+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 4, Issue 27, December 21, 2005. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 27 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: SITES AND BLOGS. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: TOOLS. 12: TYPOGRAPHY. 13: USABILITY. 14: XML. SECTION TWO: 15: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Side by Side, 508 to WCAG 2.0 By Jim Thatcher. "I have written a 508 to WCAG 2 side-by-side comparison similar to the one I did for WCAG 1.0." http://jimthatcher.com/508wcag2.htm How Useful are Accessibility Evaluation Tools? By Mike Cherim. "To assess and discuss the benefits and limitations of using an automated evaluation tool to assess the technical accessibility of a large, standards-compliant website driven by a Content Management System. I've broken this research into several areas: [1] The Usefulness of Automated Tools [2] Limitations of Automated Tools, [3] Quality control at the bench." http://tinyurl.com/9s2fn Using the Web Accessibility Toolbar By Trenton Moss. "Testing a website for accessibility can be a time-consuming and laborious process. The free Web Accessibility Toolbar can do most of the hard work for you though and is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in accessibility..." http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/article.php?item=96 Writing a Good Accessibility Statement By Gez Lemon. "Accessibility statements are an ideal place to empower visitors to your website. Most accessibility statements are too technical, and don't necessarily address the needs of the visitor. Those that do address the needs of visitors often have the information lost in a myriad of other information that is unlikely to be understood by the average visitor to the website. What should and shouldn't be included in an accessibility statement?" http://tinyurl.com/am8wl Text-Only Pages are Possibly Not So Bad By Joe Clark. "...Of course, this is not a fair comparison. Of course text-only pages will be preferable to an inaccessible page; the text-only version is less inaccessible. The trick would be to compare really good, standards-compliant sites (some with valid code or the next best thing, others with invalid but still semantic code) against text-only pages. I doubt that subjects would prefer text-only in that case. And a test using learning-disabled subjects would be a near-complete failure for text-only pages, unless they happened to use crazy fonts like brown Comic Sans on pale blue, which is what we keep being told this group wants and needs." http://blog.fawny.org/2005/11/08/text-only/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. The Form Garden By Cedric Savarese. "A CSS Stylesheet Collection for Web Forms." http://www.formassembly.com/form-garden.php Auto-Selecting Navigation By Drew McLellan. Drew McLellan takes a quick look at a simple method of styling navigation so that the correct item shows selected on each page. It's a really simple idea, but extremely effective, and quite a time-saver to boot." http://24ways.org/advent/auto-selecting-navigation The Attribute Selector for Fun and (no ad) Profit By Andy Budd. Andy Budd studies the slightly maligned CSS attribute selector to see how it can be used productively despite incomplete browser support. If I had to select one of Andy's attributes it would be his compassionate demeanor, but that's by-the-by. http://24ways.org/advent/the-attribute-selector-for-fun-and-no-ad-profit Replicating a Tree Table By Russ Weakley. "The aim is to replicate a graphic table tree using HTML. This was based on a request from a Web Standards Group member. Posted here in case it is of use to someone else..." http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/tree-table/ Simple, Accessible External Links By Russ Weakley. "The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 state: 'Clearly identify the target of each link. [Priority 2] Link text (The rendered text content of a link) should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context -- either on its own or as part of a sequence of links. Link text should also be terse.' Depending on how this checkpoint is read, this could mean that every external link should be identified within the link text itself. For example, you could use '(off-site link)' or '(external link)' within any link text that points to any external resource. The problem: Is there a way to add descriptive text to all external links and then replace this text with a small icon for CSS supporting browsers?" http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/external/ How to Remove the Ugly Border Around an Image in a Link By Christian Heilmann. "This question pops up almost weekly on message boards, mailing lists and in chat sessions..." http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=204 +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Towards the Design of Effective Formative Test Reports By Mary Theofanus and Whitney Quesenbery. "Many usability practitioners conduct most of their usability evaluations to improve a product during its design and development. We call these "formative" evaluations to distinguish them from "summative" (validation) usability tests at the end of development. A standard for reporting summative usability test results has been adopted by international standards organizations. But that standard is not intended for the broader range of techniques and business contexts in formative work. This paper reports on a new industry project to identify best practices in reports of formative usability evaluations." http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2005_november/formative.html +04: EVENTS. W3C Workshop on Transparency and Usability of Web Authentication March 15-16, 2006. New York, New York U.S.A. http://www.w3.org/2005/Security/usability-ws/ Webstock May 23-26, 2006. Wellington, New Zealand. http://www.webstock.org.nz/ +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Introduction to Information Architecture By Austin Govella. A list of resources good for newbies looking for a place to start. http://www.squidoo.com/ia/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Improving Form Accessibility with DOM Scripting By Ian Lloyd. Ian Lloyd looks at how DOM Scripting can help out with an uncomfortable accessibility issue. Form field labels can be tricky to implement in some cases, but with a little ingenuity Ian demonstrates how a balance can be struck. http://24ways.org/advent/improving-form-accessibility-with-dom-scripting Statistical AJAX By Steve Smith. These days the term 'AJAX' seems almost as over used as 'drop-shadow' was 18 months ago. Though it seems that in the hype of creating on-the-fly browser-server interaction, tracking that interaction has been overlooked. http://orderedlist.com/articles/statistical-ajax/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Web Design and Development Trends for 2006 By Andy Budd. "The Web Standards movement has increasingly been gaining speed over the last couple of years. Once the preserve of a few high profile bloggers and evangelists, more and more developers have become wise to the benefits of meaningfully marked-up documents that separate content, presentation and behaviour..." http://tinyurl.com/8jclh The Website Development Process By PingMag. "However, as is the organic nature of these things, there are an infinite amount of variables that can affect the project timeline. For that reason, projects are never ever as clear-cut as in this sequence of photos. Things may need to be done over and over, steps may get jiggled around, you may need more time for CMS / back-end development etc - so please think of this sequence as merely a basic example of the kind of process that I have grown comfortable with, speaking as a web designer/developer." http://www.pingmag.jp/2005/12/09/the-website-development-process/ +08: NAVIGATION. Search Engine 'Best Bets' By James Robertson. "Much can be done to improve the quality of search results. No amount of tweaking of metadata or search configuration will, however, ensure that the most relevant results always appear at the beginning of the list. This is where search engine 'best bets' come in. These are a hand-created list of key resources for common queries, and they can dramatically improve the search experience, particularly on information-rich sites such as intranets." http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_bestbets/ SEO For The New Google By Dave Davies. "For those whose businesses rely on the Internet to produce revenue the latest Google update, nicknamed Jagger, was one of the biggest events in the past couple years (probably since the Florida Update of 2003). With this 3-part update Google has essentially changed many of the rules and have thrown the SEO community for a loop... The key areas that have been affected with this update are: [1] The history of your web pages; [2] The way backlinks are counted; [3] Site content & structure..." http://evolt.org/node/60553 What About Site Maps and Site Indexes? By Jared Spool. "Site maps have been popular since the invention of the web. Site indexes are more in vogue these days. Are they worth the effort?" http://tinyurl.com/8lt4f +09: SITES AND BLOGS. timbl's Blog By Tim Berners-Lee. "So I have a blog...In 1989 one of the main objectives of the WWW was to be a space for sharing information. It seemed evident that it should be a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute. The first browser was actually a browser/editor, which allowed one to edit any page, and save it back to the web if one had access rights..." http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4 +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Pattern Quiz I - Site Patterns By John Allsopp. "The point of the overall project is to start collaboratively building a pattern language for web development..." http://westciv.typepad.com/dog_or_higher/2005/12/patternquiz_i_s.html +11: TOOLS. Luminosity Contrast Ratio Algorithm By Gez Lemon. "Guideline 1.4 of the draft version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 requires that it is easy to distinguish foreground information from background images or sounds. The guideline suggests a luminosity contrast ratio algorithm to help determine the contrast between foreground and background colours. To help understand the