+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 4, Issue 03, July 14, 2005. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 03 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: 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. Constructing a POUR Website, Part 1 (POUR = Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) By Paul Bohman. "Putting People at the Center of the Process." http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/pour/people SiteMorse: Not Making Friends or Influencing People By Andy (Malarkey) Clarke. "You might imagine that accessibility specialists are slightly odd folk...These normally quiet accessibility fellows have got themselves in a bit of a tizzy in the last couple of days over the subject of automated accessibility tests and in particular the activities of a company called SiteMorse, whose automated software-based checks are aggressively marketed to public and private sector bodies through a campaign of regular PR...In the spirit of cooperation I publicly invite SiteMorse to get in touch and to work with the ATF with the aim of providing developers and their clients more accessible solutions." http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_07.html#a000535 Filedset/Legend in XHTML vs. HTML By Kevin C Smith. "Here's a subtle difference between HTML and XHTML that's not mentioned on the W3C's list: Legend is a required child of the Filedset element in HTML 4.01, but not XHTML 1.0." http://centricle.com/archive/2005/06/fieldset+legend-xhtml-html Accessibility and Usability proposed to feature in UK Government IT policies By Ann Light. "Accessibility and usability standards are to be formally introduced into the UK Government's technical policies for public sector information systems if consultations get the go-ahead, reports news service eGov monitor, following the European Commission's announcement last month that it may call upon EU Member States to make accessibility a technical requirement of all public sector IT procurements." http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2467.asp The State of Accessibility in the Real World By Richard Rutter. "No-one knows, and that's my point. WCAG 1 is too prescriptive and out-of-date to provide an answer, and the forthcoming WCAG 2 is looking too abstract and generic to help". http://www.clagnut.com/blog/1494/ Accessibility and the Law By Andy Budd. "I would love to live an a world where everybody acted in a socially responsible way. However the reality is we need to have legislation to help enforce equality in the cases where social, commercial or political pressure alone aren't enough." http://tinyurl.com/alxnu +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Universal Child Replacement By Eric A. Meyer. "The other day I hit a situation that pushed me to come up with a way to simulate the child selector in a way Internet Explorer could understand using two rules...The end result is that there is a way to simulate child selection without actually using the child combinator. The general pattern is to use a normal descendant selection in your first rule, and then ?undo? the first rule with a second that has a universal selector in the middle. Suppose you want to boldface any p element that?s a child of a div, but no others..." http://tinyurl.com/cpf3d CSS Import By Nine Mile Studio. "The no frills inspirational site - Always Fresh" http://www.cssimport.com/ The Ways to Style Visited Links By Marko Dugonjic. "CSS offers various possibilities to make links more usable and preserve text readable at the same time. We need to differentiate visited and unvisited links, but we must keep text readable and flowing. Don't forget to stay moderate (as Cameron Moll, the Worn Master Jedi often says). Please, don't missuse or overuse this techniques." http://webdesign.maratz.com/lab/visited_links_styling/ Fun with Drop Shadows By Alessandro Fulciniti. "Drop Shadows are a nice way to beautify images. There are many articles on them...In this article, we'll see yet another technique." http://web-graphics.com/mtarchive/001589.php CSS Contents and Browser Compatibility By Peter-Paul Koch. "Originally set up as a CSS2 tests site, I quickly crossed the border to both CSS1 and CSS3. Currently these pages contain information about selectors and declarations I happen to find interesting, or whose browser compatibility is very complicated." http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html +03: DREAMWEAVER. Maintaining Database Content with PHP, Contribute 3, and Dreamweaver MX 2004 By Jesse Rodgers. "In this article, I will go over the theory behind an application I, along with three other co-op students since the fallÑAnton Polski, Lori Superina, and Areeb ShamsÑdeveloped to facilitate a publication process in publishing to a database. It also allow to manage the content by checking it out of the database, creating a static version, and dropping the static version into a ÔstaticÕ directory so you can edit it with Contribute." http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/contribute/articles/contribute_php.html +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Prove the Value of Your Content With Numbers By Gerry McGovern. "Obviously, nobody in his web team had told him that hits are a totally useless measure of success. The only reason they are quoted is because they are the largest number in the web metrics report. (Everyone loves big numbers.) Sooner or later, this senior manager will be informed that he is making a fool of himself talking about hits, and he won't be very happy...Senior management loves numbers. The more useful numbers you can feed them that illustrate the value the website is creating, the better. But get away from volume of visitors; that's so crude. Instead, talk about a five percent reduction in time per support call, a ten percent increase in sales leads, or a two percent increase in customer satisfaction." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2005/nt-2005-07-11-web-metrics.htm Do All Web Sites Need Usability Testing? By D. Keith Robinson. "...So what do you think, does every Web site need user testing?...I'm going to say that, no, not every site needs it to succeed. However, I think Web professionals need it to help make better design decisions and I think that some user testing is better than no user testing if for no other reason but to help develop an affinity for the people who deal with our sites..." http://tinyurl.com/dzj6c Take Breaks! A Simple Way to Improve Your Heuristic Evaluation Results By Laura Faulkner. "As primary tools in the usability field, heuristic or expert evaluations can be rich areas for methods studies and improvement. Early results of one methods study suggest that performing evaluations in limited segments, with breaks between each segment, may increase the effectiveness of the evaluator in identifying usability problems." http://tinyurl.com/8v34m The Mystery of Recruiting By Lauren Lundgren and Tina Osinski. "Armed with a clear and complete understanding of a studyÕs objectives, a targeted screener, an appropriate schedule, and reasonable incentives, a good recruiter will be able to hunt down and schedule exactly the people sponsors desire to solve the mystery of the marketplace. And isn't that one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries of all?" http://tinyurl.com/cbjnj +05: EVENTS. Open Publish 2005 July 27-29, 2005. Sydney, Australia http://www.openpublish.com.au/ OZCHI 2005 Conference Annual Conference of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group November 21-25, 2005. Canberra, Australia http://www.ozchi.org/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Learning JavaScript By Dolphinling. "Why are there no good javascript tutorials anywhere on the web? I looked around and I can find nothing that seems to have been written by someone knowledgeable about Web Standards and the Right Way to do Things. My criteria? If a tutorial tells me to put the script element in the body, it gets closed immediately. If it starts me off with a 'Hello World' using document.write, I get very skeptical, and close it in a few pages if it doesn't redeem itself." http://blog.dolphinling.net/2005/06/learning-javascript/ JavaScript and Accessibility By Derek Featherstone. "I want to follow up on a few things so that I can clarify and further explain my position on the statement I made in my presentation at 'At Media 2005'." http://tinyurl.com/exxly The Behaviour Layer: Using JavaScript for good, not evil. By Jeremy Keith. Jeremy's 'At Media 2005' presentation. http://adactio.com/atmedia2005/ At Media 2005: The behaviour layer by Jeremy Keith By Mike Davies. Mike's notes on Jeremy Keith's presentation. http://tinyurl.com/c8wvy Six JavaScript Features We Do Not Need Any Longer By Chris Heilmann. "Here are some danger signs you encounter in many a bad script example and tutorials written in the spur of the moment rather than following proper research...." http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=104 Rise, Lord JavaScript By Robert Nyman. "The time has come. JavaScript will rise again from its hidden trenches..." http://www.robertnyman.com/2005/06/20/rise-lord-javascript/ The JavaScript Diaries: Part 5 By Lee Underwood. "This week, as we continue our quest to learn the JavaScript language, we'll look at conditional statements and loops. These can help us to add more depth and complexity to our scripts." http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/5/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Efficient Client Communication By Kevin Leitch. "This process is all about covering yourself. Communicating effectively with clients is all about ensuring that they understand the limits of your role and where your responsibility begins and ends. If you can do that you will cut down on misunderstandings, unpleasantness and project creep." http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/projectnew/article.php?id=18 +08: NAVIGATION. Great Site Ranking in Google The Secret's Out By Darren Yates. "Google recently filed a US patent which reveals a great deal of how they rank your web site. Some of it you could never have guessed at..." http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text6-10-2005-71368.asp +09: PHP. Object Overloading in PHP 5 By Martin Jansen. "PHP 5 has greatly improved object-oriented programming support. It also has new hooks to overload methods and properties. How can you do this? Why would you want to? Martin Jansen demonstrates method and property overloading with PHP 5 objects." http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2005/06/16/overloading.html Install PHP 5 on Windows By Edward Tanguay. Edward Tanguay has a tutorial that explains how to install PHP 5, Apache 2, MySQL 