+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 7, Issue 43, April 24, 2009. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 43 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: PHP. 11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 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. Accessibility of WhiteHouse.gov By Jim Thatcher. "This is a note about the accessibility of WhiteHouse.gov. It may be the first in a series of notes about accessibility and administration web sites. This is not an audit of the site; in fact I am only discussing in-page navigation on the home page. That is a long way from an audit or even an assessment - which is what I usually do as a consultant. .." http://www.jimthatcher.com/whitehouse.htm YouTube Captioning By Meryl K. Evans. "Mashable has a post on CaptionTube, a service that makes it easier for users to add captions to their YouTube videos. CaptionTube requires a Google account (I think many of us have this by now)..." http://www.meryl.net/ci/2009/04/captiontube_you.html WCAG 2.0 and Future of Web Accessibility: Q and A Part 2 By Judy Brewer. "In the second of a two-part interview, Judy discusses the new WCAG 2.0 guidelines and their impact on Web accessibility now and in the future." http://www-03.ibm.com/able/news/wcag20q&a2.html How People with Disabilities Use the Web By Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). "...detailed examples of people with different disabilities using Web sites, applications, browsers, and authoring tools. It is currently a draft, and will soon be updated to reflect current best practice." http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/ A New Era for Accessibility By Paul Harris. "An impressive wave of computer-based technologies will soon help millions of people with disabilities communicate, learn, and become more productive workers. Learning professionals are invited to catch this global tide." http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2009/April/0904_A_New_Era.htm New Accessibility Guidelines Part III: Understandability By Joseph C. Dolson. "This article addresses Òunderstandability,Ó and is part three in a series discussing the impact of WCAG 2.0 on your website..." http://tinyurl.com/dcvn7d PDF Forms and WCAG 2.0 By Mike Paciello. "The recording and slide set from the PDF Forms & WCAG 2.0 webinar, presented by TPG in conjunction with Adobe, is now available.." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=197 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 30 Exceptional CSS Navigation Techniques By Kawsar Ali. "In this article, you will find a collection of excellent navigation techniques that use the CSS to provide users with an impressive interface." http://sixrevisions.com/css/30-exceptional-css-navigation-techniques/ Ding Dong the Wicked Six is Dead? By Bruce Lawson. "My modest proposal to finally rid the world of the blight of IE 6 is published on ZDNet: It's time to end the misery of IE 6..." http://tinyurl.com/dfnz44 Where Have All the Flexible Designs Gone? By Craig Buckler. "Has anyone noticed that flexible/fluid and elastic website designs are becoming rarer? Although it is not possible to determine numbers, it seems that flexible designs are not as popular or widespread as they were a few years ago..." http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/17/flexible-designs-dying-out/ +03: DREAMWEAVER. Advance Dreamweaver Design - For Web Professionals (Webinar) By Adobe. "Use the new CSS starter pages in Dreamweaver CS3 and take using CSS to the next level. Learn how to choose and customize the right design for your project. You'll learn how to optimize your content for different devices using CSS and the style rendering toolbar, as well as explore other CSS features, such as the unified CSS panel, Browser Compatibility Check, CSS Advisor, and more." https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a227210/p95014341/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Usability Testing Does Not Equal a Good User Experience By Paul Sherman. "...Find and fix usability is like making a turn. It's a good thing to doÉ If you know where you're going. And that's where strategy - and strategic user experience - comes into play." http://www.apogeehk.com/articles/UTNotEqualToAGoodUserExperience.html +05: EVENTS. Do Web Accessibility Guidelines Guarantee Universal Design? May 7, 2009. Oslo, Norway. http://tinyurl.com/d48vgr Swedish Web Developer Conference May 25, 2009. Stockholm, Sweden. http://www.swdc2009.com/ Spring
Conference June 9, 2009. Athens, Ohio, U.S.A. http://2009.sbconference.com/ Techshare 2009 September 16-18, 2009. London, United Kingdom. http://tinyurl.com/cwjke2 Full Frontal (JavaScript) November 20, 2009. Brighton, United Kingdom. http://2009.full-frontal.org/ +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. I Love Wireframes By Ivana Jurcic. Examples of interface sketches wireframes and prototypes. http://wireframes.tumblr.com/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. Debugging JavaScript: Understanding JavaScript Error Messages By Rob Gravelle. "One of the most pervasive criticisms about JavaScript is that it's painfully difficult to debug. The good news is that you don't have to be intimidated or turned off by JavaScript. In this article, we will be taking a look at the types of errors that you are likely to encounter in JavaScript development and how to minimize the chance of them cropping up in your code." http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/rg31/ Callbacks vs Events By Dean Edwards. "A callback system works by storing event handlers in an array. When the underlying event is detected the dispatch system loops through the array calling the callback functions in turn. So what's wrong with that? Before I answer that, let's look at some code...." http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2009/03/callbacks-vs-events/ JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM) By Paul J. Deitel and Harvey M. Deitel. "In this chapter we introduce the Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM gives you access to all the elements on a web page. Inside the browser, the whole web page-paragraphs, forms, tables, etc.