+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 5, Issue 38, March 9, 2007. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 38 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: EVENTS. 05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: PHP. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: TOOLS. 12: TYPOGRAPHY. 13: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Spam-Free Accessible Forms By Jared Smith. "...I have compiled the following basic techniques for blocking spam submission in web forms. I've implemented just a couple of these and through logging have found that they have effectively reduced around 99% of spambot submissions while having no or very little impact on the usability or accessibility of the forms. Nearly all of these techniques are performed server-side using PHP and the relevant PHP code is shown below, however, the tests can be readily implemented in nearly any server-side scripting language..." http://webaim.org/blog/2007/03/07/spam_free_accessible_forms/ Why Triple-A Sites Aren't By Mel Pedley. "...Because the reality is that true Triple-A compliance isn't practical in the Real World..." http://blackwidows.co.uk/blog/?p=116 Web Accessibility and Assistive Technology By Faculty & Administrator Modules in Higher Education (FAME), Ohio State University. The FAME site is "Designed as a professional development tool for use in higher education, this site contains information on how college faculty, administrators, disability service providers, and students can work individually and collaboratively to improve the accommodations, teaching-learning process, and overall campus environment for students with disabilities." This is the accessibility module. http://www.oln.org/ILT/ada/Fame/web/f3_13_150.html Massive Business Case for Accessibility By Peter Abrahams. "...Legal & General had been tracking the use and performance of the original site and continued tracking the new design. The results make a strong business case for accessibility: Take up of some financial products via the site increased by 300%. Maintenance costs were reduced by 66%. Natural search improved by 50%. Customers reported that the site looked and performed better. The number of users who accessed the home page and then left the site reduced by 10%. The number of complaints about the inaccessibility of the web site fell to zero..." http://www.it-director.com/business/compliance/content.php?cid=9258 The Benefit of Accessible Design for Able-Bodied Users of the World Wide Web By Denis Anson, Ronni Marangoni, Karyn Mills, Lalit Shah. "Accessible design of web pages is commonly supported as increasing the potential market by including people with disabilities while offering little benefit to able-bodied visitors. Accessible design of the physical world, however, has been shown to be of benefit to all, not just to those with disabilities. This study tested the effect of accessible design on able-bodied web-users under three conditions: conventional graphical browsers, small-format browsers, and text-only browsers. 120 able-bodied subjects were asked to locate information on either an existing website or a fully W3C compliant copy, using one of three browser types. Time to answer 24 questions, number of correct answers, rated ease-of-use, pleasure of use, and likelihood of reuse were recorded. Results indicated that the accessibly designed site had equivalent usability in the graphical browser, but was significantly more usable in text-only and small format browsers. The results support accessible design as universal design, of benefit to all users, independent of disability." http://atri.misericordia.edu/Papers/Web_Accessibility.php Usability Benefits of Web Accessibility By Joe Clark. "We now have another research paper demonstrating that a Web site that meets accessibility guidelines is more usable by non-disabled people. 'The Benefit of Accessible Design for Able-Bodied Users of the World Wide Web'...The benefit of this study is that it does not confound Web accessibility with cluefulness of the developer. Why are accessible sites usable to everyone? Presumably because, by and large, only the best-informed and most mature developers work on accessible sites. They are pretty much incapable of producing an unusable site. Plus their HTML is way better. In this study, an existing crappy site was recoded, but was otherwise left crappy. This provides evidence that Web standards lead to better usability. Better HTML has an influence on usability." http://blog.fawny.org/2007/03/01/misericordia/ Legal Reasons to Make Intranets, Extranets and Software Accessible By Struan Robertson. "Employers without disabled members of staff should think ahead when procuring new systems: it makes more commercial sense to 'buy accessible' whenever possible to accommodate a more diverse workforce." http://www.out-law.com/page-7827 The Flip Side of the Coin By Miraz Jordan. "...This article began by pointing out that a distinction between 'the able' and 'the disabled' is artificial: we live in a world where people's abilities vary in many dimensions and across time. I may have perfect vision, or corrected almost-perfect vision one day, tired eyes or broken glasses the next. My computer screen may have low or high resolution. It may be in a dark room, or under the glare of the sun. I may be too busy to watch the screen and choose to have the computer read the screen aloud to me. I may be legally blind and not look at a screen at all. A broken wrist may make typing tricky, or I may be unable to move my limbs because of paralysis..." http://www.atpm.com/13.03/web-accessibility.shtml +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Create Inspired Site Designs Using Grids By Andy Clarke. Grids aren't just for graph paper anymore. Author/CSS Designer Andy Clarke reveals how designing with grids will lead to more, rather than fewer, creative opportunities; your Web designs will go in new directions, and using grids will provide you with a solid foundation for experimenting with new ideas. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=696183&f1&rl=1 CSS 101: Handling Multiple Rules for the Same Element By Tony Patton. "Tony Patton focuses on CSS fundamentals and explains how multiple rules for the same element are handled. Multiple rules ensure that there will be no surprises for either you or the user community." http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-6164216.html Creating a CSS Layout from Scratch By Steve Dennis. "...This guide will attempt to take you step by step, through the process of creating a fully functioning CSS layout. I will try my best to explain the concepts behind each step, but a lot of the time other people have already covered these things better than I can. Because of this there will sometimes be links to more information on external sites..." http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/index.aspx +03: COLOR. Drop That Design! 6 Things You Need to Know About Color By Ben Henick. "Certain color combinations can make your eyes water, others can make your eyes practically leap out of their sockets in delight. Colors can help instill confidence in a product, company, or design-or undermine it. Color can set the mood, or destroy it. Color can make you fit in, or stand out-and it depends on your situation whether or not that's a good thing. Despite the seemingly magical power of color, it's not voodoo. No chickens need die in your pursuit of color-coordinating bliss?it's a skill that can be developed in anyone who has the ability to see the rainbow..." http://www.mikelevicius.info/?p=35 Colorblindness - A Usability Guide for Commercial Applications, Part 1 By Anthony Mitchell. "...Here is a guide for increasing the usability of products and the communication of information. It contains need-to-know information for anyone engaged in software and hardware product design, quality assurance or business communication. We begin with a few simple tips..." http://tinyurl.com/ywnb6f +04: EVENTS. T4P '07: Technology for Participation and Accessible eGovernment Services June 25-27, 2007. Kristiansand, Norway http://www.t4p.no/ ICDIM 2007: International Conference on Digital Information Management October 29-31, 2007. Lyon, France http://icdim.insa-lyon.fr/ +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Better Content Management Through Information Architecture By Masood Nasser. "Content Management Systems promise so much: content is easier to publish, easier to update, and easier to find and use. Lots of promises, but do CMSs really deliver? Masood Nasser examines why Content Management Systems often fail and shows how Information Architecture can come to the rescue." http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/better-content +06: JAVASCRIPT. JSON is Not as Safe as People Think It Is By Joe Walker. "I saw some discussion recently about using JSON for secured data, and I'm not sure that everyone understands the risks. I believe that JSON is unsafe for anything but public data unless you are using unpredictable URLs. There are 2 problems..." http://tinyurl.com/yq896m +07: MISCELLANEOUS. A Visit from Glenda Watson-Hyatt (Interview) By Derek Featherstone. "...Glenda has cerebral palsy. While we still haven't met, I feel like I know her a little bit better after reading (most of) her book: 'I'll do it myself'. In celebration of her writing and publishing adventure, Glenda devised an ingenious plan: a virtual book tour. She's visiting 40 blogs in 40 days, and I'm very pleased to have her visiting here today..." http://tinyurl.com/2b5lnq Browser Wars Episode II: Attack of the DOMs (Video) By Yahoo User Interface Theater. "Mike Shaver from Mozilla, Chris Wilson from Microsoft, Hakon Lie from Opera, and Douglas Crockford from Yahoo to talk about the current state of the browsers." http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/03/05/browserwars/ +08: NAVIGATION. Links Are the Grammar of the Web By Gerry McGovern. "Linking is the foundation of every quality website. Everything starts with the link. You build from the link, not from the sentence." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2007/nt-2007-03-05-linking.htm +09: PHP. Security Tip Number 1 By Cal Evans. "Looking for the security silver bullet? I've got bad news for you, there isn't one. Security take an ongoing effort and a lot of little things instead of one big one." http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1741 Security Tip Number 2 By Cal Evans. "Security by obscurity is no security at all. On the other hand you don't want to give away information about your site either. Today's tip is a simple one but one that is often overlooked in production environments." http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1745 Security Tip Number 3 By Cal Evans. "Being Security conscious is a good thing but that alone won't solve the problem. Developers have to be vigilant when it comes to security. Even then you can't do it alone. Today's Security tip reminds you of this." http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1754 Security Tip Number 4 By Cal Evans. "'Security through obscurity is no security at all.' so the adage goes. However, the flip side of that coin is, obscurity, when used as part of an overall strategy, is a good thing." http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1761 Security Tip Number 5 By Cal Evans. "PHP security is an ongoing mission requiring the programmer to think outside of the parameters of the application. It's not enough these days to say in your mind 'Does this do what I want it to do?' you also have to take into consideration 'What else can people use it for and do I want to allow that?'" http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1767 Variables in Your CSS via PHP By Chris J. Davis. "It is really a no-brainer to want to take some common CSS elements and simplify the process of changing them or updating them. Before we get any further though, let me stress that this is a limited use technique. The very nature of CSS is to cascade, which would be defeated by this if you went nuts with it." http://www.chrisjdavis.org/2005/10/16/php-in-css/ Introducing PHP AutoRun and a CSS Tutorial By Mike Cherim. "...You've seen those tutorials where you go from page-to-page, right? They use JavaScript and all the content is on one page. They're pretty slick I think. Well, my hope was to make one that used PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) instead of JavaScript, and to make it even more accessible and nice looking in situations where JavaScript wasn't supported..." http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=174 +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. W3C Relaunches HTML Activity By W3C. "...W3C is pleased to invite participation in the new HTML Working Group, chartered to create the next HTML standard... It's time to revisit the standard and see what we can do to meet the current community needs, and to do so effectively with commitments from browser manufacturers in a visible and open way, said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. At the same time, W3C is chartering the Forms Working Group, the XHTML2 Working Group, and re-chartering the Hypertext Coordination Group..." http://www.w3.org/2007/03/html-pressrelease +11: TOOLS. SpokenText By Mark McKay Bruce Tsuji, and Robert Biddle. "This site allows you to upload text (.txt), Acrobat (.pdf) or Word (.doc) files and have them converted to spoken audio. We also let you record emails, text from a website or enter the text you need converted directly." http://www.spokentext.net/ +12: TYPOGRAPHY. Better Font Management By Joel Sacks. "Typography on the web is enjoying something of a resurgence of late, and interest in the effective use of the enormous variety of available fonts has never been higher. If you've been on a recent downloading spree, Joel Sacks has some tips and recommendations that can help you keep that growing font library under control." http://www.digital-web.com/articles/better_font_management/ Add Windows Vista Fonts to Your Stylesheets By Christian Montoya. "...I would like to ask all of you web designers and developers out there to please add Windows Vista fonts to your stylesheets. My reason for asking this is, well, because I didn't upgrade to Windows Vista to stare at the same ugly set of Windows fonts I've had to endure for years. I hate Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet, Courier New, and Times New Roman, and Georgia isn't too hot either. Bill Gates must share my opinion, because he made sure that Windows Vista came with a replacement for each one of those classics, and as far as I'm concerned the new Windows Vista fonts are far better designed than their predecessors..." http://tinyurl.com/2xedp2 +13: USABILITY. A Shaker Approach to Web Site Design By Michael D. Levi. "...A Shaker chair is useful. It is well suited for sitting. Its clean, smooth lines have no excess adornment; the beauty of the wood is adornment enough. So should Web sites be structured for maximum utility, allowing the value of their content to attract and hold user interest..." http://stats.bls.gov/ore/htm_papers/st970120.htm Five Principles to Design By By Joshua Porter. "Technology Serves Humans...Design is not Art...The Experience Belongs to the User...Great Design is Invisible...Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication..." http://bokardo.com/archives/five-principles-to-design-by/ Restructuring the User Experience Honeycomb By Magnus Revang. Magnus Revang has posted a new version of Peter Morville's original honeycomb which is focused on the process of user experience design. http://tinyurl.com/37gau6 [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.]