algorithm, I have provided a Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyser (Beta), along with example luminosity contrast ratios." http://juicystudio.com/article/luminositycontrastratioalgorithm.php +12: TYPOGRAPHY. The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web By Richard Rutter. "...In order to allay some of the myths surrounding typography on the web, I have structured this website to step through Bringhurst's working principles, explaining how to accomplish each using techniques available in HTML and CSS. The future is considered with coverage of CSS3, and practicality is ever present with workarounds, alternatives and compromises for less able browsers. At the time of writing, this is a work in progress... " http://webtypography.net/ +13: USABILITY. 10 Tips To A Better Form By Chris Campbell. "The most monotonous entities in the known universe, forms, are a staple of every web programmer's balanced diet. Whether we like them or not, forms are the gatekeepers to our site's goodies and often their design alone determines whether a user will try what you're selling or simply walk away. Without pomp or circumstance, here are ten tips to transform your plain vanilla into double chocolate chunk with marshmallows." http://particletree.com/features/10-tips-to-a-better-form/ Forms Suck - Re: 10 Tips To A Better Form By Jesse Andrews. "Particletree did a great job summarizing how to make forms a little better. Too bad they (forms) still suck. The web is a different medium and moving complicated paper forms to web has yet to be sanely demonstrated without changing everything." http://tinyurl.com/9ewes Check User ID Button By Jared Spool. "We've all been there. You find a new cool site. You decide to register for their service. You enter your favorite user id, the password, your pet's birth date, the name of your third grade teacher (the cute one that you had a crush on), and your favorite Easter egg color. You finally press Submit. Then you find out the user id is already taken. Arrgghh! Digg.com bypasses the ugly post-submit depression by putting a 'Check' button next to the user id. Enter the name. Press Check. Find out immediately if your favorite Id is available." http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2005/11/23/check-user-id-button/ One Billion Internet Users By Jakob Nielsen. "...By 2015, Americans will be less than 15% of Internet users and will likely account for about one-third its value (Americans typically spend more than other users). The fact that two-thirds of Internet revenues will come from other countries highlights the growing importance of international usability. Unfortunately, few companies currently do user testing abroad, and fewer still have a truly robust internationalization strategy. Sooner or later, local options will increase and overseas users will stop using sites that don't meet their requirements. Another implication of this demographic shift: U.S. market share and Silicon Valley buzz will become less important than international use as the metric for judging the potential of companies and technologies. The Mac, for example, already matters less than you think. Although it has a prominent role in the U.S., it's hard to refer to a company with single-digit market share as "dominant." In Asia, the Mac is practically nonexistent..." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/internet_growth.html Raising the Perceived Value of Your Website By Gerry McGovern. "To maximize value you must publish high-quality content (killer web content). That requires significant skill and active management. Low quality content is easy to get. Just have junior people pump your intranet with whatever they can find. Give authors control and let them publish what they want...If you want to deliver value from content you must treat it as a management activity. You need to grow the content management expertise within your organization. That is the path of value." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2005/nt-2005-12-19-value.htm Help Is For Experts By Jensen Harris. "One of the most interesting epiphanies I've had over the last few years seems on the surface like a paradox: 'help' in Office is mostly used by experts and enthusiasts...Experience shows that intermediates tend to explore the product, not the help system..." http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/11/29/497861.aspx +14: XML. Teach Yourself XML in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit, 3rd Edition. Part 1 By Michael Morrison. "You've probably worked with XML, but you may not have heard about XLink, the XML linking technology that allows you to carry out advanced linking between XML documents. Learn how XML linking works in conjunction with addressing XML documents in this excerpt from Sams Publishing." http://www.webreference.com/programming/xml_24/ Putting RSS to Work: Immediate Action Feeds By Mark Woodman. "Mark Woodman shows us how to enhance the usability of RSS and Atom syndication channels with an idea he calls Immediate Action Feeds." http://tinyurl.com/dqjyz [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +15: 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.]