- is represented in an object hierarchy. Using JavaScript, you can create, modify and remove elements in the page dynamically..." http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1333888 +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Interview with Accessible Twitter Creator Dennis Lembree By Ian Lloyd. "Accessify recently spoke to founder of Accessible Twitter Dennis Lembree, who is also behind Web Overhauls and web accessibility podcast Web Axe. We wanted to find out more about the background to Accessible Twitter, what prompt.ed it and where it might go next. Here's what Dennis had to say..." http://tinyurl.com/ccvjl4 Designing for Big Data (video) By Jeffrey Veen. "This is a 20-minute talk I gave at the Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. In it, I describe two trends: how we're shifting as a culture from consumers to participants, and how technology has enabled massive amounts of data to be recorded, stored, and analyzed. Putting those things together has resulted in some fascinating innovations that echo data visualization work that's been happening for centuries..." http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/001000.html +09: NAVIGATION. Let Your Links look like Links By Roger Johansson. "One of the strongest conventions on the Web is that links should be underlined and that underlined text is linked..." http://tinyurl.com/dcp9sc +10: PHP. Math and Number Handling in PHP - The ABCs of PHP Part 6 By Peter Shaw. "Last time we looked at text and strings in variables, in this episode we're going to continue with our exploration of PHP variables and delve deeper into math and number handling in PHP..." http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/peter_shaw04202009.php3 +11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. The Web of Data: Creating Machine-Accessible Information By Alexander Korth. "In the coming years, we will see a revolution in the ability of machines to access, process, and apply information. This revolution will emerge from three distinct areas of activity connected to the Semantic Web: the Web of Data, the Web of Services, and the Web of Identity providers. These webs aim to make semantic knowledge of data accessible, semantic services available and connectable, and semantic knowledge of individuals processable, respectively. In this post, we will look at the first of these Webs (of Data) and see how making information accessible to machines will transform how we find information..." http://tinyurl.com/c3m9vx The Road to HTML 5 - Link Relations By Mark Pilgrim. "The feature of the day is link relations..." http://blog.whatwg.org/the-road-to-html-5-link-relations rel=accessibility By Bruce Lawson. "While I was on my holidays there was a storm(ette) about rev=canonical and how it isn't possible in HTML 5 because rev isn't in the spec. (Apparently, the answer is to use rel=shortlink instead)..." http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2009/rel-accessibility/ +12: TYPOGRAPHY. The Typographic Desk Reference By John Boardley. "One can never have too many books about type and typography. One of the most recent additions to my own library is Theodore Rosendorf's The Typographic Desk Reference or, if you're in a hurry, simply TDR..." http://ilovetypography.com/2009/04/21/the-typographic-desk-reference/ px - em - % - pt - keyword By Chris Coyier "When it comes to setting the size of type in CSS, you have lots of options. You can apply a ÒkeywordÓ, like p { font-size: small; } or a numerical value. When using a value, you need to declare a unit of measure which itself has four options. Which is best? It depends of course. Let's take a look..." http://css-tricks.com/css-font-size/ Real Fonts on the Web: An Interview with The Font Bureau's David Berlow By David Berlow, Jeffrey Zeldman. "s there life after Georgia? We ask David Berlow, co-founder of The Font Bureau, Inc, and the first TrueType type designer, how type designers and web designers can work together to resolve licensing and technology issues that stand between us and real fonts on the web..." http://www.alistapart.com/articles/realfontsontheweb Fuck the Foundries By Mark Pilgrim. "The more I read about embedded web fonts, the more I crystallize my thinking. Take, for example, this latest ÒA List ApartÓ article where Jeffrey Zeldman interviews David Berlow..." http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/04/21/fuck-the-foundries Web Fonts - Do Something Positive By Kevin Yank. "This debate isn't simple, but it isn't terribly complicated either..." http://tinyurl.com/dzurhq +13: USABILITY. Facial Avoidance in Page Design By William Hudson. "In a separate study, Tullis and colleagues not only found that facial images reduced performance; they also had the completely unexpected effect of reducing user confidence. Figure 2 shows the quite common approach that was tested (with and without the images)" http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/blog/?p=21 You Can't Automate Everything By Gerry McGovern. "The biggest challenge a website manager has is to understand how humans work, not how content management software or search engines work..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2009/nt-2009-04-20-web-automate.htm How Text Formatting Can Enhance the Readability and Persuasiveness of Text By Kath Straub. "...Text formatting with ReadSmart improves readability and actionability.You demonstrated it..." http://connect.humanfactors.com/profiles/blogs/how-text-formatting-can In Defense of Eye Candy By Stephen P. Anderson. "We've all seen arguments in the design community that dismiss the role of beauty in visual interfaces, insisting that good designers base their choices strictly on matters of branding or basic design principles. Lost in these discussions is an understanding of the powerful role aesthetics play in shaping how we come to know, feel, and respond..." http://www.alistapart.com/articles/indefenseofeyecandy How To Use Help Elements To Improve Your Designs? By Matt Cronin. "When designing a website, the most important thing is to make it as usable and convenient as possible. On a website on which users could possibly get confused, it is best to include help elements. Help elements come in all different shapes and sizes: an entire page, a suggestion box or a quick tip. But they all have one thing in common: besides doing the obvious (i.e. helping the user), help elements provide an extra convenience that brings the website closer to that sought-after usability..." http://tinyurl.com/d5ubbt Why Do People Hate Usability? By Peter J. Meyers. "We're proud to introduce User Effect's newest staff member: our Muppet intern, Yoozer. Yoozer is here to answer your toughest questions about usability..." http://www.usereffect.com/topic/why-do-people-hate-usability +14: XML. Switched By Dave Shea. Dave talks about switching from XHTML to HTML 4.01 because HTML5 is the future, not XHTML. http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2009/04/20/switched/ [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.]