+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 3, Issue 28, December 22, 2004. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 28 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: PHP. 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. Browsers as Test Platforms By Christian Heilmann "In this article we will take a look at browsers from a developer's point of view. When developing for the web, it is inevitable that we need to debug and test our work. How easy or how hard is it to find the problems causing errors and how easy is it to replicate certain environment changes? Once we identified the steps we need to take to test properly, we will see if there is a chance to extend the browser to make these steps a lot easier." http://icant.co.uk/forreview/browsertests/ Laws and Standards By WebAim Read about Web accessibility laws and standards in various countries throughout the world, from the list of documents below, organized by geographical region. http://www.webaim.org/coordination/law/ Pushing the Limits of Accessibility By Andrew Kirkpatrick Andrew Kirkpatrick's presentation from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video. "When it comes to improving Web site accessibility, most designers know the basics. That's great, but it isn't enough. A growing number of sites employ complex forms, Web applications, dynamically updating pages, and JavaScript enhancementsÑand each of these elements brings its own set of accessibility challenges. In his Web Design World session, Andrew Kirkpatrick described today's accessibility bottlenecks along with the development decisions you must make to address them, and weighed the pros and cons of automatic page transcoding tools. http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/kirkpatrick/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Creating Liquid Faux Columns By Zoe Gillenwater "Web designers converting from table-based to CSS-based design are often frustrated by the seeming inability to create equal height columns in CSS, an easy task with tables. Once they learn about the famous "faux columns" technique that simulates equal height columns using a tiling background image on a container, many remain frustrated that the technique only works for fixed width designs. Not so! This article will show you how to create liquid equal height columns using cleverly constructed background images and the background-position property." http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=AFC58 CMX JumpStarts: North Pole By Adrian Senior "The North Pole JumpStart is a two column, fixed width design that uses clever deployment of background images in both the navigational elements and the content areas of the design. The graphics used in North Pole are both simple and complex. They range from the beautifully created snowman made in Freehand and converted to Fireworks to some Christmas black line art that was colored in to make simple yet effective images that enhanced the Christmas theme with only a few minutes work. Come and have a look!" http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=D6D77 Working Draft: CSS3 Speech Module By W3C "The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the CSS3 Speech Module. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech. The draft defines aural properties that match the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) model." http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-css3-speech-20041216/ +03: COLOR. Color for Coders - Color and Design for the Non-Designer By Jason Beaird "If you're one of the people who spend most of their reading time skimming through Client and Server Side Coding articles, then you probably should read this article. Yes, you: the one with your code open full-screen in the other monitor. I'm a designer and I work at a hosting/ISP company in a room with four very talented Web programmers. Together, they can develop just about any kind of application, but not one of them could develop a harmonious color scheme if his life depended on it." http://www.sitepoint.com/article/color-for-coders +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Observer Effects in Usability Testing... By John Sorflaten "The hallmark of modern particle physics centers on the 'uncertainty principle'. Namely, you can know either the position of a so-called wave-particle or its momentum, but not both. The reason for this conundrum is that the very act of observation changes "reality" from probability (the wave-particle might be here) to actuality (hah, gotcha pinned down). Could the same hold true for usability testing?.." http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/nov04.asp#kath +05: EVENTS. W4A 2005 2nd International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility at the Fourteenth International World Wide Web Conference May 10-14, 2004 Chiba, Japan http://w4a.man.ac.uk HCI International 2005: 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction July 22-27, 2005 Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A. http://www.hci-international.org/ HCI 2005: The Bigger Picture The 19th British HCI Group Annual Conference September 5-9, 2005 Napier University, Edinburgh, UK http://www.hci2005.org/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript Reference By VisiBone "...a free online quick reference." http://javascript-reference.info/ Onload Image Fades without Flash By Richard Rutter "A function to show an 'image loading?' message and subsequent fade-in of a photo." http://clagnut.com/sandbox/imagefades/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Web Redesign: Workflow Redefined Integrate an iterative development strategy into your existing workflow. By Kelly Goto Kelly Goto's keynote from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video. "Streamlined budgets and reduced timelines have created a need for a more flexible, results-oriented workflow. With increased audience expectations, focusing on the user experience is mandatory. In this Web Design World keynote, Kelly Goto described how to integrate an iterative development strategy into your existing workflow and how to create a strategic roadmap and utilize online tools to assist in measuring success." http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/goto/ Web Design: A Decade Under the Influence Discover 10 tips for improving your Web site. By Jeffrey Zeldman Zeldman's keynote from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video. "Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards, publisher of A List Apart and Zeldman's Daily