4.1, SQLite, SQLite Manager and XSLT on Windows. http://www.tanguay.at/installPhp5.php5 Creating Database-driven Websites with PHP and MySQL By Jochen Rode and his co-workers. "This tutorial explains the basic concepts behind database-driven websites, often also referred to as web applications. Using the popular server-side-language PHP and the database MySQL, I show how to implement core dynamic features such as collecting data, storing data in a database, searching a database, or validating user inputs..." http://www.hosting.vt.edu/tutorials/phpmysql/ +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Semantics, Standards, Accessibility... By Bruce Lawson. "A good, modern website is like a stool. (The wooden kind. An inaccessible website is like the other kind.) The most stable stool is the one where each of the three legs is the same length, carries equal weight and supports its load well. Of course, itÕs perfectly possible to sit on wobbly stool - but if itÕs too wobbly, you'll fall flat on your arse, in much the same way as this metaphor does..." http://tinyurl.com/d42m3 Three Separated Layers of Web Development? Think Again. By Chris Heilmann. "The three levels of web development - structure, presentation and behaviour - are not enough to ensure a standards compliant, accessible product. Being a human interaction issue, accessibility goes further. This proposal talks about two more levels and their dependencies." http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=101 A Principled Argument By Matt May. "The next draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 probably will not require HTML content that conforms at Level A to be fully valid. The following is my rationale for agreeing to this..." http://www.bestkungfu.com/archive/date/2005/06/a-principled-argument/ Validity and Accessibility By Gez Lemon. "By itself, no content management system will ever be able to create accessible markup, for the same reasons a validator could never ensure the accessibility of a document. The only way to ensure that content is accessible is to understand the underlying principles, and apply them sensibly. If we want a better web, which would be a web that was usable by people regardless of any disabilities they may or may not have, adding those principles on top of valid markup is fundamentally the most sensible way forward. To my mind, WAI should be advising on the way forward, not condoning and propagating the problems of today's web." http://juicystudio.com/article/validity-accessibility.php Accessibility, Validity, Guidelines and Law By Chris Kaminski. "In the end, it's about balancing flexibility and freedom with order and control. I'm not at all convinced I know yet where the right balance lies with respect to validity and accessibility, but I do know I'm glad we're having this debate." http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_06.html#a000531 +11: TOOLS. Web DesignerÕs FREElance Toolbox for Windows By Brian Reindel. "The following is a list of unfettered freeware that I have personally reviewed. Time-tested and designer/developer approved, these programs contain no adware and are built on a solid foundation, including a supportive community of users. There is no fine print to read, and you can rest assured each one will save you money and save poor TimmyÕs college fund." http://tinyurl.com/8dja2 NeoOffice - OpenOffice.org for MacOSX "NeoOffice/J 1.1 Final is released! After years of development and testing, we've reached a fully stable final release. It is based off of OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 and has many user requested and community funded improvements. It's also available in over 40 different languages. Download your copy today!" http://www.neooffice.org/ +12: USABILITY. Scrolling and Scrollbars By Jakob Nielsen. "Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content." http://useit.com/alertbox/20050711.html Your Web Site Might Be a Pain in the Neck if...(with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy) Lyle Kantrovich "If your home page has four navigation bars, and "investor relations" is in two of them...your web site might be a pain in the neck. If mousing over your main navigation bar causes content and colors to change in a totally different section of the page...your web site might (literally) be a pain in the neck..." http://tinyurl.com/72wkn Fighting Linkrot and Harmful Tutorials at the Same Time By Christian Heilmann. "The problem: 1.) There are far too many outdated, obtrusive and plainly badly written tutorials and scripts out there. 2.) As they have been around for a long, long time, they are ranked very high in search engines, and new, interested developers will find them instead of The Good Stuff." http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=98 Christian's solution, Obsoletely Famous: http://icant.co.uk/of/ +13: XML. Markup in the Real World By Ben de Groot. "Today I would like to talk about the volatile subject of markup again - volatile that is for those who are passionate about XHTML, one way or another..." http://dev.d10e.net/nb/2005/06/15/markup-in-the-real-world Why HTML Does Not Matter By Egor Kloos. "Ever since this whole xHTML versus HTML debate started I've been asking myself why is this an issue?..." http://dutchcelt.nl/weblog/article/why_html_does_not_matter/ [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.]