+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 8, Issue 46, May 14, 2010. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 46 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: DREAMWEAVER. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: FLASH. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: PHP. 11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 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. Future Web Accessibility: New Types in HTML5 By Aaron Andersen. "HTML5 defines 13 new values for the type attribute of the HTML element (search, tel, url, email, datetime, date, month, week, time, datetime-local, number, range, and color)..." http://webaim.org/blog/future-web-accessibility-new-input-types-in-html5/ Does WCAG 2.0 Allow CAPTCHA? By Tom Babinszki. "Last time we checked if CAPTCHA is Section 508 compliant. Now let's see what WCAG says about it..." http://www.evengrounds.com/developers/does-wcag-2.0-allow-captcha HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers in May 2010 By Jason Kiss. "There are some good, helpful examples and work out there already showing how some screen readers deal with various HTML5 constructs and ARIA roles. I know the specs are not finished yet and assistive technology vendors are always working on it, but I wanted to play around a bit and confirm for myself how some of the leading screen readers for Windows, namely JAWS 11, Window-Eyes 7.11, NVDA 2010.1, and SAToGo 3.0.202, currently handle basic HTML5 sectioning elements as well as ARIA landmark and other roles. It has been suggested that until browsers and screen readers fully support HTML5 elements and their implicit ARIA roles, we should be explicitly supplementing certain HTML5 elements with their associated ARIA roles..." http://www.accessibleculture.org/html5-aria/index.html Law Schools Discriminate Against Blind Applicants By National Federation of the Blind. "The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind people, announced today that it has filed complaints with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, requesting investigations of nine prominent law schools for violating the civil rights of blind and other print-disabled law school applicants. The NFB filed the complaints because the law schools require applicants who wish to have the convenience of applying online to use a centralized Internet-based application process provided by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) through its Web site (www.lsac.org) that is inaccessible to blind law school applicants. " http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=587 How Do Blind People Read a Web Page? By Tom Babinszki. "...Here, we'll explain in detail how blind persons read and navigate web pages. Helping us out in this discussion is Ed. Ed is totally blind and is currently learning how to read web pages. Today he wants to visit a few web sites, but first, there is something he needs to run in his computer..." http://www.evengrounds.com/blog/how-blind-people-read-web-page The Challenges of Deaf Internet Users By Tom Babinszki. "...Here, we'll focus on a disability group which most people think doesn't have any problems surfing the Net. I'm talking about persons who are deaf and hard of hearing. Many people think that since deaf people can see the contents of a web page, they wouldn't have problems accessing any site..." http://www.evengrounds.com/blog/challenges-of-deaf-internet-users The Inaccessibility of Jargon By Steve Grobschmidt. "...Be direct. Save the cute expressions, sports metaphors, or whatever else for your meetingsÉor be merciful, and stop them altogether." http://www.theaccessibility.com/2010/05/the-inaccessibility-of-jargon/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Using first-letter and first-line By Virginia DeBolt. "The first-letter and first-line CSS selectors are among the pseudo-selectors. Pseudo-selectors exist not as discrete elements, but as variable elements that exist only as a factor of context or browser state..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/05/07/using-first-letter-and-first-line/ Braille Cascading Style Sheets -A Preliminary Requirement Analysis By Protocols and Formats Working Group, W3C. "This document, which is presently in draft form, discusses various issues that are relevant to the design of a braille CSS specification..." http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/braillecss.html +03: COLOR. Color Survey Results By XKCD. "XKCD asked anonymous netizens to provide names for random colours. The results (collated from 222,500 user sessions that named over 5 million colours) are fascinating." http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ +04: DREAMWEAVER. Creating Your First Website - Part 2: Creating the Page Layout By David Powers. "Welcome to the second part of this tutorial series on creating your first website. This tutorial explains how to create a CSS-based page layout in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5. A page layout determines how your page will appear in the browser, showing, for example, the placement of menus, images, and other kinds of content." http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/first_website_pt2.html +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing By Jakob Nielsen. "iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html +06: FLASH. Web 2.0 Talk: HTML5 vs. Flash By Eric A. Meyer. "Earlier this week I presented a talk at the Web 2.0 Expo titled 'HTML5 vs. Flash: Webpocalypse Now?' which seemed to be pretty well received. That might be because I did my best to be unbiased about the situation both now and into the future, and also that the audience was very heavily weighted toward web stack practitioners. Seriously, out of 100-150 audience members, about six raised their hand when I asked who was developing with Flash..." