers Game By Nigel McFarlane "Built-in type conversion in JavaScript makes using numbers so easy that developers rarely even think about using them. Surely that simplicity isn't as perfect as it seems! Just how good is the number support in JavaScript anyway? In this article you'll explore the edges of the world of numbers in JavaScript." http://tinyurl.com/q6n1 +09: MISCELLANEOUS. A Perfect Brainstorm By Alison Stein Wellner "Paulus's first piece of advice will strike most as surprising, if not heretical: The group is not God. Group brainstorming, used day in and day out by countless business owners, really doesn't work that well, according to Paulus. You're almost always better off directing your employees to brainstorm individually... On the other hand, there's no doubt that group brainstorming is an important exercise in team-building. The trick is to capture the efficiencies of an individual while making the most of the bonhomie and synergy of a group brainstorm." http://www.inc.com/magazine/20031001/strategies.html +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Validation By James Craig http://www.cookiecrook.com/AIR/2003/train/validation.php +11: TOOLS. Color Visibility Test Program By APrompt This is a color contrast verification tool (based on the W3C algorith, but lowers the threshold for colour difference)" http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/ColorVisibilityProgram.html +12: USABILITY. Launching New and Pop-up Windows By D. Keith Robinson "Launching new windows, while it won't cause your site to be a failure, was once a commonly used practice that today is simply not needed in most situations. The arguments for this (Launching New and Pop-up Windows) practice are dated, have been proved misguided and/or no longer relevant." http://www.7nights.com/dkrprod/gwt_ten.php The Importance of Tone and Style By D. Keith Robinson "A style and tone that resonates with your readers will help you make that all important connection with them. At the end of the day the Web isn't about technology, it's not all about design, or usability or standards. It's not even about content really - it's about people - a successful Web site enables a connection between people and a audience appropriate style and tone is key to establishing that connection." http://tinyurl.com/qav9 Balancing visual and structural complexity in interaction design By Henrik Olsen "For the interaction designer it's a question of striking the right balance between visual and structural complexity. People will complain about a visually complex page at the sight of it. But they will also complain if the information they need isn't immediately available to them when they start using the site. It's the good old story about the difference between what people say and what they do. If a site isn't solely for visual pleasure, you should rely on user behaviour and not on what people tell you. Use findings such as those mentioned in this article as guidelines and test your designs with prospective users." http://www.guuui.com/issues/04_03.asp Things Your Web Visitors Never, Ever Say (So Why Are You So Obsessed With Them?) By Harry http://www.mplcomics.com/ +13: XML. Introduction to RSS "Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site. RSS solves a myriad of problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services." http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/663 [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.]