+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 3, Issue 09, August 15, 2004. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 09 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: DREAMWEAVER. 04: EVENTS. 05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: PHP. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TYPOGRAPHY. 10: USABILITY. 11: XML. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Guidelines to Authors of Accessible PDFs (1.4 MB Zipped PDF format) By Julian Rickards An introduction to electronic document accessibility with particular reference to PDFs. http://tinyurl.com/57cfy Guide to Editors of Accessible PDFs (1.1 MB Zipped PDF format) By Julian Rickards Step-by-step instructions for editors on preparing a document in Word for publication as an accessible PDF document. http://tinyurl.com/3tk4g +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Learning CSS By Paul Scrivens "If you are just beginning to get into design you really shouldn't look at learning CSS as an option or something to do down the road. Start learning it immediately. I just interviewed with two different government agencies and not surprisingly, both of them were very high on CSS and the benefits that it proposes. Even more if you are not learning CSS then you are learning tables and if you are doing so you are only making your life harder. These two design methods require two completely different modes of thinking. Start with CSS. I have a hunch it will work out for you." http://9rules.com/whitespace/design/learning_css.php Designing Web Pages without Tables By Sasha Slutsker "Many 'tricks' were developed before the days of CSS in order to display neat-looking web pages. The main trick is to use tables (with the property border = 0) in order to put menus and other similar content on the page. This article will teach one how to stop using those messy tables and enter the world of design with CSS." http://tinyurl.com/3tlb8 Position This! CSS Positioning Demystified By Molly Holzschlag "Looking for the right position? Look no further. In this installment of Integrated Web Design, Molly Holzschlag teaches you all about positioning schemes. This article examines the four true positioning schemes in CSS, clarifies the confusion between absolute and relative positioning, and explains that although floats are often great for use in layouts, they should not be confused as an actual part of CSS positioning." http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=170513 Standardizing CSS class and id names By Michael Meadhra "After reading a series of articles by Andy Clarke (of Stuff and Nonsense and All That Malarkey) and Eric Meyer that address naming conventions for CSS classes and ids, I began to think about the way I name classes and ids on my sites." http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5286783.html Creating a centered page layout with CSS By Michael Meadhra "A reader recently asked how to create a centered page layout using CSS. The basic CSS technique is relatively simple, but not obvious. Here's what it takes to convert this old standby from tables-based layout to CSS." http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5296198.html +03: DREAMWEAVER. Styling Forms and Form Elements By MaKo "You've picked a color scheme and decided upon particular fonts for your website. Now you need to create a form. But the way the form appears in a browser doesn't really fit with your overall design." http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/articles/css_forms.html +04: EVENTS. The Future of Information Architecture, A Retreat October 1-3, 2004 Pacific Grove, California U.S.A. http://aifia.org/news/000374.php +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Embracing Information Architecture and Information Design By Community Admin Team "Information architecture (IA) and information design (ID) are two fields that are taking the Web experience to a new level. They form the foundations of what is now widely known as user experience design (UXD). In this article, I argue that e-learning teams too have to embrace UXD practices in addition to learning design practices to take the learning experience to a higher level." http://tinyurl.com/67e5g +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Lani Hathaway: Interview with a Usability Engineer By Joel Martinez "I've had the pleasure of working with someone who's entire job is to do nothing but ensure that usability is at the forefront of a project. Her name is Lani Hathaway, and she is a usability engineer." http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=4B44E WaSP Interviews: Jim Ramsey By WaSP "...Jim Ramsey of the San Francisco Examiner talks about redesigning the site into a Web-standards compliant site. Jim is hooked on standards. He discusses how he took the plunge, how the code stays clean for a large and frequently updated site, and how designers could influence the non-technical decision makers to embrace standards. Read the interview." http://www.webstandards.org/learn/interviews/jramsey/ +07: PHP. Absolute Beginners By Zend "This area is intended for everyone new to PHP. It opens with a series of informal, entertaining tutorials..." http://www.zend.com/php5/abs/index.php Exceptional Code By Matt Zandstra "This article is intended for experienced PHP programmers interested in learning more about PHP 5's new Exception support. You should be comfortable with the basics of object-oriented programming, including the anatomy of a class and the mechanics of inheritance." http://www.zend.com/php5/articles/php5-exceptions.php +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. This Year's Document Object Model By Jeremy Keith "When web standards are being discussed, more often than not it's CSS that takes center stage. Yet the Document Object Model is a working standard approved by the World Wide Web Consortium that is correctly implemented in most modern browsers..." http://tinyurl.com/4py46 +09: TYPOGRAPHY. Effective text By Ben Hunt "In the web environment, text has enormous strengths. In many situations, using text delivers far better results than graphics. Web designers should be daring and use text wherever possible. http://scratchmedia.co.uk/effective_text.cfm +10: USABILITY. Forms: The importance of getting it right By Lift "Problems start when forms are forgotten or not given the attention they require. Forms are not seen as exciting or prestigious when compared to a glossy brochure, so they are often left with no owner or person responsible for them, which leads to inconsistency and confusion. http://www.studiolift.com/resources/forms/index.html +10: XML. HTML, XHTML, semantics and the future of the web By John Allsopp " Presented by John at Open Publish 29th July, 2004. Westciv's John Allsopp clarifies exactly what XHTML is, explains why you need to be learning about it from today, and steps through the process of transitioning to the standards based way of marking up for the web, and beyond." http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/good_oil/xhtml/index.html DOCTYPES not relevant? By Molly Holzschlag "Perhaps it was just his choice of words that caught my concern, but in a recent comment, Anne van Kesteren claims that '. . . a DOCTYPE isn't really relevant'. For the theoretician, perhaps this is true. For the practitioner, the relevance is indisputable." http://www.molly.com/2004/07/31/doctypes-not-relevant/ ++ SECTION TWO: +12: 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. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + 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 + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]