+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 33, February 8, 2008.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.

++ISSUE 33 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: EVENTS.
04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: TYPOGRAPHY.
09: USABILITY.

SECTION TWO:
10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Alt in HTML5 Required? - To Be or Not to Be
By Steve Faulkner.
"There has been much discussion both within and outside of the W3C HTML5 Working Group about the HTML5 editor's decision to make the alt attribute optional, to cover those cases where: 'In certain rare cases, the image is simply a critical part of the content, and there might even be no alternative text available'."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=35

Accessibility Tools for Quality Assurance - Color Contrast
By Martin Kliehm.
"Accessibility testing tools are great for quality assurance (QA), even when the website doesn't have to be accessible. For example, color contrast is a very subjective thing. It depends on technical factors like the quality and settings of the screen, environmental factors like glaring sunlight, and the physical abilities of the person viewing it. It's literally subjective in the eye of the designer..."
http://learningtheworld.eu/2008/color-contrast-tools/

Assistive Technology - a Video Tour of Accessibility
By Jon Gibbins.
"Getting our own experiences of accessibility inspires us to think and validates what we do with accessibility in mind. I've started putting together this list of videos that demonstrate accessibility in order to help others gain insight into how assistive technology is used, particularly with regards to the Web, and its value to those who use it..."
http://lab.dotjay.co.uk/notes/assistive-technology/videos/

Helping Others Understand Web Accessibility
By Roger Johansson.
"When I hold workshops for people who want to learn more about web standards and accessibility, I often notice that the attendants really have tried to improve their accessibility knowledge. But they get overwhelmed when they go to the official documentation from the W3C and try to understand it..."
http://tinyurl.com/24qszt


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Reference
By Tommy Olsson and Paul O'Brien.
"Welcome to the SitePoint CSS Reference! We've worked hard to make this the most detailed and up-to-date reference on the subject available..."
http://reference.sitepoint.com/css

Font-Based Layouts Becoming Fashionable?
By Alastair Campbell.
"Layouts are becoming an issue again. The (browser) landscape is changing, as are the fashion in layouts, but not really in unison. Before I continue, I should state that my perspective is not one of a visual designer's, so my decisions tend to be weighted towards usability and accessibility..."
http://alastairc.ac/2008/02/font-based-layouts-becoming-fashionable/

Sub-Pixel Problems in CSS
By John Resig.
"Something that jumped at me, recently, was a rendering dilemma that browsers have to encounter, and gracefully handle, on a day-by-day basis with little, to no, standardization..."
http://ejohn.org/blog/sub-pixel-problems-in-css/

CSS Adjacent Sibling Selectors
By Eric Wendelin.
"Among the types of CSS selectors, one that is often overlooked is the CSS Adjacent Selector..."
http://eriwen.com/css/css-adjacent-sibling-selectors/

Stay on :target
By Brian Suda.
"In this article, I want to introduce you to a really powerful CSS3 pseudo selector called :target."
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/css/stay-on-target

Come On My Selector, part 2: The Future
By Niels Matthijs.
"Building on my previous article on basic css selectors, I'll continue by listing the css selectors that can already be used today, but are not yet supported in all browsers. A final article will close this mini series on css selectors by focusing on a very nasty IE6 bug..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/css-selectors-pt2

CSS: Selector Variables
By Jens Meiert.
"Especially complex projects suffer from higher cost of selector changes, and long sequences of simple selectors do impact the understandability and efficiency of style sheets. One solution might be selector variables or 'synonyms', a concept I proposed to the CSS Working Group yesterday..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080207/selector-variables/


+03: EVENTS.

Usability In Practice: 3-Day Intensive Camp
April 7-9, 2008 in New York, New York, U.S.A.
May 19-21, 2008 in London, United Kingdom.
June 16-18, 2008 in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
July 21-23, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.nngroup.com/events/tutorials/camp.html

Interaction Design 101 with Bruce 'Tog' Tognazzini
April 7-9, 2008 in New York, New York, U.S.A.
May 19-21, 2008 in London, United Kingdom.
June 16-18, 2008 in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
July 21-23, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.nngroup.com/events/tutorials/interaction.html

Information Architecture Essentials
April 9, 2008.
Sydney, Australia.
http://www.steptwo.com.au/seminars/080409/index.html

Andy Clarke Workshop
Transcending CSS: Styling For A Beautiful Web
May 14, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://carsonworkshops.com/design-dev/clarke/14May2008.html

Website Makeover: Focusing on Your Visitors' Major Tasks with Ginny Redish 
May 15, 2008.
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/spring2008/websitemakeover.shtml

25th Annual HCIL (Human-Computer Interaction Lab) Symposium
May 20-30, 2008.
College Park, Maryland, U.S.A.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/soh/

Designing and Writing Forms for the Web
May 29, 2008.
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
http://tinyurl.com/27qsxk