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2010/05/07/web-2-0-talk-html5-vs-flash/ Walmart's Poor Alt Text and Use of Flash By Dennis Lembree. "...Best: Use HTML only for content. Implement with web standards, progressive enhancement, and DOM scripting, to create the same visual effect as the original Flash. This will not only make your content accessible, but will also make the site lighter and faster and is also good for SEO." http://tinyurl.com/2byvce9 In Defense of Flash (blockers) By Greg Rewis. "...I guess it really boils down to 'be careful what you wish for'. Like I said, in today's web, I have the ability to decide if and/or what I want to see by installing or uninstalling a plugin, or using a plugin to block certain content. But that won't be possible when you have no way of identifying the 'advertisement' from the content of the page..." http://blog.assortedgarbage.com/?p=463 +07: JAVASCRIPT. Douglas Crockford on JavaScript and HTML5 By Michael Calore. "...He has hope for HTML5, but he has issues with the way it's being developed. Primarily, he's concerned that there are too many security holes, and that 'there's too much kitchen sink in HTML5' - excessive duplication of the elements and not enough discipline in the code." http://tinyurl.com/238uspg +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Truly W3C Community Building at WWW2010 (Part 2) Via Marie-Claire Forgue. Presentation materials from WWW2010 include CSS3, SVG, and Canvas. http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/truly_w3c_community_building_a_2.html The Format of The Long Now By Jeremy Keith. "...I don't think that any format could ever be The Format Of The Long Now but HTML is the closest we've come thus far in the history of computing to having a somewhat stable, human- and machine-readable data format with a decent chance of real longevity." http://adactio.com/journal/1665/ Eric A. Meyer Interview - Why HTML5 is Worth Your Time By Mac Slocum. "...In the following Q&A, Meyer explains why HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are the "classic three" for developers and designers. He also pushes past the HTML5 vs. Flash bombast to offer a rational and much-needed comparison of the tool sets..." http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/why-html5-is-worth-your-time.html +09: NAVIGATION. Navigation Versus Search By AGConsult. "A client recently asked me: 'Navigation, isn't that a bit old hat? I mean, this is the time of Google. Doesn't everybody just search?' No, they don't. Good navigation and good links are vital for the success of a website. A search feature is an added bonus, sure. But if you have one, it has to be as good as Google or even better." http://webusability-blog.com/navigation-versus-search/ +10: PHP. Encryption Techniques for Your PHP Development By Leidago Noabeb. "Recently, an attacker hacked into my database and stole all the passwords and usernames stored there. Needless to say, I had to change everything and it cost me time and money. What made the crime easy for the attacker is that I never encrypted any of the passwords in the database. I've learned my lesson and now I'm passing along that wisdom with this article about encryption in PHP. Using some of the encryption techniques that PHP offers, you can safeguard your information in various ways..." http://www.webreference.com/programming/php/encryption_1/ +11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. What HTML5 Means - The Sequel By Peter-Paul Koch. "A while ago I asked what HTML5 means to you. I got a lot of replies, but would like to gather more. That's why I'm repeating the question today. What's in your HTML5 spec? Please add your personal top three of cool new features to the comments." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/05/what_html5_mean.html HTML5 and the Web By Tim Bray. "I am an unabashed partisan of the Web - its architecture, culture, and content. I'm proud to have played a very small part in shaping bits of the machinery and having contributed probably too many words to that content But as for HTML5? It's a good enough thing to the extent it turns out to work. But nothing terribly important depends on it..." http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/05/05/HTML5-and-the-Web Accessibility Requirements of Media (HTML5) By HTML5 Accessibility Task Force. "The principle disabilities that affect the comprehension of media are loss of visual function and loss of audio function, sometimes in combination. To a certain extent cognitive problems also come into play, but this generally better addressed in the production of the material itself, rather than on providing access mechanisms