Report, and founder of design studio Happy Cog, kicked off Web Design World Boston 2004 by sharing what he has learned over the years in designing commercial Web sites and publishing independent contentÑincluding his top 10 tips for improving your Web site." http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/zeldman/ +08: NAVIGATION. Evaluate the Effectiveness and Value of On-Site Search By Jason Burby "We work with a number of on-site search tools, each with different levels of sophistication and reporting capabilities. There are also a number of metrics for understanding on-site search's effect. Here are a few to consider..." http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/analyze_data/article.php/3431921 +09: PHP. The Standard PHP Library, Part 1 By David Fells "While most of the excitement surrounding the release of PHP 5 focused on its XML and object-oriented features, the Standard PHP Library (SPL) also saw some significant improvements that went mostly unnoticed. In the first of two articles covering the SPL, David Fells discusses the Exception class, which lets programs handle errors more gracefully and simplifies debugging." http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/The-Standard-PHP-Library-Part-1/ The Standard PHP Library, Part 2 By David Fells "In our second article on the standard PHP library, David Fells explains the new Array object, introduces Iterators and the ArrayIterator, and discusses some practical examples of their usage. This article assumes a knowledge of how Exceptions work in PHP 5." http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/The-Standard-PHP-Library-Part-2/ +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Change in Internet Browsers Recommended By Penn State University 80,000 Internet Explorer users at Penn State University have been told to dump IE and get a better browser. http://live.psu.edu/story/9376 Use W3C Technologies and Guidelines By Gez Lemon "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was established in 1994. Amongst other things, the W3C provide specifications that are freely available to everyone. The specifications are reviewed early to ensure that accessibility issues have been considered in the design process. They are developed in an open forum, with industry consensus. This process helps eliminate browser wars, as a lot of thought is given to provide a standard that ensures operability. Despite this, some browsers still support elements that are not part of the specification. To ensure the widest possible audience, these non-standard elements should be avoided. Other non-W3C technologies require plug-ins or stand-alone applications to run, meaning they can't be viewed with standard user agents. Conforming to W3C standards will result in more accessible pages, available to a much wider audience regardless of hardware or software." http://juicystudio.com/tutorial/accessibility/guidelines.asp The Marriage of Presentation and Structure By Ethan Marcotte and Molly Holzschlag Ethan Marcotte's and Molly Holzschlag's presentation from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video. "You constantly hear this advice in the world of HTML and CSS: Separate structure from presentation. While that's true in theory, in the real world, presentation and structure are often strongly related. Unless you first understand the relationship of a document's structure to the style sheets, you're at a disadvantage when attempting to resolve conflicts, use advanced CSS selectors effectively, and gain better control over every aspect of your work. In their session at Web Design World Boston, Ethan Marcotte and Molly Holzschlag showed the right way to marry presentation and structureÑand how to get the power you need to create more compelling CSS designs." http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/holzschlag/ +11: TOOLS. Colly's CSS Rollover Generator By Simon Collison "With this CSS rollover generator, you can create two distinct styles of rollover button, using CSS and just one image." http://www.collylogic.com/scripts/rollover.html +12: USABILITY. Defensive Web Design By Jason Fried Jason Fried's presentation from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video. "No matter how carefully you design a site, things will go wrong online and you will encounter errors or make mistakes. How you handle these breakdowns is critical to the overall user experience. In his Web Design World session, Jason Fried explained how to use defensive design to prevent errors and help get your visitors back on track if problems do occur." http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/fried/ Situate Follow-Ups in Context By Jakob Nielsen "Make new or follow-up information easily accessible from the location of the original information or transaction." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20041220.html Not Beyond Usability - Just Nearby By Caroline Jarrett "I'm completely happy with the idea that users are central to our definition, and also that they're using whatever in some context of use. Effectiveness ('can I do it at all?') and efficiency ('how easily can I do it?') still seem robust and helpful. It's the 'specified goals' and the 'satisfaction' that are bothering me." http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2094.asp +13: XML. An Introduction to XHTML By Dan Wellman "XHTML reformulates the existing HTML technology to be an application of XML. It is already used for mobile phone and PDA Internet sites, and expected to gain widespread use as XML becomes more popular. Dan Wellman explains the differences between XHTML and HTML 4, and shows how easy it is to make the switch..." http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/HTML/An-Introduction-to-XHTML/ A Designer's Introduction to XML By Joe Marini Joe Marini's presentation from Web Design World 2004 is now online as a Streaming Windows Media Player Video."XML is becoming more common in mainstream Web development every day. In this Web Design World session, Joe Marini showed how XML works, how it's beneficial (and when it's not), and what you need to know about it as a designer to put it to good use. See how you can use XML to separate content from layout and drive dynamic interfaces." http://www.ftponline.com/reports/wdwboston/2004/marini/ [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. 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). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline 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 U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]