+04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

IA is Not Just About Navigation
By Patrick Kennedy.
"I am always quite surprised, after one of my workshops, when someone remarks 'I didn't know there was so much to it! I thought IA was just about coming up with the nav'. Whilst I've written recently about the many faces of IA, I think there is more to such comments than just a different definition of IA being expressed. Probing a bit further, I found that these remarks were based on a rather superficial view of the work involved. It wasn't obvious, until I ranted for a whole day, that it takes a bit of effort to whip up the navigation for a site."
http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/2008/02/01/ia-is-not-just-about-navigation/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

AJAX and Screen Readers: Content Access Issues
By Steve Faulkner.
The rise in the use of AJAX to dynamically change content without refreshing the page has resulted in accessibility problems for users of Assistive Technology such as Screen Readers. The problem can be divided into two issues."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=15

New WAI-ARIA Working Drafts Published
By Steve Faulkner.
"WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax (also known as AJAX), HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=34

JavaScript-Based Injection Attacks
By John Resig.
"The Google Caja team has put forward a fantastic document on JavaScript-based injection attacks. This is a fascinating subject and one that receives little attention (but will, undoubtedly, receive more in the upcoming months and years as JavaScript receives more attention)..."
http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-based-injection-attacks/

Javascript Regular Expressions
By Gareth Heyes.
"Ronald and I had a good conversation about Javascript regular expressions comparing them to PHP. He was having difficultly with the syntax because he was used to preg in PHP so I promised to share my knowledge gained from developing various online scripts..."
http://www.thespanner.co.uk/2008/02/01/javascript-regular-expressions/


+06: NAVIGATION.

Search Behavior Patterns
By John Ferrara.
"A search engine on an organization's website or intranet is often built to support an overly narrow model of user behavior, which goes something like this..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/search-behavior

Better Than Free
By Kevin Kelly.
"Where as the previous generative qualities reside within creative digital works, findability is an asset that occurs at a higher level in the aggregate of many works. A zero price does not help direct attention to a work, and in fact may sometimes hinder it. But no matter what its price, a work has no value unless it is seen; unfound masterpieces are worthless. When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention -- and most of it free -- being found is valuable."
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php

Better Living Through Taxonomies
By Heather Hedden.
"Large websites and intranets can benefit from improved methods of search and navigation. These include site maps, A-Z indexes, sophisticated search engines, and generally improved navigational design-and playing a potential role in all of these methods is well-planned taxonomy."
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/better_living_through_taxonomies

Aarron Walter on Findability, SEO, and Web Standards
By An Event Apart.
"...We asked Aarron to explain how proper use of web standards can lead to honest and effective search engine optimization (SEO)..."
http://tinyurl.com/35aeud


+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML 5: A Change in Course... Straight for the Iceberg
By Justin James.
"The W3C recently released a working draft specification for HTML 5. In its current iteration, this is the worst specification I have ever read...It's a shame that the true goals and principles of HTML have been thrown by the wayside..."
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=599 

Web Standards Aren't
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"...What we have today, on the Web, are not standards in the truest sense. We are at a time in the evolution of the Web where the idea of 'standards' is more of a profound misnomer than ever..."
http://www.molly.com/2008/01/31/web-standards-arent/

 From Web Standards Diva to Web Standards Devo
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"I'm challenging the status quo. I'm just asking that you take a look at the semantics of the situation and not be led into a sense of comfort that we actually have achieved any semblance of a standard. If that were true, all browsers would behave the same way, and my code would be just like your code, and every CMS and development software would be interoperable, use correct nomenclature, and follow the specs. Is that the Web we have? Clearly not. And as we grow and expand both on the desktop and into mobile devices, these issues become more fragmented, not less..."
http://tinyurl.com/yno3yn

Breaking the Web
By Jonathan Nicol.
"Another nagging doubt I have concerns future versions of Internet Explorer. We know that IE8 will use the IE7 rendering engine by default, but what of IE 9? IE 10? IE 11? Will these new versions also default to IE7 rendering mode, which seems to only way for Microsoft to truly adhere to the 'don't break the web' rule? Or will IE9 instead default to IE8 rendering mode, IE10 to IE9 rendering mode, and so on? If that is the case, all that X-UA-Compatible will achieve is to break the web later, rather than sooner..."
http://f6design.com/journal/2008/02/01/breaking-the-web/


+08: TYPOGRAPHY.

Advanced Web Typography
By Josh Pyles.
"Have you noticed some sites using custom fonts and font weights without resorting to images or flash? You may have noticed this in Panic's beautiful Candybar website (see above). This is a great effect for certain fonts such as Helvetica Neue that are included by default with OS X that have additional weights other than 'Regular', 'Italic' and 'Bold.' Here's how you do it.."
http://pixelmatrixdesign.com/blog/comments/advanced_web_typography/


+09: USABILITY.

User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-skills.html

The Need for Speed: Externalize your JavaScripts and CSS
Virginia DeBolt.
"Let's say you have an HTML page that weighs in at 8K. You have some CSS that might contain 32K. And you have a couple of JavaScripts that are 4K and 12K. That adds up to 56K..."
http://tinyurl.com/ysv5mk


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.]