to the content, although some access mechanisms may come into play for this audience. Once richer forms of media, such as virtual reality, become more commonplace, tactile issues may also come into play. Control of the media player is of course also an important issue e.g. for mobility problems, however this is typically not addressed by the media formats themselves, but is a requirement on the technology used to build the player..." http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/Accessibility_Requirements_of_Media Is the HTML5 progress Element Truly Progressive? By Shelley Powers. "...We'd be better spending time providing tutorials on how people can use these libraries, accessibly and semantically, then to push the use of an element that's not very useful and is dated even before it hits the street." http://tinyurl.com/26ngu6t The Web is a Web of Content, not an Application Framework By Roger Johansson. "...applications made specifically for a platform are better than cross-platform Web applications." http://tinyurl.com/35kfpsg The Ruby Element and Her Hawt Friends, rt and rp By Oli Studholme. "Ruby text is a short annotation for some base text. It's typically used to give pronunciation guidance in a phonetic script for kanji in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) languages. It's named after an old printers' term for the very small size of 5.5 points." http://html5doctor.com/ruby-rt-rp-element/ HTML5 Today! By Remy Sharp. "Remy Sharp talks about what's coming with HTML5, what happened to XHTML2, how XHTML is not dead and why HTML5 is here today, and not 2022." http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/home/html5-today WebSRT By Anne van Kesteren. "When working on new features for the web platform we try to be careful not adding too much all at once. And when the need for more functionality arises we generally wait until implementations are reasonable stable before adding it..." http://annevankesteren.nl/2010/05/websrt +12: TYPOGRAPHY. The Changing Typography of the Web By Deborah Netburn. "Since the World Wide Web's earliest days, whether you were shopping on Amazon or researching on Google or catching up on news at latimes.com, chances are you were looking at just one of four typefaces -- Arial, Verdana, Georgia or Times -- each formulated for computer monitors and trusted by web designers to display properly on your screen. In other words, a seventh-grader writing a book report on Microsoft Word had more font choices than the person designing Esquire Magazine's website or the IKEA online catalog. But now that is about to change..." http://tinyurl.com/24lhcf9 +13: USABILITY. Control By Joshua Brewer. "...Creating great experiences is all about control. For the user, control is knowing and understanding the options and being able to make the 'right' decision. For the designer, control is about refining the interface until the user can always take the next step. Hick's Law is a design principle that states: 'The time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.' Translation: more choices = more anxiety. Less choices = more control. At least in the mind of the user..." http://52weeksofux.com/post/584164393/control A Symptom of Clutter By Dmitry Fadeyev. "When the print view of a page is so much more readable than the full thing then you've got a problem. It's a symptom of clutter. It's a symptom of a design that doesn't do its job. If you find your site in this position, take a good look at the design. Do all the design elements there help make the content easier to read? If not, do they have a good reason to be there? If they don't, get rid of them." http://www.usabilitypost.com/2010/05/06/a-symptom-of-clutter/ Stop Using PDF and MS-Word Forms By Gary Barber. "Look around the web, youÕll find them all over the place. MS-Word and PDF forms that you have to download and complete. I would be forgiven for thinking that we have not progressed on the web since 1995. I know IÕm not perfect I have been party to this crime against UX as well. We know they are bad, so why are we still using them..." http://manwithnoblog.com/2010/05/13/stop-using-pdf-and-ms-word-forms/ Bite-Sized Chunks Of Info Are Best By Susan Weinschenk. "...Humans can only process small amounts of information at a time (consciously that isÉ the estimate is that we handle 40,000,000 pieces of information every second, but only 40 of those make it to our conscious brains). One mistake that web sites make is to give too much information all at once..." http://tinyurl.com/32fyxde Case Study - Call to Action in Web Design Usability By Alex Smith. "...every time we make something 'more prominent' we are taking prominence from the previously highlighted sections, effectively making nothing stand out. While researching the topic, to formulate an evidence based repost for our client, I discovered numerous reasons why it's essential to distill your calls to action down to only the core outcomes you want from your audience..." http://tinyurl.com/3x8vwnf Redesigning the Web for Touch Screens By Erica Naone. "A new crop of touch-based devices is changing the way users interact with Web pages." http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25236/?nlid=2950&a=f [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.]